(Let me wash my mouth out with soap. OK.)

Little Sister is determined to stick with Word. She's running a new iMac, 10.5.6 and was set to buy Word 2008, but she's heard horror stories. So, she's determined to snag a copy of 04 off eBay, but I dunno.

I'm strictly NeoOffice here, so I don't have a clue. Advice? Let me add (since I know she's not listening ) that she's put off addressing this for a couple of months and now she's behind her own rock and hard place. Bad Little Sister, Bad! Bad!

Seriously, I'll really appreciate y'all's advice. I'm thinking this isn't the problem she's afraid it is.

Much Gras
LL


PS: And can she buy just Word or does she have to get the whole enchilada? She likes iWork OK, but Pages ain't doing it for her.

My experience is all with G4s and G5s, and I hate Office 2008 because it is really a RAM hog and slow as molasses. It's probably different on an Intel Mac, but I don't know that for a fact. I can say that MS has an Open XML Converter that will translate the x files. So you don't need 2008 to open those files. And NeoOffice also opens those files, by the way (but you knew that already).

She needs the whole suite, parts not available separately.. 2004 works fine. The first rendition, Office X, is buggy though in Tiger and Leopard.

If she only uses it for in house, 2004 will be fine. As long as all she gets is text, and no one is sending her graphics in Word I know for a fact she'll be fine. What I don't know is how the xml converter yoyo mentioned does with "heavy" (for Word) formatting of large docs. I haven't read of any complaints so that may be good.

Speaking of Word as a page layout program, I need a shower.

Shower? I need a defibrillator.

She's strictly text, minimum formatting, except for her serious footnote fetish. So she wants the 2004 enchilada, not its first incarnation ala Office X and she's out some bucks. Pffft, her fetish, her money.

Thanks, very much.


LL

Why can't she buy the education package? AFAIK there's no checking--and you get three serial numbers (so you could get your very own Office installation . . . AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!)

I have Office 08 on my intel iMac and it runs ok. The only reason I got it was because we got it for free from Amazon after shipping. Otherwise I would stick with NeoOffice.

Page Layout <-- Never
Well the 2003 Word could not do "kerning" and "Leading" was set to small , medium and Large . If you do any page layout you need absolute control over that function

I've been doing page layout on Macs for 10+ years, carp, but I'd to back to hunchin' over a light table with X-Acto knives and glue sticks before I'd work in Word again. Only did one project, about 7 years ago, for a state agency that wouldn't accept anything else ~ I considered suicide as an out, but it didn't fall under "acceptable reasons for delay of project."

yoyo, she decided to pay the freight, I'll just have to keep on using NeoOffice. The sacrifices I make for her . . .

Office 2008 runs perfectly fine on my MacPro (3GB RAM). Thought I must admit that I barely use it anymore, I prefer iWork for my word processing and spreadsheets. I do still use PowerPoint though.

It's a matter of familiarity, Giz. She hasn't used anything but Word for years. And go figure ~ she could wrangle PowerPoint with the best of 'em, but after a couple of months with Keynote? She says she won't ever mess with PP again.

It's a matter of perception, too. She actually "researched" 04 vs 08 and came away convinced 04 was what she wanted. The mind can be a powerless thing.