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We've just got our first Mac (an iMac) which is for my daughter. She is wanting Microsoft Word for schoolwork and I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on which version to use. At the moment I'm leaning towards Office 2007 and VMware, but maybe 2008 would be a better choice since it's a native Mac application? There's also OpenOffice but she doesn't much like it.

Although she is using 2003 at school I quite like the idea of 2007 because of the new interface - one presumes they will go that way at school eventually.

Thanks
Dennis

Hmm...you're the first I've heard that like Office 2007's interface

As much as possible, I'd avoid running apps you'll probably use on a frequent basis under VMWare...so I'd go with Office 2008. It's not as though there will be too many compatibility issues. I have to use Office at work (currently on 2004 but will go to 2008 soon when ITS finally get it) and there's no or little conflict swapping files amongst PC and Mac users.

Phil

Thanks... I didn't say I liked the 2007 interface! I meant that sooner or later I expect the school will go that way so may as well spend my pennies on the newer version.

Personally I use 2003 at work (and quite happy with that) and I bought 2007 for home when I built a new PC recently. I really dislike the new interface but then some people say it's one of those things you have to try for a while before you appreciate it...

We're just ordering some PCs at work and when I mentioned to my staff member that he'd forgotten to list a new version of office on the order, his reply and recommendation was to stick with 2003 for the PC. He said that so many people he knew hated the new version on the PC that he said it best to stick with what people were using.

Phil

Yes, good idea. Do you happen to know if Word 2008 can read/write Word 2003 format? I'm now leaning the 2008 way now but exchange of files with school might be the deciding factor.

Cheers
Dennis

Well I know it can save in .docx or .doc format...and I'd be amazed if it couldn't open 2003 files. Such an issue would have been well publicised by Mac people by now, so I think you'll be fine.

Phil

Philip Roy wrote:

As much as possible, I'd avoid running apps you'll probably use on a frequent basis under VMWare...so I'd go with Office 2008. It's not as though there will be too many compatibility issues.


Interesting assertion as there are compatability issues between Office2004Win and Office2007Win, and have always had issues between Office2004Mac and Office2003Win.

Not quite sure what you mean as I wasn't commenting on compatibility in that first part...just simply saying "run native" and not "run virtualised" for apps you use frequently (if it can be avoided).

I've never experienced issues between Mac and PC with office...but then again, I use it as little as I have to. At work I've never had to ask for a document to be resent etc or been unable to open it.

Phil

Hmmm... I'm now leaning back towards 2007. My "client" has informed me that she wants the "normal" version, i.e. 2007. I guess if you looking at it from the point of view of "what is the best Office version available" it's probably 2007, unless of course you absolutely hate the new interface. And of course it costs a lot more since I'll be up for Office + VMware/Parallels + Windows.

Just as a matter of interest, has anyone used VMware Fusion? I'm expecting it will be a lot slower than native performance, I was just wondering if was still acceptable. I've got a 2.4Ghz iMac with 4GB RAM so I'm expecting it should be OK.

I have VMware Fusion, running Windows XP Pro (SP2) on my MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz with 2 GB RAM.

Apart from a bit of swapping activity when I launch it (which I could solve by upgrading to 4 GB RAM), it runs very well. I haven't done anything particularly graphics or sound intensive, but for CPU-bound tasks (e.g. compiling a large project with a relatively slow compiler), I get better performance than from my real PC at work (AMD Duron, not sure what speed). User interface responsiveness is fine.