Will I be able to edit my Excel, Word and Powerpoint files from my old PC if I move to a new MBA?

The short answer is you will most likely have to buy aditional software.

The version of Microsoft Office you currently have is for Windows.

In order to run on the Mac you need the Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 to run on the Mac.

Parallels is an emulator that allows a Mac to execute Microsoft code. That is also another solution. You will most likely have to purchase a copy of Windows 7 for Parallels.

There are also free or less expensive solution the MS Office.

Since you start this question off by saying for work, I think that you will be better served to stay with Office even though it will be more expensive.

Allan

Alternatively, you can give OpenOffice a try. It's free and works with Office files. Depending on the complexity of your Excel files and the formatting of your Word files, this may be a simple and free solution for you.

If, for whatever reason, you need the real MS Office, I would recommend the Mac version in place of using Parallels and Office for PC. I don't believe the MacBook Air's 4 GB of RAM is sufficient for running Windows via Parallels, especially if you plan on using Windows 7. That's just my experience, YMMV.

I have used OpenOffice since upgrading to Lion. I haven't run into any limitations with it, and if you are using Excel as you say it will probably suffice. I have no problem opening and saving Word or Excel formatted documents. It is not buggy and runs perfectly fast. If you are familiar with Excel you will be hard pressed to find anything at all different about OO. Even the menus are identical. I've had some difficulty with custom page sizes printing the way I expect, but that's a minor irritation.

I have no need or desire to install Office. I used an early OS X version of Office all the way through Snow Leopard, but becent versions have suffered from feature overkill and bloat. It has become too confusing to use.

There is a very active user support forum for OO.

I have found OpenOffice's performance to be just fine. It's one of those rare instances where free does not mean "bad" or that there is a catch. It looks and works just like "professional" software that one might purchase at a store. I am by no means a power user of Word or Excel, but I have heard of folks who use "crazy" calculations or custom macros that aren't necessarily compatible with OpenOffice.

My advice is to try OpenOffice first (since it's free) and see how that works for you. If it meets your requirements, then you're not out any cash. If that doesn't work, download the trial of Office for Mac and see if that does. And if so, just buy the Mac version. You can get the trial here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac

Only as a last resort would I recommend Windows, Parallels, and Office for PC.

If you are looking into getting a MacBook Air, I highly recommend that you get one with the 4 GB of RAM. Especially if you want to run Parallels. 2 GB will not be enough. Even with 4 GB you may experience slowdowns. Lion likes at least 2 GB, as does Windows 7. So if you set it up in Parallels and split the memory to 2 GB each, you're then running both at the minimum requirement. Who knows about Windows 8. YMMV.

Here are some thoughts, since you asked.

• From your description the Compaq probably does not need a new display, but it sounds like the display cable needs replacement. May or may not fix the problem.
• Mac users are no more or less tech simpletons than PC users. I am an EE who started out designing computer hardware and software using a drafting board and cloth tape and have been using Macs since their inception. As an engineer I appreciate elegance in design and the Mac is superb. Always has been.
• I have also used PCs also but spend far less time making a Mac do what I want to get the work I need done. OS X doesn't get in my way. OTOH Windows is constantly in my way, in my face, demanding constant attention.
• Windows needs constant attention to protect it from attackers. Windows malware updates are released almost every day. Each one seems to result in performance degradation.
• All the Windows PC makers have one common goal: build a box that runs Windows as cheaply as possible and it shows. That is why their hardware failures are so common. The manufacturer's eventual recommendation: buy a new one. Most people are sheep so they do exactly that.
• Microsoft has one common goal: Sell as much Microsoft software as possible. Release new versions incompatible with old ones, requiring upgrades, most of the time that renders the hardware obsolete. This symbiotic effect benefits the box makers so no one is complaining except the sheep who seem to enjoy complaining anyway.
• Support: My daughter attends a private school with dozens of teachers and hundreds of children. They have been using MacBooks for years and are transitioning to iPads next year. Their IT support department consists of one person.
• Longevity: I expect at least five years from my computing hardware. I have been getting at least eight before they begin to reach functional obsolescence. I retired a G3 last summer and my G4 Powerbooks are still in occasional use. They are about ten years old. No hardware failures, though I have upgraded their drives and added memory.
• Reliability: Two of my (employer-supplied) HP laptops were in the repair shop more than in actual use during the first year of their life. One is four years old and at EOL. They were not cheap.
• Performance: It's ironic that when the Mac came out it was criticized as nothing more than a game platform. Today if you want to play games you get a PC. Neither one of these characterizations was entirely correct, it just illustrates a lack of rationality when it comes to choosing one or the other.
• Market share: Who really cares but from my travels the Mac platform including all its variants laptops, iPhones, iPads etc appears not only significant but dominant. Whereas a couple of years ago they might have been 25% of all devices in use they now seem to be closer to 90%. It is actually rare to see Windows laptops in use any more. They are becoming extinct and more rapidly than even I would have imagined. Granted most of my time is spent in major US cities like NY, SF, Austin TX that tend to lead the tech market. Clearly - the future of computing is mobile devices and Apple got a ten year head start on that. Others will catch up only if Apple does absolutely nothing innovative for another decade and that's unlikely.
• Windows to Mac: I know of no one who has gone the other way.
• Back on topic MS Office has had many releases over the years but in terms of functionality, what has changed? Nothing other than a bunch of changes to its UI which come down to more ribbons, more controls, more in-your-face stuff most people don't care about. More difficult to use and no functional improvement so what's the point?

And I think you said it best: You have people moving to Mac, but I rarely, if ever, hear of people going the other way. When I read blogs and tech sites, they always seem to be of an editor or writer who is a Windows/PC fan, tries out the Mac for a few hours, then reports all the things that are "wrong" with it.

Not only that but you can run Windows on a Mac, but you can't run OS X on a Windows computer (legally, anyway). Most objections of the sort "you can't do" x, y, or z on a Mac are almost always untrue.

I have heard hilarious objections from experienced PC users who hate Macs, among them:

• There's no way to edit the registry.
• There is no add or delete program files control panel so how do I uninstall a program???
• There are no shell extensions. I didn't know what that was so I found the following: "Shell Extensions are in-process COM objects which extends the abilities of Windows operating system." OK I still don't know what it is.

My personal favorite

I can't figure out how to get to the C drive. What a piece of junk.