Macbook and Ipad questions, Please help

[tsmrg]

Hello guys. I have been using a PC and i am considering buying myself a macbook. I have had a very good experience with my FIRST iDive, ipad 3rd generation so i am confident i may enjoy as well if i get a Macbook Air.

What i want to know is if there preinstalled softwares that create documents, edit documents which i would want to use for my studies. I would want know if would be able to share such documents with my friends at school. What will i miss that is in windows when i get to the mac? Besides i know of iwork which creates documents, but i was not planning to buy any applications at present. The second thing is that if i buy iwork apps on my ipad, will i have to pay for a second time when i need it on my macbook?

Please note, i would prefer alternatives to buying iwork for the mac if there are any, that would allow me to enjoy the same and even more than what i had with windows. Thanks in advance


(Another thing is that, am i able to use an application which i would have purchased with one apple id on the same device when i sign in when my second apple id??) i have two apple id's because there are some free apps which i cant get on my local appstore but available in other app stores

 

[skimonkey]

Hello guys. I have been using a PC and i am considering buying myself a macbook. I have had a very good experience with my FIRST iDive, ipad 3rd generation so i am confident i may enjoy as well if i get a Macbook Air.

What i want to know is if there preinstalled softwares that create documents, edit documents which i would want to use for my studies. I would want know if would be able to share such documents with my friends at school. What will i miss that is in windows when i get to the mac? Besides i know of iwork which creates documents, but i was not planning to buy any applications at present. The second thing is that if i buy iwork apps on my ipad, will i have to pay for a second time when i need it on my macbook?

Please note, i would prefer alternatives to buying iwork for the mac if there are any, that would allow me to enjoy the same and even more than what i had with windows. Thanks in advance


(Another thing is that, am i able to use an application which i would have purchased with one apple id on the same device when i sign in when my second apple id??) i have two apple id's because there are some free apps which i cant get on my local appstore but available in other app stores

I'll answer some of your questions regarding a MacBook. I just bought a MacBook Air back in February this year and really do enjoy the fresh look it had. As a windows user both at home and work, I was reluctant for some time to purchase anything else other than Windows. However, with the new OS (Win 8)...I just didn't want to go that route anymore. So I took the plunge and made the purchase.

It takes time to learn your way with MacBook. Simple things like exiting out of a window is on the Left side versus the right on Win based machine. A right click can either be a two finger tap or use a mouse on a Mac, whichever you prefer.

Regarding word processor...nothing like that come with the machine. You have your Notes app and also a note pad to jot things down, but that's it. You can always download Open Office for free and use that. Works like a charm for word documents, power point or excel. Saving and converting hasn't given me any issues when I sent from home to work. If I am concerned about formatting issues, I will save it as a PDF before emailing it to my work email.

Also, I do have Pages on my iPad which I have sent to my Mac and opened up with Open Office. Again, no issues with that as well.

So good luck ...and welcome to the forum!

Ski ~ iPadforums Moderator | iPhoneForums Moderator

 

[tsmrg]

Thanks a lot, i really appriciate hey

 

[giradman]

....What i want to know is if there preinstalled softwares that create documents, edit documents which i would want to use for my studies. I would want know if would be able to share such documents with my friends at school. What will i miss that is in windows when i get to the mac? Besides i know of iwork which creates documents, but i was not planning to buy any applications at present. The second thing is that if i buy iwork apps on my ipad, will i have to pay for a second time when i need it on my macbook?

Please note, i would prefer alternatives to buying iwork for the mac if there are any, that would allow me to enjoy the same and even more than what i had with windows. Thanks in advance.......

Hi Tsmrg - I'll just expand on Skimonkey's already excellent advice and just add a few more comments, as a new owner of a MacBook Pro and coming also from a Windows background. First to reinforce the issue on pre-installed office software, your Apple laptop will come only w/ Notes & TextEdit, now the latter is fine for basic editing and even includes some formatting options, but likely will not fulfill the needs you describe. Second, iWork is an outstanding suite and really inexpensive relative to the cost of MS Office - I would not dismiss purchasing the product, i.e. you might want to reconsider - plus, files can be saved is numerous formats compatible w/ other products, such as Word, Excel, & PowerPoint. Yes, Open Office is FREE, and adds Base (i.e. database program), but yet another suite to learn (tried it out on a Linux laptop), so your choice is to decide which of these suites you want to devote your time to learn - up to you?

Of course, another 'online' option is Google Drive, which I've also been using for some of my needs - it is free, can be accessed from different browsers/computers, and saving to different formats is available, BUT first take a look & try out some of the programs & features - so far, a little frustrating for me to use - however, not much experience.

Concerning iWork on the iPad & an Apple laptop, the programs are certainly similar but written for different OSs, i.e. iOS vs. OS X - the programs on the laptop are powerful & full featured office apps, whereas those on the iPad are much more limited in various ways (power, depth, formatting options, etc.), so although files can be easily shared, there may be some issues; and, buying one set for the iPad or laptop will not get you the other for free.

SO, hope these additional comments may help in your decision(s) - I would urge you to purchase iWork, but Open Office (or Google Drive would be considerations if a 'free' option is your only choice) - good luck and let us know how all works out!

 

[tsmrg]

@giradman, thanks a lot. I find the info helpful. Am a user of google drive already and am sure it will work fine. Will definately update you guys and ask if there will be need. Thanks once again

 

[skimonkey]

@giradman, thanks a lot. I find the info helpful. Am a user of google drive already and am sure it will work fine. Will definately update you guys and ask if there will be need. Thanks once again

Yes, let us know what you've decided!

Good luck!

 

[Scottysize]

Google drive, or purchase Office. Those are the only options I know of for my Macbook. Office for the Mac works fine and runs fine. All documents transfer from Mac to Windows and back.

I have been having problems with Office 2010 Documents and Google Drive. I can upload them, but not make any changes. Just an FYI.