New MacBook Air - Windows Parallels question

[Saab2000]

Typing this from a brand new MacBook Air. Nice machine! Fast!

I will probably have to break down and get the Microsoft Office package for a word processor. Can someone who knows computers (especially Apple) better than I do educate me on Parallels? I understand it allows Microsoft to run like Microsoft on Apple computers. Do I need this? What is it? Does it cost money? Should I just download MS-Office for Mac and be done with it? I really just want MS-Word.

Maybe it is totally superfluous for me but some folks I know have it and like it. The computer is, for me, mostly a toy but not entirely. We do some work tasks on it like e-mail and schedule bidding and a few other things. My old MacBook served me well but it was having some issues so it is going to be put into semi-active retirement.

Any tips? Hints? Not really very slick with computers here. Not looking for judgement on buying an Apple. Every Apple product I've had is slick, works on startup every single time without complications and hassles and lasts a long time with hard usage and travel. Like people who brag about their Hondas. And 10-speed Campagnolo stuff.

Typing this here because most computer forums are vastly more dysfunctional than this place. People who think this place has jumped the shark just need to go visit some other forums (airlines, computers, cars, etc.) to see how the rest of the online world exists. It ain't pretty. I digress.

Suggestions?

[nick k]

Saab -

MS Office Mac is a very good suite. I think until the most recent version of Office the conventional wisdom was that the Mac version was superior to its Windows counterpart. Apple and Microsoft have (had?) a deal in place that committed MS to develop and support the Mac versions of the Office app, and it's been a success. So, yes, you can just purchase Word for Mac or the Office Mac suite and be done. All current Word documents are compatible across platforms and can be saved to be read by older versions of the apps in both Windows and Mac. You don't need Parallels or VMWare Fusion unless you want to run a Windows virtual machine within Mac OS X. If you do need that, you'd be surprised how seamless it is.

All that said, there are free or low-cost word processing apps like Open Office or Pages that can open and save Word compatible docs if you don't feel like dropping a few hundred $ right now. Pages is written by Apple and is quite good.

Nick

[winmonster]

Parallels lets you install other OS's (i.e. Windows) on your Mac. It costs money, and you would need to buy the OS license, if applicable (certainly so with Windows). Doing so would allow you to run MS applications natively. I boot my Windows image to run Internet Explorer for some stupid work sites and to use Visio. That's it. If Word is all you want, get Pages or the MS Office suite for Mac.

[SteveP]

i just got a new laptop myself...
toshiba ultra.
i did get one w/ windows 7 as i wasnt blown away by w-8...
seems like its more aimed at tablets and phones to me...

it is a nice machine i thk. very fast and very light.

[quickag]

If it's JUST for Office, just get the Mac version. It's superior to the windows version and I use both. If you're looking for other uses (gaming, gfx work) run them separately in Bootcamp. This will get full performance out of the system...you just have to choose to run Windows or OSX every time you reboot...I seem to reboot into Win7 a lot lately.

[echelon_john]

And just so it's clear—buying Parallels then necessitates buying Windows, AND Office (to accomplish your goal).

So it will certainly be more cost effective to buy Word/Office for Mac. Look on Amazon; they usually have good deals.

If you have no need for Excel or Powerpoint, I would try Pages first; much of the basic functionality of Word for less $, and, as pointed out above, you can save and send documents as Word files, and open Word files as well. You may encounter formatting issues going back and forth, but if you're not using it a lot that's probably not a big deal.

For schedule bidding and that kind of thing, I assume that's all browser-based at this point, no? I wouldn't think PC/Mac would come into play there.

Welcome to enlightenment!
JC

[Matthew Strongin]

I agree with the above...if you're really just going to be using office or word, get it for Mac and don't bother with bootcamp or parallels. If you have a need to run a Windows OS for other reasons, there are a few options, some stated above. But the cross platform compatibility of Office for Mac docs eliminates the need for you to work in a virtual Microsoft OS. I work in the virtualization industry, at a company that encourages workers to use whatever devices or platforms they want and provides the virtual infrastructure to do so, and I still just use Word for Mac OS. It's native, easy to use, and I prefer the Mac OS to windows so it's more comfortable.

[Britishbane]

Bootcamp user in the past. It worked, but was annoying to have to reboot to use Windows. Now I just use Google Docs and their version of Excel for the price of free. They let you download/save your document in whatever format you want, including .doc - then you can send it to others and they can open it w/o a problem.

