Having used both Office for Mac is a poor cousin to Office for PC. I don't think you can write Visual Basic (or whatever MS is using these days). I find that using Apple's iWork applications works for me, and files can be read by PCs using Office. But that's for a retired guy who doesn't write many letters and doesn't open a spreadsheet more than a few times a year.
Backing up a Time Machine can be a simple as making a copy of the sparsebundle file on the time machine. (See
here) Also your time machine doesn't have to be physically connected to your Mac. You can hide it in your attic, as long as it's within Wifi range.
Apple's 'Find my iPhone' App will find your Mac as well, and allow you to 'brick it' next time it's connected to the Internet.