I need this job! How does Office 2003 relate to Mac 2004?

[debralan]

I've been unemployed for too long.

As a copywriter, all my computer experience was on a Mac, mostly using
the verbal text-only version of QuarkXpress. I own a G4 PowerBook.

Now I need to try for administrative jobs, which means knowing pc's.
The only difference I know so far is that the command key is the
control key.

I have Office 2004 for Teachers and Students. Question: Will learning
this help me know how to use 2003? Or do I need to take lessons in
using a pc (which I don't own), then go straight to 2003? Most of
these jobs require an excellent knowledge of Excel, which sounds like
the most daunting prospect.

I need to minimize professional onsite courses that cost a fortune.

What if I were to try to learn Office 2004 from a book, and buy the
2003 version as well, and look back and forth at how they differ?
Could that work? Or do they differ too much? I'm not a computer
genius.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I have Office 2004 for Teachers and Students. Question: Will learning
this help me know how to use 2003? Or do I need to take lessons in
using a pc (which I don't own), then go straight to 2003? Most of
these jobs require an excellent knowledge of Excel, which sounds like
the most daunting prospect.

I need to minimize professional onsite courses that cost a fortune.

What if I were to try to learn Office 2004 from a book, and buy the
2003 version as well, and look back and forth at how they differ?
Could that work? Or do they differ too much? I'm not a computer
genius.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Learning MacOffice 2004 thoroughly will get you 95% of the way to
fluency with WinOffice2003. There are a number of differences, but they
are generally fairly minor in comparison to the differences between
MacOS and Windows.

I would recommend that you pick up some WinOffice books, rather than
those for MacOffice. The differences will be slight (such as MacOffice's
<application menu>/Preferences being equivalent to WinOffice's
Tools/Options), and you'll be better off having the reference for
WinOffice anyway.

Perhaps someone else can chime in on a good Word book (or do a google
search on the Word newsgroups:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*word*

but I recommend John Walkenbach's "Excel 2003 Bible" for a good general
text on XL:

http://j-walk.com/ss/books/bookxl23.htm

 

[Fredrik Wahlgren]

Learning MacOffice 2004 thoroughly will get you 95% of the way to
fluency with WinOffice2003. There are a number of differences, but they
are generally fairly minor in comparison to the differences between
MacOS and Windows.

I would recommend that you pick up some WinOffice books, rather than
those for MacOffice. The differences will be slight (such as MacOffice's
<application menu>/Preferences being equivalent to WinOffice's
Tools/Options), and you'll be better off having the reference for
WinOffice anyway.

Perhaps someone else can chime in on a good Word book (or do a google
search on the Word newsgroups:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*word*

but I recommend John Walkenbach's "Excel 2003 Bible" for a good general
text on XL:

http://j-walk.com/ss/books/bookxl23.htm

Since I have experience from both Mac and Windows, I can only agree with JE.
If you Excel thoroughly on the Mac, it won't be difficult to work with a PC.
I recommend you go to your preferred book store and take a good look on
Office books for Windows. You should be able to try out all examples on your
Mac.

/ Fredrik

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Since I have experience from both Mac and Windows, I can only agree with JE.
If you Excel thoroughly on the Mac, it won't be difficult to work with a PC.
I recommend you go to your preferred book store and take a good look on
Office books for Windows. You should be able to try out all examples on your
Mac.

/ Fredrik

Another ditto, although most of what I know about WinOffice I've learned
from looking at the general newsgroups. The main daily differences will be
keyboard shortcuts, and sometimes menu location, for commands. Once you
know the name of a command, note that you can dig it out of Tools |
Customize in both Word and Excel, although it's a hassle--there are some
lists that can help out for Word.

Anything that requires VBA6 or Active-X you can't do on the Mac, so you
wouldn't be able to experiment with such things at home. As regards macros,
the Mac is equivalent to Office 97.

A little more info re Word here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Differences.htm

DM

 

[debralan]

Fredrik and Daiya, thanks so much. Now I have something to go on. I'll
get a Windows Office book. Wish I could practice on a pc. Oh, well.
Didn't realize that the Mac version lags a bit.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Try the public library. I find that mine has lines for internet usage but
not so much for just using a computer, and I would expect them to have all
of Office installed, though more people probably use word.

DM

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi DM,

Saying that the Mac version lags a bit is incorrect. In many ways Mac
Office is years ahead of Windows office (Word Note, PowerPoint Presenter
View, Ability to handle hundreds of thousands of rows in Excel to name
one thing from each application).

Although the suites are not identical you should be able to perform all
of the most important tasks in Mac Office and most of them you will be
able to perform much more easily (best example: mail merge).

You won't feel cheated. In fact, you'll most likely come to appreciate
the Mac version more once you get into the details.

-Jim