Mac and Office

[Groundbased]

Afternoon all.

A colleague of mine has a new Mac, replacing an old one. He only has an upgrade CD for Office but apparently can't install Office this way, it needs an original install disk, which he no longer has.

Any alternatives to buying a new Office installation?

He runs Windows using "Parallels" whatever that means (not a Mac expert here)

Cheers

[The Nr Fairy]

What version of Mac OS is he running ? If it's one or two back(e.g. he has 10.7 on the new one, and 10.5 or 10.6 on the old one), then he can use a Time Machine backup of the whole system to restore not just his own data but also apps as well, or use the Migration Assistant. That avoids the need to reinstall anything other than the OS.

This assumes the new Mac and the old one are both Intel-based.

And about the "Parallels" bit, if he's running Office under Windows in a virtual system then forget anything I said :)

[mixture]

Any alternatives to buying a new Office installation?
He runs Windows using "Parallels" whatever that means (not a Mac expert here)

Was he running Office under MacOS or Windows ?

Your prior description suggests Windows, as, to the best of my knowledge, there have never been "upgrade" disks for Mac, only ever full install copies.

[Mac the Knife]

Office for Mac (particularly Powerpoint) has never been entirely compatible with Windows Office.

I find the Mac version of LibreOffice (Home » LibreOffice (http://www.libreoffice.org/)) works well and is actually MORE compatible with Windows Office.

And its free so suck it and see.

:ok:

PS: As someone said, the only way to get absolute compatibility is to run Windows Office in a Windows VM.

[Avtrician]

There is always Open Office for Mac. It works well without having to run under Windows. It can be configured to save as MS Office compatible flies, but the data base isnt access compatible, and it doesnt handle powerpoint files terribly well or publisher.

If all you need are spread sheets and word processing then its the way to go.

Oh, and its free

[crewmeal]

If I advertise where I got Office 2011 for Mac free I would be thrown off pprune. Message me and I'll send you a link which I used and don't have any issues with.

[mixture]

If I advertise where I got Office 2011 for Mac free I would be thrown off PPRuNe. Message me and I'll send you a link which I used and don't have any issues with.

Given that a legitimate, legal copy of Office 2011 for Mac can be had on Amazon for £70 (Home & Student. 1 user 1 mac) , there is no real excuse for using dodgy copies.

Illegal copies not only breach licenses, remove much needed licensing revenue to be able to provide product updates and support, but there are also security implications. How do you know you can trust a torrent copy has not been tampered with ?

There is only one legal way to get free copies of (certain) Microsoft software, and I suspect the majority of people here would not qualify.

[pzu]

As a proud new owner of an IMac, I purchased a 'student' copy of Office for Mac using 'grandfather' rights for UK£40 available as either a CD or a download

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

[aviate1138]

Try LibreOffice. It's free and my pre Intel Office files work, now I have Lion and my old PPC G5 has been given away.