Mac OS X User Thread

[jayn_j]

My wife continues to surprise me, she came out and said her next computer would be by Apple. I will have some training to do. She is not a quick learn with new stuff (one of the reasons I never put Office 2010 on her machine; she was content with Office 2007's ribbon-less Outlook). But she seems determined this time.

We are kind of stuck with Office, especially if you are doing serious work, but Microsoft's attitude really annoys me sometimes. I have been using word since word for windows 1.0. I have NEVER seen a new release come out where Microsoft used the previous menus, use model and algorithms. For years, every new release would break numbered lists and chapter numbering. Carefully formatted pages would change when sent to others for review because they had a different printer or screen size or who knows what. Ended up having to buy full Acrobat so I could create PDFs and guarantee formatting.

Don't even get me started on macros and VBA apps. I guess I consider myself a very high power user and it frustrates me that I have to relearn almost everything every 2-4 years.

It still goes on today. My Office for Mac works totally differently than my PC one at work. Mac is Office 2008 and PC is Office 2007 which is as close to a match as you can get.

Sorry for the rant, but I sympathize with your wife, Mike.

 

[Ilya]

Ended up having to buy full Acrobat so I could create PDFs and guarantee formatting.

And that's exactly what PDF format is for: to guarantee formatting regardless of the printer.
Though you don't have to buy Acrobat any more: Save as PDF is a standard feature in Office 2010 and is a free plugin available from Microsoft for Office 2007. And of course you can do the same from any Mac version of Office, since Mac OS supports printing to PDF natively.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

We are kind of stuck with Office, especially if you are doing serious work, but Microsoft's attitude really annoys me sometimes. I have been using word since word for windows 1.0. I have NEVER seen a new release come out where Microsoft used the previous menus, use model and algorithms. For years, every new release would break numbered lists and chapter numbering. Carefully formatted pages would change when sent to others for review because they had a different printer or screen size or who knows what. Ended up having to buy full Acrobat so I could create PDFs and guarantee formatting.

Don't even get me started on macros and VBA apps. I guess I consider myself a very high power user and it frustrates me that I have to relearn almost everything every 2-4 years.

It still goes on today. My Office for Mac works totally differently than my PC one at work. Mac is Office 2008 and PC is Office 2007 which is as close to a match as you can get.

Sorry for the rant, but I sympathize with your wife, Mike.

To be honest Office 2011 is not terrible; it has all the same features - plus Microsoft Publisher integrated into Word - as Office 2010; but its organization of the ribbon is confusing, and too make-like; too cartoony. That said, I do all of my writing today in Nisus Writer Pro 2. I love it. Its RTF, it can read Word doc and docx files; it has track changes; does everything I need, but without the distractions of word. I started using it a month ago, and have not written a word in Word since then. The only issue I had was its RTF tables (which look and print great) would NOT retain their structure when copied into Dreamweaver. So... I saved the file as Word, opened it in Word, copied the table (which looked fine), and pasted it into Dreamweaver. Silly, I know, but it worked.

I am working on a complex document now - a law review article - and I am doing it entirely in Nisus. It is an experiment, but I am pretty sure I can learn to live without Word. (For the record I also tried Pages, but just did not like it).

Of course, I am stuck with Office for spreadsheets, Numbers just can't cut it compared with Excel, and NeoOffice is ok, but does not wow me.

 

[jayn_j]

And that's exactly what PDF format is for: to guarantee formatting regardless of the printer.
Though you don't have to buy Acrobat any more: Save as PDF is a standard feature in Office 2010 and is a free plugin available from Microsoft for Office 2007. And of course you can do the same from any Mac version of Office, since Mac OS supports printing to PDF natively.

I know all that, but it is more than a bit of a PITA when you are trying to do collaborative documents.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have heard complaints that not all "save to pdf" from different programs results in compatible files. But so far I haven't had any problems. I do have the full Acrobat X package. Don't make a lot of use of its features, but I have it.

 

[Neutron]

Looking at an iMac to replace my wife's 5+ year old Dell. Since she does all of our finance and budget on her computer I wanted to get her one that would last a while and would be stable. I'll just have to get the Mac versions of Office and Quicken.

