Lol, Nina. I have used both OS formats for over 15 years personally and
professionally. I currently have a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop at home,
and for school I have an eMAC and MacBook Pro. I use Office 2007 on my Dells
and set the default to save as Word 2004 files. On my new Macbook Pro, I use
Office 2008. I don't care which one I make my documents, media
presentations, etc. on, and just throw them on the a jumpdrive to quickly
transfer them where I need them next. All the files are closely compatible
and ready-to-go.
As far as the differences in the Operating Systems(mac vs. windows) - My
Dells were MUCH cheaper in price, even with the generous discount Apple gives
educators. There are things I can do on each machine that cannot be done on
the other. Example... you can take a screen shot on a windows machine and
have to crop it, while you can take a snap shot of exactly what you want with
no editing with just a few key strokes on a mac. This is very handy for a
teacher. My students love their iCameras and have a blast with them. The
Macs are more user friendly for the newbie, yet I find the windows machines
give me more flexibility. I have never had a problem with a virus, malicious
code, etc. on any Mac, but have had complete crashes in my Mac lab at school.
The complete reinstall is easy though, so not a huge issue. I have never
had a Windows machine crash, but continually need to update antivirus
software, defrag, etc. to keep them running decently. Lastly, I had problems
getting the correct video format to embed in my powerpoint on the mac. After
some research, I found a good site: mediaconverter.org, than converts and
files type I have into another. For example, one live .wmv and another
insists on .avi extensions. I just need to remember which machine I am using
You say you are a heavy Word and Powerpoint user. I am also, and teach both
of these applications in my classes. Mac's Office 2008 is very similar to
Window's MS Office 2007. If you are currently using either, you will easily
be able to use the other. If you are switching from an older version of
Office, you will find that some of the things you may have been use to are no
longer available. Check out this site to see the differences/changes:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179054.aspx
I was used to Word 2004 on the Mac and Word 2003 on the Windows, so I am
still trying to find the same functions in the newer versions. I often find
that they are no longer available.... (scrolling text, and other similar
things I used in my classroom).
I really like the MAC Word version's formatting palette, but Office was
originally made for the Windows operating system and continues to receive
more support. However, I don't think there is a major difference in this in
the past few years (it use to be huge). If I were you, I would look at the
operating systems to see what best fits your needs and know that you will be
able use Office just fine on either.
Hope I was somewhat helpful and at least relieved some of your worries -
Jan