Jason Bedell Online

So you've read that your future "Brand Spakin' New Mac" won't seclude you from the rest of the office/church/world. You'll be able to get Outlook meeting requests, send email, word processing, spreadsheets, print documents, presentations and send them back and forth with your Mac to a PC/Mac.

You might be thinking, "Jason, it sounds too good to be true and I'm sure your glossing over the issues. They're has to be some snags in the set-up compatibility."

Ok, so let's address question #2:
2. What about compatibility?

The compatibility question really looks at three main areas. The one that is most important to you as a potential switcher, is not so much the hardware or the software, but data. "Will my existing files be compatible on my new Mac?" This can touch a little with software, because if the same application is available on both platforms, there’s no compatibility issue.

Can A Mac run Microsoft Office? Yes. (MS paid version or free alternatives here and here)

Can a Mac run Adobe Photoshop? Yes. (Adobe PS or free online version here or an alternative here)

Can a Mac run iTunes? Yes. (silly question since it's an Apple program)

Can a Mac run MSN Messenger? Yahoo Messenger? Skype? AIM? Yes. (check it out here, here, here and here)

And that’s just the beginning my ministry friends. There is an abundance of applications available that run both on PCs and Macs. Check out CrossOSS which specializes in listing applications that run on both platforms. Otherwise search MacUpdate or Version Tracker for applications that are the same or similar.

Files or data that don’t have an application available on a Mac, can usually be exported to a common format and then imported into a Mac application.

But what if you are using an application (like MS Publisher) whose files you can’t convert to the Mac? Good news –- the new Intel based Macs can boot up Windows (next post will dive deeper into running Windows on your Mac). Consequently you can make a steady transition to a similar Mac application (such as Pages or The Print Shop).

If I'm being honest, there is not anywhere near the amount of software available for Macs as for Windows. But fortunately that fact doesn't hurt your switching over to a Mac... and here's why. Windows might have hundreds of thousands of applications, as opposed to the Macs tens of thousands, but how many applications do you need to do a certain task? One. One word processor, one photo editor, one email application, and so on. The programs written for Macs work faster, allow more options and have great built in features. This helps you keep less programs loaded on your computer, but you still have the same array of capabilities. Less is more and Mac users love it.

Hardware-wise, virtually all digital cameras and video cameras talk to Macs. Likewise most modern printers. USB memory sticks and other portable storage are also no problem. In almost all cases (except printers) you don’t even have to install a driver. This is not the case when plugging in most external devices to your PC. Jumping through the hoops of constantly loading software for your external devices is drastically lowered when switching to a Mac (I have connected 7 different printers and/or scanners and have only had to load drivers for one of them, all the rest worked automatically. Try that on a PC, ha). And that covers the majority of peripherals most people use nowadays.

The time saved in ease of use with programs and compatibility is something every person in church work can appreciate. It's all about people and the more we can accomplish in a shorter time span on the computer, the more we can get out with people.

Speaking of ease of use, we'll hit up the "How easy is a Mac to learn?" question in our next post as well as discussing running windows on a Mac.

J-del **over and out**


[discussion/article adapted from entries by Chris Howard]