Hi everyone, this is probably a real lame question for this forum, but here goes.I have a new Imac, its great but I still receive many emails/attachements etc. with Microsoft software,,,Powerpoint,media,word, ,etc.
Is there a simple available package that i can load into the Imac to enable it to read this stuff?
I've tried the program Parallels, but can't seem to get it to run plus I've heard that it may not be as reliable as some state..also its expensive when i have to call their service number in the states..
any help is appreciated..
yes , I'm not that computer savvy!
cheers!
Well, you don't have to look far for compatibility these days. Word files open in Simple Text. As for Windows media, get Flip4Mac and then most Windows Media opens properly. Link to Flip4Mac
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=915d874d-d747-4180-a400-5f06b1b5e559&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2fc%2f8%2f9%2fc8951314-e056-404a-8ea8-8744e42594aa%2fWM+Components+2.2.0.49.dmg (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=915d874d-d747-4180-a400-5f06b1b5e559&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2fc%2f8%2f9%2fc8951314-e056-404a-8ea8-8744e42594aa%2fWM+Components+2.2.0.49.dmg)
Phew! Hope that works - just try www.flip4mac if it doesn't.
To help you open, edit and save those pesky PowerPoint and Excel files (Word too, and even WordPerfect) - get NeoOffice. Link to NeoOffice:
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/mirrors.php?file=NeoOffice-2.2.3-Intel.dmg (http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/mirrors.php?file=NeoOffice-2.2.3-Intel.dmg)
I LOVE NeoOffice!
Parallels works great, and is extremely reliable once installed. What problems are you having installing it?
Dan
OpenOffice (on which NeoOffice is based):
www.openoffice.org
Thanks very much for the help Dan,,I've just downloaded Neo office and shall be giving it a whirl..
regards
dale
As well, there is MS Office 2008 for the Mac. And I also recommend Flip4Mac.
Quote from: oldfartfisherman on May 07, 2008, 04:45:41 PM
Hi everyone, this is probably a real lame question for this forum, but here goes.I have a new Imac, its great but I still receive many emails/attachements etc. with Microsoft software,,,Powerpoint,media,word, ,etc. Is there a simple available package that i can load into the Imac to enable it to read this stuff?
I've tried the program Parallels, but can't seem to get it to run plus I've heard that it may not be as reliable as some state..also its expensive when i have to call their service number in the states..
Quote from: Macantosh on May 16, 2008, 11:10:54 AM
As well, there is MS Office 2008 for the Mac. And I also recommend Flip4Mac.
Parallels, like VMware Fusion, as you surmised, is a brute force approach if your goal is merely to read MS Office for Windows files on your Mac. You would unnecessarily be (1) emulating an entire PC, (2) taking on the Joy and Cost of installing and configuring a Windows OS, all in order to (3) be able to buy, install, and run MS Office for Windows on your Mac. Since Microsoft already makes MS Office for the Mac, as pointed out by Macantosh, that is a much more efficent route to reading Microsoft Office files on a Mac.
Whether you go with MS Office 2008 for the Mac, or one of the free/low-cost MS Office alternatives suggested above depends on your budget and the how faithful to its original appearance you need to the MS Office for Windows file to be presented on your Mac. If you're less concerned about the layout of the files, but just want to be able to read their content, then even Apple's iWork 08 (http://www.apple.com/iwork/trial/) (Keynote, Numbers, Pages) might suffice as a Mac tool with which to view MS Office docs. And at the other end of the scale, there are MS Office documents so complicated that they won't display exactly the same even on a PC, when opened in different versions of MS Office, let alone on a Mac, no matter what you use.
Finally, if you are receiving a lot of PC files, then consider enabling your Mac to display filename suffixes: Finder > Preferences... > Advanced > Show all file extensions It can be a useful crutch to be able to see at a glance that the PC file you've received is say, a PowerPoint (.ppt), a PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx), or a Windows Video (.wmv) file.
...b