Hey I was hoping to gain some people's opinion about across the board benefits and differences of using macs " pages, number, and keynote" vs. " word, excel, PowerPoint" . I want my iPad (3) to be able to slide documents back and forth to my new Mac book pro and my Alienware. I don't know if I should just try to Mac versions or avoid a possible shot in the foot and just get the Microsoft. I unfortunately do not know enough to make an educated decision.
Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by DaEbLe

Hey I was hoping to gain some people's opinion about across the board benefits and differences of using macs " pages, number, and keynote" vs. " word, excel, PowerPoint" . I want my iPad (3) to be able to slide documents back and forth to my new Mac book pro and my Alienware. I don't know if I should just try to Mac versions or avoid a possible shot in the foot and just get the Microsoft. I unfortunately do not know enough to make an educated decision.
Thanks in advance

I think this is easy, you have a MacBook , stick with the apple apps, you will loose document formatting switching from Apple apps to Microsoft office.
And Pages and Numbers are excellent apps on the iPad.

processors? you're after a software thing, not a hardware thing

but anyway, i too agree with the above poster - switching office files between a mac and a pc (pages, numbers, and keynote vs word, excel, PowerPoint) is pretty doable, but in a lot of cases not generally 100% fool proof. page and cell formatting is quite often lost and re-arranged, especially between Word/Pages Excel/Numbers. I use a mixture of both formats between my ipad and my PC, but it's taken me a fair amount of time to come up with 100% transferable file formats that stay 100% the same every time i go back and forth between mac and pc.

so, if you're not that savvy or experienced enough and are worrying, stick to either pc or mac format as mentioned. the switching process really can bugger you about. dont forget, both can be used on an ipad.

Originally Posted by Bosvaark

I think this is easy, you have a MacBook , stick with the apple apps, you will loose document formatting switching from Apple apps to Microsoft office.
And Pages and Numbers are excellent apps on the iPad.

It was my understanding that within that few years apple actually got tired of the "clunkyness" of Microsoft on a mbp, and actually re-wrote it themselves so make it a much smoother program. However I have no experience in either.

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Originally Posted by DaEbLe

It was my understanding that within that few years apple actually got tired of the "clunkyness" of Microsoft on a mbp, and actually re-wrote it themselves so make it a much smoother program. However I have no experience in either.

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The Microsoft office version for Mac is a Microsoft developed product.

Originally Posted by sjleworthy

processors? you're after a software thing, not a hardware thing

but anyway, i too agree with the above poster - switching office files between a mac and a pc (pages, numbers, and keynote vs word, excel, PowerPoint) is pretty doable, but in a lot of cases not generally 100% fool proof. page and cell formatting is quite often lost and re-arranged, especially between Word/Pages Excel/Numbers. I use a mixture of both formats between my ipad and my PC, but it's taken me a fair amount of time to come up with 100% transferable file formats that stay 100% the same every time i go back and forth between mac and pc.

so, if you're not that savvy or experienced enough and are worrying, stick to either pc or mac format as mentioned. the switching process really can bugger you about. dont forget, both can be used on an ipad.

In my pc experience word, word perfect are all considered "word processors" where numbers and excel are considered " spreadsheet processors". I thought about what I said knowing its confusion. it couldn't find a better set of words.
I consider myself very pc savy I have a degree in computer forensics, however my degree pretty much stops at the entry way of apple. I was considering putting apple's software being pages excel and keynote, but after a lot of reading I was told they all import documents fine, however when it comes to exporting they lose some macro for this reason I was considering going to the Microsoft office that was created for apple. THEN I w told that if I am used to pc version of office even the Microsoft office made for apple was lacking. This is why I feel so stuck. I am still thinking I should follow the masses and stick with Microsoft that way they are no export problems, but came here at least for some advise.
However from reading what you are saying I should just stay consistent?

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Originally Posted by DaEbLe

In my pc experience word, word perfect are all considered "word processors" where numbers and excel are considered " spreadsheet processors". I thought about what I said knowing its confusion. it couldn't find a better set of words.
I consider myself very pc savy I have a degree in computer forensics, however my degree pretty much stops at the entry way of apple. I was considering putting apple's software being pages excel and keynote, but after a lot of reading I was told they all import documents fine, however when it comes to exporting they lose some macro for this reason I was considering going to the Microsoft office that was created for apple. THEN I w told that if I am used to pc version of office even the Microsoft office made for apple was lacking. This is why I feel so stuck. I am still thinking I should follow the masses and stick with Microsoft that way they are no export problems, but came here at least for some advise.
However from reading what you are saying I should just stay consistent?

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It's all about " work flow" Ask your self
are you creating documents for print? If so then there is no problem with either product.
Will you share spreadsheets and word processed data with other people for them to edit? If so then you use the most compatible product that others are using.
Sending data from either can be exported in PDF if you don't want people to edit , which is what most people should do but don't, I've seen many problems when people send invites and newsletters from Microsoft office 2010 to people who are still using office 2003 , the document has to be converted and also looses info some times ".docx vs .doc", most often the recipient has no clue on how to convert it and it simply won't open , this is where PDF bridges the divide between older systems and different platforms.

Applications for the iPad to view / edit Microsoft excel or word are also imperfect, and most certainly will drop macros and complex formulae.

Are you a Mac user (mostly) or a PC/Windows user (mostly)? Me, while I have a MacBook Air and an iPad, I have zillions of files created in Office for Windows. So, despite the other two platforms, I choose to live mostly in Windows. Note, I have office for Mac on my MBA and I have Pages and Keynote for my iPad. I don't have a problem with this. But for the real work, I will use the Windows PC/Laptop and the Office for Windows. That's what I have the most experience with (and files for) and I see no real need to change. Note, I do typically trade files with people on both platforms, but mostly with Windows users, though I do have to occasionally deal with files from Mac users. This is just how it is and we all have to deal with it to some degree.

I am a pc user through and through and through. I have a custom built Alienware, 2 android based phones, and a Linux machine. Now adding an iPad and a mbp. That is why I meant literally across all platforms. The more insight I get on here the more I am thinking I need to spend the long dollar on office

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Originally Posted by Bosvaark

It's all about " work flow" Ask your self
are you creating documents for print? If so then there is no problem with either product.
Will you share spreadsheets and word processed data with other people for them to edit? If so then you use the most compatible product that others are using.
Sending data from either can be exported in PDF if you don't want people to edit , which is what most people should do but don't, I've seen many problems when people send invites and newsletters from Microsoft office 2010 to people who are still using office 2003 , the document has to be converted and also looses info some times ".docx vs .doc", most often the recipient has no clue on how to convert it and it simply won't open , this is where PDF bridges the divide between older systems and different platforms.

Applications for the iPad to view / edit Microsoft excel or word are also imperfect, and most certainly will drop macros and complex formulae.

Based on this I am thinking even more that Microsoft may be better, i do a lot of sending for editing. Even things such as graduate work. I want to be able to do my work on the Alienware then take the Mac (due to lightness) to class or even the iPad. So I guess my final question is, how well does the Microsoft work on the apple compared to Microsoft on pc?
Thank you for all the help

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