Apple Netbook - MS Office alternatives?

RunHomerRun

All,

I'm thinking about getting a netbook.
Every pc and laptop I've ever had has been windows O/S.

However - thinking about getting an Apple Netbook / laptop - to be honest they are sh*t cool...:cool:

However, I use MS Office - Word, Excel, Powerpoint
(and Visio for flowcharts) - extensively.
I'm very familiar and comfortable with MS Office and need to use it in the future.

So, if I get an Apple machine;
1) can I use MS Office on it?
2) if not - what Apple alternative software can I use? - expensive?
3) if alternative, can I save as .doc, .xls, etc, etc and use and open on Windows/MS machines?

Thanks in advance.

clancger

Have a look at Lotus Symphony - IBM freeware based on Open Office. It will open, edit and save MS Office docs in native MS Office formats.
Unless you're looking to do really high complexity MS Office tasks it could do the trick.
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/symphony/

jpl888

There is also a MAC version of office which the name escapes me now. As your man says though OpenOffice/Lotus Symphony/Neo Office will all do the trick unless you have special requirements.

brownej

There is a version of microsoft office for the mac. It's called "Office for MAC". the student eddition is about €110 http://store.apple.com/ie/product/TQ744/Office-2008-for-Mac-Home-Student-Microsoft?mco=MTM3NDgwNDk

If I were you I wouldn't bother with symphony go straight to open office. Symphony is based on open office but it's based on open office 1.
Open office is up to version 3.2 and might be a better option. ( http://download.openoffice.org/other.html )

If you've no experience with open office it might take a bit of getting used to.