What do I need to buy or download to get Microsoft word and excel and PowerPoint ?
iMac
MS Office for Mac, 2011 - http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products
This is if you want full, native MS support for those file formats (including VBA scripts and macros)
Alternatives for working with such files, but without full support are
OpenOffice - www.openoffice.org
LibreOffice - http://www.libreoffice.org/
You have to buy Office 2011 for OS X. A freeware suite, Libre Office, runs on OS X and provides similar functionality as Office 2007 for Windows.
Microsoft makes an Apple version of Office here:
In my humble opinion, Apple's product is better - and completely compatible with Office. It is also about 1/2 as expensive:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB942Z/A/iWork-09?fnode=MTY1NDA0OA
Barry
Apple has it's own "Office Suite" called iWork 09. I have it and use it and it fits my needs since I do mainly word processing tasks. I'll tell you this. I've used Excel and I prefer it to the iWork 09 Spreadsheet offering. I found Excel to be simpler to use and more functional. If I was a heavy user of word processing and spreadsheet tasks, I'd probably spring for Microsoft Office for Mac or I'd try one of the other offerings mentioned by the posters.
I agree on the excel aspect. If your work/workplace relies heavily on complex VBA scripts and macros, then you need MS excel and Numbers in iWorks is not going to work cross platform for you.
What does Mac or apple use for microsoft word and excel?
