Apple Mac & Windows interface issues

Superhoops --

Word and Excel are binary-compatible across both platforms, so should (!) present no problems transferring data. I've never had any problems transferring Photoshop, Illustrator, LightWave and Cinema 4D files between platforms.

However, just remember that PC's can't generally read Mac-formatted CD/DVDs, so if you were transferring files on this medium, you'd have to make sure you burned the disks in PC or Hybrid (readable by both platforms) format. Hybrid is normally the default for burning on the Mac anyway, so you generally don't have to worry about this.

If you're sending stuff via e-mail attachments, this isn't generally a problem -- Mail (Mac OS X's e-mail client) includes an option to 'Send Windows-fiiendly Attachments', so they don't geet screwed up at the other end.

HTH

If you are mainly using MS Office programs, compatibility will not be a problem. If you ever do have a problem, you could run Virtual PC in an emergency - but you won't need to. I use PC's because of specialist engineering programs that I have to use that are barely out of DOS, but even I am considering moving to Mac.
My advice - just do it!

quote:

Originally posted by superhoops:
I need to buy a new laptop and am considering Apple because (a) I like them

A good reason to buy.

quote:

(b) windows crashes a lot

The only computer in our house that has crashed in the last 5 years was a Mac laptop. Patch releases of OSX seem to be coming out with some considerably frequency as well.

quote:

(c) it takes ages to boot up PCs

The Windows XP pc's in our house boot up quicker than the Apple computers we have (which includes one running OSX now).

quote:

and (d)other people who know about these things tell me Apple is better.

If those are people you trust then fine, go with that although (given the market split) you're more likely to encounter people with a preference for Windows.

On the compatability thing it's usually not a problem. We run MS Office on all our computers (Mac and Windows) and we've had no problems moving files from one to the other.

Just a comment on booting times; I have only rebooted my PowerBook G4 laptop for system updates - that's probably 12 times in 18 months, so it's not really an issue!

I just leave it on, close it, open it up and work.

Having said that, I'm not sure the current range of Apple laptops are good value for money. They are relativly slow and expensive.

Apple must be working on dual-core G4 or G5 laptops. But there's no information about when they'll be released.

Having said that however, they are perfectly useable for most tasks now. Mines an 887MHz processor and I do all the usual stuff with it, watch and edit movies, make music etc..

Just remember to max out the RAM.

Regards

Stephen

As a humerous diversion listen to part of "From our Own Correspondance" on BBC listen again

Listen again

The relevant part starts about 16 minutes 15 seconds into the stream.

The program will only be available for one week from today

Its all true Derek, all true lol

Gary - remember I have joined the cult as well,
I specialise in minority possessions and activities

quote:

Originally posted by Derek Wright:
Gary - remember I have joined the cult as well,

My BSc in computer science appears to render me happily immune!

Steve - but I have been thru more OSs than just Mac - eg MFS, MVT, MVS, VM, DOS 1.1 to DDOS 3 with and without 'doze 1.1 to 3.?, OS/2 1.2 to OS/2 V4 and now OSX

so Mac use is not the first flush of computer experience

quote:

If you're sending stuff via e-mail attachments, this isn't generally a problem -- Mail (Mac OS X's e-mail client) includes an option to 'Send Windows-fiiendly Attachments', so they don't geet screwed up at the other end.

Tim-

We have 4 Macs in our household, and I wouldn't ever think of switching over to a Windows computer (although I do have a Windows laptop for programming Universal Remotes). I have had a couple of problems sending Word docs to Windows users, though. I use MS Entourage, and am wondering if there's any way to send "Windows friendly" attachments with Erage. I guess I could use Apple's Mail.app, but do you know of any way for Erage to do this? TIA

I can't help Peter except to say when I used entourage it would screw the files up as well, curious as its MS.

I am sure there was an option to compress the files in entourage which provided you had a zip thingy on the PC seemed to work.

ONe question what posses you to use Entourage?

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Litwack:
I use MS Entourage, and am wondering if there's any way to send "Windows friendly" attachments with Erage. I guess I could use Apple's Mail.app, but do you know of any way for Erage to do this? TIA

Peter --

Agree with Gary here -- best way is to compress the file before you attach it (ctrl- / right-click on it and choose "Create Archive"). This will create a ".zip" file that can be opened at the other end on a Windows machine. Compressing protects the file and prevents some of its bits getting twiddled while in transit.

HTH

BTW -- anyone who's using Mail.app should install the very wonderful Mail.appetizer from BronsonBeta:

http://www.bronsonbeta.com/mailappetizer/

Couldn't live without this one.