The Cellar - View Single Post

mbpark · 12-29-2013, 06:10 PM

Hello,

You get an educational discount and you can pick up Microsoft Office 2011 for free or a significant discount since you are a teacher. I know for a fact that Temple University students get a free copy of Office each year.

The only MacBook Pro that will meet your needs is the 15". With the new Mac OS, it's really stupendously fast. It will run real Microsoft Office 2011, which is also quite good (I run this program).

We have a lot of doctors at work with Macbook Airs and Macbook Pros. They run Office 2011. It handles any documents we can throw at it, and some Office 2010 cannot. They love Office on their machines and we have very few complaints from the Mac users.

I'm sorry, but the built-in iWork apps, iCal, and Mail are not good. I would not use them in a Windows and Mac shop. The only time I touch iWork apps is to use Keynote on my iPad for class notes. Otherwise, they're not good. Office 2011 on the Mac is actually more full featured than Office 2013 on the Surface RT tablets.

Any of the newer non-Apple laptops out there won't run Windows 7 well. They're optimized for Windows 8 and 8.1. Plus, the power-saving features of Haswell require the OS to support it. The only two OSes that support them well now are Windows 8.1 and OS X 10.9.

I would speak with your school IT people and get those discounts. They are not insignificant, esp. considering that the nVidia-equipped MacBook Pro runs about $2500. It would be a waste to run a Haswell laptop with Windows 7 in more ways than one.

12-29-2013, 06:10 PM	#4
mbpark Lecturer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 761	Macs work well with Office 2011 Hello, You get an educational discount and you can pick up Microsoft Office 2011 for free or a significant discount since you are a teacher. I know for a fact that Temple University students get a free copy of Office each year. The only MacBook Pro that will meet your needs is the 15". With the new Mac OS, it's really stupendously fast. It will run real Microsoft Office 2011, which is also quite good (I run this program). We have a lot of doctors at work with Macbook Airs and Macbook Pros. They run Office 2011. It handles any documents we can throw at it, and some Office 2010 cannot. They love Office on their machines and we have very few complaints from the Mac users. I'm sorry, but the built-in iWork apps, iCal, and Mail are not good. I would not use them in a Windows and Mac shop. The only time I touch iWork apps is to use Keynote on my iPad for class notes. Otherwise, they're not good. Office 2011 on the Mac is actually more full featured than Office 2013 on the Surface RT tablets. Any of the newer non-Apple laptops out there won't run Windows 7 well. They're optimized for Windows 8 and 8.1. Plus, the power-saving features of Haswell require the OS to support it. The only two OSes that support them well now are Windows 8.1 and OS X 10.9. I would speak with your school IT people and get those discounts. They are not insignificant, esp. considering that the nVidia-equipped MacBook Pro runs about $2500. It would be a waste to run a Haswell laptop with Windows 7 in more ways than one.