Hi, LET me just say that You can do everything you want and more with a Mac. Except the Winblows stuff that you mentioned. Office natively on the Mac is not accessible.
The solution to that is to purchase Fusion from VMWare and run an instance of Winblows and Office in a virtual machine on the Mac. There are other alternatives like dual booting with bootcamp, but for me the virtual solution is preferable. Also doing it either of these methods will allow you to utilize your existing purchases of Microslop products. PDF's are doable with Preview on the Mac. Even more so with Lion as you are now supposed to stay where you left the cursor when moving focus to and from the app. As an aside if you have a Dropbox account you can install it on the iPhone and use Dropbox to read pdf's. Mac OSX is based on Unix. Unlike Microslop the Unix based operating systems have so far been low on the virus developers radar. Both because of it's innate built in security and the nature of the os. There are applications available in the app store and on the net that claim to offer antivirus support, but those are mostly for the mauware crap that is out there. mauware is not a virus, it's just a PITA. Anyway, there are apps available to allay your fears. Transferring files is not an issue. You can copy or move files to a USB stick or email them as needed. Most of your other questions I will have to leave up to others to answer. Let me end by saying that my whole house has been migrated from Microslop to Apple. Since doing that for my wife 3 years ago I have not touched her Macbook other than to update it. Do I sound like a fan boy? Maybe, but in full disclosure I do tend to stick with firefox on my virtual machine for browsing the web. Until Lion added single key navigation it was the most productive way to surf the web for me. There are still some issues with Safari that have caused me to stick with my alternative for now, but I can definitely see the day in the near future where I will be 100% converted. I hope that this has been enlightening and helpful. Regards, Keith Watson Phone: 813-760-1381 Email: tkwatso...@gmail.com On Aug 20, 2011, at 6:09 PM, Kirsten Edmondson wrote: > Hi, > I am seriously considering the move from a Windows (7) machine onto a Mac. I > have an IPhone so I know how VO works. I visited an Apple retailer today and > know that the Mac Book Pro is probably the one I want (the tracker pad was a > new concept but I like the idea) . I have been on the Apple site but am > overwhelmed with information and there are so many links to click on that I > would be there for days I think! > I use my computer all the time for work, particularly the office > applications, I have never got these to work on my IPhone so I assumed they > wouldn't work on a Mac either: However I see in the Apple store that you can > by Office products as a bundle when buying the Mac. Obviously I have to get > over the price, (though I worked out that a Mac will cost me the same as my > laptop; office products; Jaws and Kerzweil upgrades cost me 18 months ago) > so actually it seems to make financial sense. I need to be able to do stuff > at home which I can transfer, either on memory stick or via email to my work > Windows laptop. > Before I make this big move (I know it'll be so different from Windows and > that is kind of scary) please could I have some thoughts on: > *The positives of the Mac over a Windows machine (if they can be compared > that is); > *The negatives. > *Whether I can really and successfully use it with Office products and to > transfer things to and from Windows computers for work? > *Whether (If anyone knows) I can run Index embossers etc from a Mac as I > need to do this regularly and if I can run my existing embosser and printer > etc from one. > *How easy it is to use the internet. > *If it's possible to read PDF documents (something else I can't do on my > phone) and what happens to flash content (as that doesn't work on IOS4. > *If I could use a scanner in conjunction with a Mac. > *If they need repairing is it easy? > *How anti-virus software might work? > *If there's a basic user manual (I found one easily before I got an IPhone > but can't find one for a Mac Book on the Apple site) but think it might be > handy to read through. > > I'm sorry if these seem like big or stupid or simple questions, or if > they've been asked to you time and time again, but I really want to have all > the facts before I make this leap and I know as VI users you are the people > to ask. > I would keep my windows Laptop but would like to be whole-hearted in this > move. > If it's easier to send me information off list my email address is > kirsten.edmond...@btinternet.com > Or if it's easier to send me links to pages then please do. > Thanks in advance for all your help and information. > > Kirsten > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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