I have a friend who is thinking about junking her PC for something else. It is important that she be able to work on MS Word, Excel and Access files. I assume the files have to be taken back to the PC at the office. One option might be VirtualPC. Another could be MS Office for Mac, but that doesn't seem to include Access, so that could be a problem.
Anybody have experience, suggestions...?
My experience has been mixed.
In general, Word documents have the fewest problems when moved between platforms, although embedded graphics of any type can be problematic. I have not seen any problems with Excel files, but I have never transferred any that used macros - they may be trouble.
You did not mention PowerPoint, but I have had the most problems with it. The Mac and Windows versions just don't work the same, no matter what Microsoft says. For me, this was a show stopper.
As you noted, Access does not seem to be supported at all on the Mac so the only options there are Virtual PC or a real PC.
I used VPC for many years, but tound it too slow and cumbersome when compared to even the cheapest of real PCs. I use a PC for all of the Office suite now. The biggest upside for me is that the files always work on my client's machines, and they are all PC.
Networking a Mac and PC is quite easy now under OS X, so my advice would be to use both (like me!). I have a swirch box so that I only have a single keyboard and mouse and my monitors have dual inputs, so I can switch them easily between the two machines.