So, apparently, the only thing keeping my recently college-graduated daughter from finding the prefect job is Windows capability on her (graduation present) iBook. Apparently, she is in desperate need of the ability to do resumes/forms/etc. in Windows.

I am willing to spring for that but just want to know the best/easiest/cheapest way to go about adding Windows 7 to her machine. When I bought it, the Apple store folk told me they don't sell Windows (completely understandable).

Do I purchase a box of Windows 7 at some other store (BB, CompUSA, etc.) and take it to the Apple store to have it installed properly or just have it done (one stop shopping) wherever I purchase it?

All suggestions that don't involve getting up at 3 AM on Black Friday to stand in line at Best Buy greatly appreciated.

I hope you mean MacBook and not a iBook. If it's really a iBook then I would get the coffee pot ready for black Friday and buy a cheap netbook.

If it's a MacBook I think there is a update already released for BootCamp that is Windows 7 compatible. so you just have to update bootcamp and go buy a copy of Windows 7 from those places you mentioned.

All suggestions? Unless it's Windows compatible Powerpoint presentations, I wonder what she thinks can't be done on the Mac. Maybe that can be worked out, and it may be easier cheaper to go that route. And you don't have to stand in line at BB on Friday.

I did indeed mean MacBook. Thanks for catching me on that mistake.

Her point of view is that creating, reading and transferring documents in Windows format requires a working version of Windows (though I know this is not technically true as Appleworks can do reasonable translations of .doc files).

If I get her the "Office on Your Mac" version of MS Office, would that suffice?

Windows and Mac versions of Office are completely transparent to each other, cope. If those are the only things that she's concerned about--excel, word, and powerpoint, there's no need for Windows at all.

There is also OpenOffice, i've been using it for years on all of my systems and even when I was in school.

I've used NeoOffice and it works fine too, even with those "x" files.

Powerpoint isn't always transparent though, it doesn't transfer well from Mac to Windows sometimes. Fonts is one big problem unless you use Windows native fonts only.

Sometimes they just won't play for some reason, or maybe certain effects don't work.

You're right about that. I just avoid the problem by using Keynote--no transparency allowed in the direction of Windows--and saving the keynote as a PP presentation is not advised!

Sorta the same with Neo Office , I save as a word 2000 doc but on the PC end the fonts are whacky or substituted to the worst font available .

To bad that fonts are not universal between platforms