Microsoft Office, Iwork, or Google Docs; Which one do you use?

Microsoft used to be king in the office documents area.  As king, they could charge a premium for their office product.  They even worked out a deal and moved into the Mac market with Microsoft Office for Mac.  Microsoft has worked hard at being and keeping the title of king.  The only good thing, in my opinion, that has come out of this is compatibility.  Everyone else that has created office software has made theirs compatible with the king.

This has allowed people to save money on less expensive software options.  Inter Google Docs! Free is a very good price, if it works; and work is does.  I have been testing Google Docs for a couple of weeks now and have moved documents back and forth from Office XP, 2003, 2007, Iwork09, and Open Office.  All have worked well. It helps to save as a word document in Iwork!  There are times when you had whistles and bells in one format that doesn't always translate well in the other programs.  So keep it simple if you're sending your document out to a wide audience via electronic means (which seems to be the norm these days).

NOTE: Open Office is another free office program that allows you to down load the software on your PC for free.

The benefit of Google Docs is that its online and available on any computer as long as you have internet access.  This also allows for multiple people to collaborate on projects especially utilizing Google Wave. And did I mention its free!  Of course if you need more space than what Google provides for free, then you can always buy more space from Google for a very low price!

Microsoft is starting to feel the heat, as their office prices seem to be coming down. I do believe that as some of these new contenders take a bite out of the market, we will see Microsoft adding more options while also lowering their price.

Give Google Docs a try. I'm betting you will feel right at home.

From PC to Mac

With the natural transition of hand-me-downs, it was time to replace the kids' computer.  The Dell desktop that they were using had been a faithful device since 2000.  A couple of years ago I upgraded the memory and operating system, but with the recent crash of the hard drive, it was time to move on.  We ended up sharing my laptop, Dell Inspiron circa 2005, for a couple of months.  As they had practically taken it over, I decided to hand it down to them and buy a new laptop.

After reading reviews from Consumer Report, Cnet, and others, I decided to do something I'd been wanting to do for some time; I bought a Mac; more specifically I purchased a 13" Mac Book Pro.  I'd looked and read about Macs for years but had been held back by the price.  Upon comparing the PC to Mac, I found that we really weren't talking about that much difference in price. I decided it was time to make the investment.  Before the purchase, I spent some time on the Apple web site and then in the Apple store.  Both places convinced me I would get a good bang for my buck and the transition should not be too difficult.

That was approximately six months ago, and I've never looked back! The transition to Mac, I'm happy to report, has been very easy. Basically I ended up putting my documents on a couple of DVDs and then loaded them into documents, photos, etc. on the new Mac.  It worked, no issues what so ever.

The only program I purchased for the Mac was Iwork09. I had debated purchasing Microsoft Office for Mac, but decided to save a few dollars.  (In the next post I'll talk about some options that might save you some money regardless of PC or Mac.) For 99 percent of the time, I'm happy with Iwork09, but there are some times when work and home intermix and things might have been easier with Office (and thats just really with the work coming in, as I have the ability in Iwork to save in word format for documents going out).

In conclusion, I'm glad I made the leap to Mac.  The change was even easier than I thought it would be.  If I were to be asked whats the basic different between the two, I would have to say that Mac is more of a common sense approach to freedom computing, while PC tries to do more and doesn't let you off the path.
In the words of mothers everywhere, "try it, you just might like it."
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