What’s On Tera’s Mac: Part 2—The High End.

Mac users have grown up with software from Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and recently, Macromedia.

To be fair, the applications spilling out of their respective software distribution centers can only be described as superb (superb “bloatware” to some; excellent nevertheless). I’ve already covered the top level applications (Pro) from Apple, so let me move on to the Death Star of software, Microsoft.

Microsoft Office is very good. Those who use Office on Windows and Mac will tell you the Mac version is better, more intuitive, less finicky. That’s in general. Maintaining some compatibility with the rest of the business world is a requirement for some, so having MS Office on a Mac is a good thing.

That being said, there’s plenty not to like about Office for Mac. The applications are NOT integrated well (nothing at all like AppleWorks, and that hasn’t had a major upgrade since when? Four years short of forever). Cut and paste is as close as it gets.

And who can remember all those features and where they are? For general word processing (for me) I use Nisus Writer, not Word. For compatibility, I’m sometimes forced to use Word.

PowerPoint? Well, again, it’s a compatibility issue. To review PPT files in business, it’s a necessity to have PowerPoint. What do I use for presentations? For those that are not to be shared, Keynote.

How about spreadsheets? My first view of a spreadsheet was VisiCalc running on an Apple IIe using a CP/M card. Timothy O’Neil of Forsythe Computers in Clayton, MO did a demonstration of what spreadsheets could do for a fledgling ad agency. Wow.

Since then I’ve graduated to Lotus 1-2-3, the Excel. And not much else since then, Mac or Windows. Excel is the Daddy, and you need him in business. AppleWorks is decent, though; especially for home use.

Entourage? I love Entourage. I use Apple’s Mail now. Entourage may be the best Mac desktop business application ever—after Excel. I need synchronization with iSync and .Mac (that is ooooh sooooo handy with multiple machines) and Entourage had to go.

So, Microsoft is on my Mac. So is Windows Media Player; if anything, just to show Windows folks (I have a diverse group of friends) the differences between QuickTime and Windows. There’s also a free Microsoft application called Expression; vector graphics, nicely done, Free—I have no idea why it exists). How about Internet Explorer? Puhleeeze.

On the financial side, we use Quicken and QuickBooks Pro. While neither application has quite the feature set of their Windows counterparts, the average business won’t care because there are so many features to choose anyway. Both applications are stable, integrate well with others (banks,  and accountants, for example).

I hate the annual upgrade but pay for it anyway. I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.

OK, what’s left at the High End, Part 1? Graphics and the web. Adobe and Macromedia.

Click Here for Page 2 and more on the High End, Part 1.