Daughters been given a Macbook. Advice

Magic_x_uk · 28 Sep 2020 at 11:26

Hello my 13 year old daughter has been given a macbook air by her uncle as he is upgraded his Macbook.

She has been using a window 7 laptop for the last couple of years for school work and using Microsoft office programs.

What is the equivalent of Microsoft office for Mac book please. As she needs word and excel etc or equivalent

Thanks

And any other advice you may feel I need setting this up for. She has a iPhone as well.

ChrisD. · 28 Sep 2020 at 11:27

Just get Microsoft Office for Mac?

Lovejoy! · 28 Sep 2020 at 12:18

office 365 suite works perfectly fine on mac.

Akagi · 28 Sep 2020 at 12:19

Or just install windows 10 on it and be done with it. Much less faff.

Ryan-3 · 28 Sep 2020 at 13:40

All of the main apps she already uses will be available on MacOS.

Feek · 28 Sep 2020 at 14:36

Magic_x_uk said:
What is the equivalent of Microsoft office for Mac book please. As she needs word and excel etc or equivalent

if you don't want to pay for Office, look at LibreOffice.

Magic_x_uk · 28 Sep 2020 at 14:48

Feek said:
if you don't want to pay for Office, look at LibreOffice.

Thanks.

Problem with using office on the macbook is It is my work email sign in details that I use for office 365 on the win7 laptop, didn't know if it would be a issue on her mac laptop

Bluecube · 28 Sep 2020 at 14:54

It’s OS agnostic. Shouldn’t make any difference whatsoever what OS you’re using.

And don’t install Windows on the Mac. It can be done but its not the nicest of experiences.

Ryan-3 · 28 Sep 2020 at 15:25

Shouldn't create any issues signing in with your work email. By doing so would give her full access to all 365 apps, whilst also giving her access as if she was you, to things like Teams, OneDrive, etc. They can be uninstalled I do believe, although I'm not sure what impact it would have on the rest of Office. If these are things you don't use or are happy to trust her, then no problem.

RichL · 29 Sep 2020 at 00:57

Surely better to just get her an Office 365 student licence then no chance of accidentally deleting your work files etc. Might even be free: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/education/products/office

Personally I would just use Mac OS X rather than installing Windows, especially for this use case.

ChrisD. · 29 Sep 2020 at 07:48

I see no reason to install Windows.

Akagi · 29 Sep 2020 at 10:14

ChrisD. said:
I see no reason to install Windows.

Because Mac OS is horrible to use. At least, if you are anything more than a casual user. And I say that as someone who used to work for an Apple licenced company and used the machines every day.

Its like someone took a late 80's graphical operating system and made it incredibly beautiful but didn't bother improving the functionality. So many actions and workflows are totally nonsensical and cack handed and so many features which make life easy are totally missing... Last time I used Mac OS you couldn't even maximise windows let alone snap them, for example.

And if she grows up to do a job that involves using a computer, it will be a Windows computer. Spending her formative years using Mac OS isn't going to be helpful IMO.

ChrisD. · 29 Sep 2020 at 10:50

Acme said:
Because Mac OS is horrible to use. At least, if you are anything more than a casual user. And I say that as someone who used to work for an Apple licenced company and used the machines every day.

Its like someone took a late 80's graphical operating system and made it incredibly beautiful but didn't bother improving the functionality. So many actions and workflows are totally nonsensical and cack handed and so many features which make life easy are totally missing... Last time I used Mac OS you couldn't even maximise windows let alone snap them, for example.

And if she grows up to do a job that involves using a computer, it will be a Windows computer. Spending her formative years using Mac OS isn't going to be helpful IMO.

In your opinion. I use macOS and Windows 10, side by side, daily. And have done for about 6+ years. I much prefer macOS to do anything productive. The only reason I have Windows 10 is to play games and do the odd Visio diagram.

Bluecube · 29 Sep 2020 at 10:57

Acme said:
Because Mac OS is horrible to use. At least, if you are anything more than a casual user. And I say that as someone who used to work for an Apple licenced company and used the machines every day.

Its like someone took a late 80's graphical operating system and made it incredibly beautiful but didn't bother improving the functionality. So many actions and workflows are totally nonsensical and cack handed and so many features which make life easy are totally missing... Last time I used Mac OS you couldn't even maximise windows let alone snap them, for example.

And if she grows up to do a job that involves using a computer, it will be a Windows computer. Spending her formative years using Mac OS isn't going to be helpful IMO.

I’ve been using MacOS for over seven years now and I’ve always been able to maximise windows. Sounds like your experience is way out of date.

Feek · 29 Sep 2020 at 11:07

Let's not start a macOS vs Windows debate please.

Akagi · 29 Sep 2020 at 11:17

Bluecube said:
I’ve been using MacOS for over seven years now and I’ve always been able to maximise windows. Sounds like your experience is way out of date.

Mountain Lion was when I last used it properly and certain apps just started having the functionality, Lion didn't have it at all. Sounds like you started using it just after they started adding common sense features, a decade or two after everyone else. For context Windows 7 came out 2 years prior to Lion.

I've only lightly used more recent versions, but it is 90% the same as it was over a decade ago.

Feek said:
Let's not start a macOS vs Windows debate please.

Sorry boss.

Randomface74 · 29 Sep 2020 at 11:22

Magic_x_uk said:
Hello my 13 year old daughter has been given a macbook air by her uncle as he is upgraded his Macbook.

This is the start of a bad news story. Make sure you do a clean install of the operating system first.