Microsoft Office on a Macbook.........

[Dipster]

Hi, I asked a question a few weeks ago regarding Macbooks and have now decided to purchase one. I will be buying it from Hong Kong as I will be there on business in a few weeks and they are a lot cheaper there!
My question is this - I know you get a 30 day free trial of Microsoft Office already installed on the Macbook, but how do I go about purchasing it so it is available anytime?
Can I ask for it to be installed when I buy it? Obviously at an extra cost.
Or can I buy it online from Microsoft and download it? Purchasing it in the country I am resident in is not an option as it's not available in English - not legally anyway.
And.....would it be more beneficial for me just to install windows XP as well as OX Tiger, as i know this is now possible on the mac.
Thanks in advance for your help.

[fo3nix]

I don't know where you are, but note that if you buy it from another country then it may not have any warranty with it. I wouldn't do it, but it's up to you.

If you buy from an Apple store (didn't know they had them in HK though), then you can have it installed for you yes. Else you can buy it on the online store (assuming they have one in your country), or from any other mac retailer.

Or, just try out downloading and using neooffice: it's really just openoffice for the mac, and works very well as a microsoft office replacement (about 95% compatible, and you probably only use 20% of the features anyway).
http://download.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index .php

It'll only be beneficial for you to install Windows XP if you plan on using it. I wouldn't though, unless you have to for your line of work. It'll open you up to lots of security issues, and be a pain to use anyway unless you use Parallels (virtualisation).

[Dipster]

Thanks for the reply fo3nix, is neooffice compatible with windows and OSx then? e.g, can I email a word type document to windows and OSx users and they can view it? I only really need it for things like word, excel, powerpoint etc for work and prob won't get windows xp on it if not needed. Is it free to download as well? This sounds like the solution i've been looking for, thanks!!

[fo3nix]

Neo Office is the mac version of OpenOffice. OpenOffice has most of the features and a very similar look and feel to Microsoft Office.

You can save them as OpenDocument Format files, which is the default. However, you can also save them as Word documents, which can then be opened by anyone with an app that can open Word files -- OpenOffice, Neo Office, Microsoft Office, whatever. Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux, anything.

[Dipster]

Thanks fo3nix, 1 more thing, I presume that if i have neooffice installed and i receive a word document or excel worksheet, then i am able to open these and work with them without a problem?
Thanks for all your help.

[fo3nix]

Yes.

The only issue may be complicated documents -- it's only about 95% compatible. However, I use it all the time and I've never had an issue. Microsoft Word has so many features now that most don't use, most people only use a maximum of about 20% of its features.