CS2 + MS Office or other choices?

[Mr Ten]

Maybe you saw my "coming back to mac from pc" thread below... :D

Open to all suggestions!

long time since i've had hands on experience with newer mac apps, but need to make the switch back, need your experience and thoughts on what to come back to...

i do more web than printwork, i'm relatively amateur but sometimes do larger print items (3' x 8' @ 150dpi). currenty use AI and PSD and am not familiar with the other alternatives. mostly use psd for simple photo edits, crops, web ideas, and ai for print layouts/text.

outlook is my daily contact tool, other options? use word / excel / ppt somewhat regularly but might need them because of compatability with the mostly pc work environment. perhaps get a pc notebook for contact and use the mac as more of a clean/home work tool?

recommend this purchase?

1. dual-core 2 ghz (upgrade to 2GB independently)
2. 20" apple display
3. cs2 std (unless premium is worth a little more for acrobat?)
4. ms office (word/excel/ppt) - which edition to purchase?

...or would you swap out / upgrade certain items?

THANK YOU ;)

[jondaapplegeek]

i would get iWork, just for keynote. You can export as a powerpoint (along with flash, quicktime and more) for compatibility and I think its generally nicer and easier to use. Its only £69 i think, and well worth it, and when you don't need it to work with Windows, you have some awesome transition effects, as well as much more.

[screensaver400]

3. cs2 std (unless premium is worth a little more for acrobat?)


Unless you need to do some advanced PDF stuff, OS X handles it well. You can export PDFs from any program you can print from. You can't make PDF forms, though.

[Koodari]

I second the suggestion to get Keynote if you are doing presentations.

For the rest of Office, you could take a look at NeoOffice/J (word processor/spreadsheet/presentation) and Abiword (word processor only). Those are free downloads off the net. Abiword is quite fast and handy. NeoOffice is slow to start up and lacks OS X look and feel, but has all office app types. Both will open MS Office documents well. Just get Office later if you find it's still worth it. :)

The idea to get a separate laptop for keeping in touch is shooting flies with a cannon. Not necessary. Two important questions here: what do you use Outlook for, e-mail, calendar, todo, anything else? Do you have an Exchange server at work or a regular e-mail server? If Exchange, that might force you to buy MS Office to get Entourage which I understand is compatible with Exchange. If regular mail server, then there probably are good Mac apps for anything you might be doing with Outlook.

[Mr Ten]

great advice, thanks thus far... still have to decide how poweful to make the powermac though... a dual-core 2ghz and buy up to 2gb ram off the shelf? any particular type?

no preferred alternatives to psd/ai?

thanks as always

[admactanium]

i've always had good luck with either crucial or kingston ram. macs are very fussy about what kind of ram goes in them.

there really isn't any alternative to photoshop unless you count "the gimp." but that's not really a good comparison.