Microsoft Office for Windows, Mac

[MtnMan]

I concluded an interview process for a white-collar position at a burgeoning manufacturing company's office on Monday morning. I had a great meeting with the department head and the president of the company, and it went well. As a minor sidebar to this company's experience requirements, the company wants this position filled with someone who has solid basic skills with Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel and Outlook. I've used MS Word for over 23 years, and I also used to use Entourage alot. Excel I only occasionally use, but I intend to brush up on the latest. Being able to open and look at blueprints in AutoCAD was suggested as a plus, so I checked out some Lynda.com tutorials on that.

I have been using Macintosh computers since 1986. I have the basics down on Windows 7 (what the new company uses), and I have time to bone-up on AutoCAD basics, and I already checked out Outlook 2010 on Lynda.com. New features to be sure, but nothing I can't handle. (I've been using Office v.X:Mac, 2002 vintage, for almost 9 years.)

As I await my job offer, which I was assured would be forthcoming later this week, I've considered sinking my teeth into more tutorials and also sticking a crowbar into my wallet and buying a copy of Office 2011:Mac Home and Business off eBay.

Question: will the interfaces for Office 2011:Mac be sufficiently similar to Office 2010 on Windows 7 so that getting the Mac software for my MacBook Pro will help ease me into using the company's Microsoft software? I am especially concerned about Outlook and Excel.

With the new Office file formats steadily becoming more annoying (".docx", ".xlsx", as opposed to the older, much more common Office 97 formats of ".doc" and ".xls"), I have been forced to concede that it may be time to upgrade anyway. But it's a question of timing. Will getting Office 2011: Mac now help me to get used to Office 2010 on their Windows machines assuming I start working there in a few weeks?

[rabergnc]

The ribbon interface on both the PC and Mac versions of MS Office (I am referring to Word, Powerpoint, and Excel - little or no experience with Outlook - never liked it even in the old versions) are sufficiently similar that once you become comfortable with the interface, you should be able to switch between the two versions fairly easily. There are some differences but these tend to be in some of the finer detail tasks/functions. So far I have had no problems moving documents/spreadsheets/ppts back and forth across platforms - altho I have heard that for some Excel macros, there may be some issues - I have never run into them since any spreadsheet work I do is very basic. No issues using .doc/.xls files with the new formats. If need be, you can save documents and spreadsheets in the older format. Good luck - hope the offer comes through for you.

[MtnMan]

Thanks!

I do not anticipate bringing any of my work home with me, or doing any of it on my own equipment. So I'm 99% sure I'll be hired, and 100% sure all of my computing work will remain in the office on a desktop PC. I plan on buying a copy of Office 2011: Mac Home & Business off eBay sometime today. I have multiple feedbacks and encouragement to do it. At this point, just using the interface and getting used to it is what concerns me.

--The Mountain Man

[dwright17]

This thread reminded me that I need to buy Microsoft Office for my Mac as well. I saw a deal on superdealz.org for a student edition 1 user license download for $30, but am very suspicious. Anyone have any info on this site?

[MtnMan]

The old addage "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" seems applicable. If you need a deal, try eBay and watch the seller's satisfaction rating.

[bunchgrass]

I replaced my geriatric MBP 15 with a MBP 13 a couple months ago. I wasn't sure whether I want Office for Mac or the Apple apps. While I was deciding, I needed to do some word processing and spreadsheet projects. I discovered Google docs. It's free and did what I needed. It might be worth considering

[MtnMan]

I ordered a copy of Office 2011 Home & Business off of eBay on Tuesday evening for $96 including shipping. So I saved about $30-$40 over the mail-order warehouses on the internet. Looking forward to my first fresh copy of Office in about ten years, and that upgrade schedule is probably about right.