Congratulations! You’re finally switching from a boring, old, slow PC to a wonderful new Mac, how exciting! (Spoken like a true Mac lover). But wait a minute, how the heck do you get all of your “stuff” from one computer to the next?
It’s oh-so-easy (yet another example of how Macs are so much better, in my opinion). There is even a utility out there called Move2Mac that makes it even easier than you think; it comes with the necessary software and a nifty cord that helps with the transfer. What you do is install the software on your PC & run it, then install the software on your Mac, and then connect the two with the nifty cord and voila! Instant data in useable formats.
I know what you’re thinking: “can I still use my Office files like Excel, Word, & Powerpoint?” Of course you can! If you really want to stick with Office there is an Office for Mac package out there. I’ve used it, it’s just like you’d expect, and it works fine. But, there is an even better solution out there that I would recommend called iWork – in it there are three products that take care of spreadsheets (like Excel, but better!), word processing (like Word, but better!), and presentations (like Powerpoint, but better!) – you get the idea. Their programs are called Numbers (spreadsheets), Pages (word processing), and Keynote (presentations). And they’re so awesome!
If you’ve ever felt limited by any part of the Office suite, these programs will feel like a dream. You can even open all of your old Office files in each of these corresponding programs, so there’s no worries about having to create all of your old docs from scratch again, whew! And, for those poor souls out there who are still stuck in PC-land, you can export any of the documents you create with your new suite of programs into the corresponding Office program, and that way everyone can share everything. Isn’t that nice?
As for your email, that’s a different story, but still not a big issue. There is another handy dandy program out there that you can buy for only $10 called Outlook2Mac, and it will convert all of your mail, your address book, and your caledar appointments into formats that can be used on your Mac. The program creates the files, you transfer them to your Mac however you like (email, external HD, whatever you prefer), and then you can import them into iCalendar, Address Book, and whatever Mac mail client you want to use (Mail, Thunderbird, etc.). You can even import into Entourage if that’s what you’re in to. The only catch is that it doesn’t work with Outlook Express, only Outlook. But, if that’s the case you can easily migrate all your Outlook Express data into Outlook, and then go from there. Sweet!
So, if you’ve just switched to a Mac or you’re about to, make sure you get iWork and enjoy the ease of working with both your old and new documents. And if you haven’t switched to a Mac yet, what the heck are you waiting for?!?