[Saab2000]

Thanks! I might try Pages. It's about $20 on the App Store. I have tried an open source word processor in the past and it was slow and opened oddly on my other MacBook. I have had success with Apple's stuff so there's not much risk with getting Pages.

[MisterDangerPants]

Should I just download MS-Office for Mac and be done with it? I really just want MS-Word.

Yes. I bought a MacBook Air earlier this year and have Office installed. Works great. I've had Office products installed on Macs for years with no issues (I also currently have it on my 27" iMac). You can install just Word if you don't want all of the other software programs.

Enjoy your new Mac!

[turkish]

As a former Windows user, Office for Mac does not work at the same level as in Windows. My wife works a lot with Word and very often gets the small rainbow ball dancing on the screen, both in the Macbook Air and in the Mac Mini.

I think that you can't go wrong with Pages or Google Docs.

[SpeedyChix]

If just MS apps, and the open source doesn't do it for you, buy MS for Mac. O'wise you're buying VMWare Fusion or Parallels plus the PC OS to install your PC MS app.
I use a MacBook Air with VMWare Fusion and Win7 but it's to run some PC-only applications. For Word and Excel I use it on the Mac side. Really love the speed of the SSD in the MBAir.

[summilux]

I wouldn't bother with Parallel. I used it some years ago because I had to use some software that was PC only. PITA and pricey since I had to buy the MS operating system license too. Office for Mac is just fine.

Airs are great. Who needs drives.

[ChristianSLC]

I just bought a MacBook Pro, went though having to make the same sort of decision, and ended up buying Office for the Mac. The price of Office for the Mac is less than $30 more than just the price for Parallels, at least at time time on Amazon for the single home/student version. No losing disk space or messing around with installing/configuring Windows in the virtual machine. I even had spare licenses for both Windows and Office too.

Open Office and Libre Office were tried, but they failed pretty miserably handling the few Word files I threw at them.

[monadnocky]

I'm typing this on an Air right now. I have Office on it that I purchased along with the machine. I use Word (a lot) and Excel on both PC and Mac platforms at work and, honestly, find the Mac version to be much, much better- there's something about the aesthetics of it that is more user-friendly, smoother, and just... well... better. Years (and years, and years) ago I switched from PC Office to Mac Office and I found the transition to be a little difficult, but I'm glad I did.

Download the cheapest Office for Mac you can find ($119?). You won't be sorry.

[OnTheEllipse]

Certainly worth giving open office a shot, as its free and you can try it out in a matter of minutes. I spend most of my time in SublimeText 2 and Photoshop, but have Open Office for coworkers documents. No problems at all.

[CXinNH]

As a sporadic user of office programs you will find that the open-source and free libre office (successor of openoffice) does everything you need. In case you need to virtualize winblows use virtualbox (also free and better than parallels).

LibreOffice Productivity Suite Download » LibreOffice

[dhoff]

THIS

Saab -

MS Office Mac is a very good suite. I think until the most recent version of Office the conventional wisdom was that the Mac version was superior to its Windows counterpart. Apple and Microsoft have (had?) a deal in place that committed MS to develop and support the Mac versions of the Office app, and it's been a success. So, yes, you can just purchase Word for Mac or the Office Mac suite and be done. All current Word documents are compatible across platforms and can be saved to be read by older versions of the apps in both Windows and Mac. You don't need Parallels or VMWare Fusion unless you want to run a Windows virtual machine within Mac OS X. If you do need that, you'd be surprised how seamless it is.

All that said, there are free or low-cost word processing apps like Open Office or Pages that can open and save Word compatible docs if you don't feel like dropping a few hundred $ right now. Pages is written by Apple and is quite good.

Nick

is all the answer you need.

Office for MAC is great. Parallels only makes sense if you absolutely MUST use specialty software that operates only on PC. If a word processor is what you need Pages is great and so is Open Office (FREE). Try open office before buying anything. LONG LIVE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE AND THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT. All of this said, I use office for MAC constantly as I move allot of documents and it is simpler not to have to deal with any formatting. I loaded Parallels and had to use it for one program for a while, but when it was being used, my MAC crashed regularly, just like a PC. MAC's simply don't crash. Keep the memory clean and plan on rebooting the computer a couple of times a year.