 

[Damichi10]

Looking at an iMac to replace my wife's 5+ year old Dell. Since she does all of our finance and budget on her computer I wanted to get her one that would last a while and would be stable. I'll just have to get the Mac versions of Office and Quicken.

Hi, I have a Mac pro that have been trying to update but without success. Any help pls ???

 

[Neutron]

Will it not let you do system updates?

 

[Damichi10]

Will it not let you do system updates?

Damichi10 - it would not load after asking for a restart

 

[jrp]

Looking at an iMac to replace my wife's 5+ year old Dell. Since she does all of our finance and budget on her computer I wanted to get her one that would last a while and would be stable. I'll just have to get the Mac versions of Office and Quicken.

Both those programs work fine in their Mac versions.

 

[markd]

Quicken will not run on the new Mac OS. OS X 10.7 (Lion). Quicken uses old code from the PPC (cpu) days. Since Apple has gone to Intel they had a emulation program (Rosetta) that would run these old programs. However, with Lion they did away with Rosetta.

Quicken is looking at adding some of this old Apple code to it. But I don't know how well that's going to work and how long it will take them. They would be better off redoing Quicken from scratch.

You have a few choices. Get another Windows PC. Or if you get an iMac you can put Windows on it and boot either Mac OS or Windows. That way you can keep using Quicken. Or find another finance program for the Mac. There are quite a few out there. So it would be best to download the trial versions and see which you like best.

The one I'm using right now is MoneyWell. It's an envelope (they call them Buckets) based system. It a whole different way of keeping your finances than quicken. It took me a little while to get use to it. But I find it a lot simpler (which is what the program design it to be). It does do bill pay or print checks yet. Although they are coming but no time frame yet.

Of course there are others. iBank, Moneydance, Checkbook Pro, Money, SEE Finance and others. THere's also Mint.com.

 

[jrp]

Quicken will not run on the new Mac OS. OS X 10.7 (Lion).

Did not know that. I'm running 10.6.8.

 

[jrp]

from: Is Quicken for Mac Compatible with Mac OS 10.7 Lion? - Quicken Support

Will Quicken for Mac work on the new Mac operating system, Lion (Mac OS X 10.7)?
Currently, Quicken for Mac 2005, 2006 or 2007 will not work on Lion. However, Quicken Essentials for Mac will work on Lion. If you are using Quicken Essentials for Mac, make sure you are on the latest Quicken Essentials patch version for full compatibility.
Why will Quicken for Mac not work on Lion, Mac OS X 10.7?
Quicken for Mac 2005, 2006 and 2007 were originally built for the older PowerPC architecture, and were able to run on newer Intel-based Macs due to an Apple technology called Rosetta. As of Mac OS X 10.7, Apple has discontinued support for Rosetta.

If Quicken Essentials (Quicken® Essentials for Mac Personal Finance Software - Mac Financial Software) does what you need, you're still okay.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Did not know that. I'm running 10.6.8.

And you are still on Snow Leopard, so rosetta will still work.

The current Lion release is 10.7.1

 

[markd]

Did not know that. I'm running 10.6.8.

10.6.8 will run Quicken fine as it still got Rosetta. But if you update to 10.7, Rosetta will be gone.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have to admit, I am kind of surprised Intuit has not developed a Mac version of Quicken yet. Its not like the Intel machines are new or anything.

 

[Neutron]

Isn't Quicken Essentials the same thing? Will it open up our backup file from our current Windows based Quicken 2006?

 

[klang]

Isn't Quicken Essentials the same thing? Will it open up our backup file from our current Windows based Quicken 2006?

The version of Quicken for the Mac is nothing like the Windows version. Quicken is the primary reason I am running a Windows VM on my iMac.

Edit: Main things missing that are important to me are online bill pay and tracking investment transactions.

 

[Neutron]

All we use it for is for the checking ledger that my wife reconciles with the checking account online, and we also utilize the budget graphs to see where our money is going. Would Quicken Essentials do all of this?

 

[klang]

All we use it for is for the checking ledger that my wife reconciles with the checking account online, and we also utilize the budget graphs to see where our money is going. Would Quicken Essentials do all of this?

Likely yes but I have not actually used the Mac version.