No real need to visit an Apple store, everything is available online. I use MS Office for Mac via Office 365. Rather than a one-off purchase of this year's software, which will go out of date, it is an annual subscription which means you can always have the latest version installed. It also gives you up to 5 installs (windows or Mac) - so desktop, laptop, other family members etc - as well as 5 (I think) additional installs of the tablet version on iPad etc. I have Mac versions on iMac, macbook, partner's macbook, daughter's macbook and a windows version running on a bootcamp partition on the iMac - plus we have some of the products on various iPads.

Also worth trying the Apple office products, Pages, Numbers etc, to see whether all of the features of your old files are compatible - in which case you have a free option too.

Thanks for the encouragement chaps.
I am taking it slowly as now in my 70s all friends are PC users and I have no one to talk to about Macs (sounds a bit sad doesn't it).
However I will be going ahead but am not sure if to go for the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. The local apple store is in the local shopping centre not far away and they answer all my initial simple questions.
Mike

I have a ten year old desktop running XP, nothing wrong with it, still going strong. Don't play games on it though.
Also have laptops with Win7, Vista, and Linux Mint, of those I prefer Win7 (mainly because I use it at work) but Linux Mint is very good indeed. Thing is most of what I do is browser based and all of them use Firefox, so the OS isn't really that important in that sense.
Supposedly going Win10 at work soon with Surface Pro 4, and can't say I'm looking forward to it......

Win7 ? Wow, one of the worst version after Windows Vista!

In what way?

Used Windows 7 since it came out and refused the upgrades to 8 and 10.
Need to run strong Antivirus programs to keep it clean (and fast)
Using Superantispyware and Malwarebytes, highly recommended to debug any Windows based machine.

Want to chat? You can chat 'on line' to the Apple customer support 24 hours a day. They are extremely patient and eager to sort out your queries. Or, you can ring them up and speak to them directly if you prefer. On the other hand, if you are tight for time you can ring the helpline up and get them to ring you back. I've had 100% success with all 3 methods.

I'm not knocking windows, really I'm not, but if after sales support is important to you it is there in abundance. And as you've probably discovered, if you really want to, you can take your apple kit to your local store to discuss your problem. I appreciate that past experience is important to you and naturally you are justly tempted to stick with what you know, I can understand that. I made the jump at aged 63. (And the people in this forum have been very helpful to me too).