The Steel Guitar Forum

It's time (well past time, actually...) to get a new computer. I've always hated my PC simply because it's incredibly counter-intuitve for me to do anything but the very most basic things on it. The Macs I've used, however, seem MUCH easier and almost crash-proof to boot.

Here's my question... In my work, I pretty much live in a PC world. I've heard that, because of font formatting differences, there can still be formatting problems when sending out Mac-produced documents to PCs. Any of you able to comment on this and be willing to comment on how much of a risk this is?

Any input will be terrific. Thanks!

Mac crash too.

Chris,

I have always been a Microsoft/PC guy, but I must say the new Mac's with OS10 are AWESOME! I have 2 buddies that have them and 1 person at work that has one. They are SOOOOOO easy to work! If you are looking for no more fuss, than Mac is the way for you. I would recommend Microsoft Office for the Mac, this way all of your Word, Excel, PowerPoint docs will be easily available to all others with PC's.

For me, I love the challenge and the struggle to make the perfect Microsoft PC! I will stick with PC's!

Mark


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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com

Earnest,

Oh-so-true. On the other hand, though, I have to actually do something to a Mac to screw it up. PCs, meanwhile, seem to lock up just by sensing that I've walked into the room...

Mark,

I've been hearing, though, that even documents created on Word for Apple sometimes show up on a PC with weird margins and sometimes cryptic substitutions for certain letters, etc. Know anything about the reality of that? Thanks.

I have not had any problems with word for mac showing up weird on a pc. It works fine. Plus with OSX macs just will not crash as far as I can tell. I do allot of really stupid stuff with my computer and the new platform has been entirely forgiving. You might check with Dave Van Alan because he uses both.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. Of course I really like the sound of that since I'm reeeeeeeealy lusting after a Mac right now....

How about email formatting? As a test, I've sent myself a coupla emails with Mac Mail using italics, bolds, and changed margins (since that's a lot of what I do in my work these days...). The special characters and margins either disappear when opened by the PC or show up with surounded by the key commands. Anyone know of a workaround?

email formatting is another story. It is dependant on the application used for creating the email. For example, at work I administer Lotus Notes/Domino, but when I go home I use Outlook to get messages from my ISP at home. The messages sent from Lotus Notes look like garbage in Outlook. And also vice versa. So, as far as I know, the only work around would be to send HTML messages, but a lot of people block attachments, so the email will look bad again. Sorry, can't think of a work around...maybe someone else here can think of one.

Mark

Will the OSX Macs emulate Microsoft Windows?

Windoze users, despair not; there is redemption...

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Greg Simmons
Custodian of the Official Sho~Bud Pedal Steel Guitar Website

Well... <gulp!> The Power Mac is here. So far, I LOVE it! (Unfortunately, however, the who-knows-how-my-emails-will-end-up-loking-to-the-PC-world issue remains in the to-be-determined zone so far...)

Chris,

DETAILS! I want to hear about it... What are the specs on the new Mac? What do you like, what don't you like so far?

Mark


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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com

http://www.macobserver.com/columns/thebackpage/2003/20030224.shtml

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Greg Simmons
Custodian of the Official Sho~Bud Pedal Steel Guitar Website

Greg,

GREAT post! I found it very humorous.

Mark


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Sho~Bud Pro I, Fender D-8 (C6&E13) http://www.darkmagneto.com

Yeah, I got a kick out of that too!

My first exposure to personal computing was on a Mac in the early 90’s so I guess I’m biased, though for the last couple years I’ve been exclusively using an IBM Laptop running Windows 2000(for work).

I just recently got a new iMac G4 (1GHz 17” Flat Panel) and I’m really enjoying it –reminds me of why I even bothered with computers in the first place


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Greg Simmons
Custodian of the Official Sho~Bud Pedal Steel Guitar Website

Mark,

I think it may be true love! I've only had a few hours on this machine so far and I can't believe how easy it is to work with. After struggling for years with my PC, I feel like I've been a Mac user for as many years rather than for less than a day. It set up effortlessly and everything, so far, has been easy and intuitive, even for a techno-nincompoop like me.

The machine was bought with the 'get-as-much-as-you-can-afford-since-it'll-be-yesterday's-machine-the-moment-you-buy-it philosophy. So it's a honker, at least by my humble standards... It's the dual 1.25 Ghz processor model with 512 RAM. USB 1 ports but both Firewire and Firewire 2 ports. I got the combo drive rather than the superdrive since, at least for now, I don't have any need/interest in burning DVDs. Besides, if that should change, I figure I can always get an outboard burner later.

On the downside, I sent myself an email to my work address with a variety of fonts, margins, etc. to see how it would show up. The body of the message showed up without any of the italics, bolds, altered margins or centering. FAR weirder to me, it also showed up with an EXCEL file attached. When I opened it, it held a copy of the text WITH the italics and bolds but with wildly erratic margins and the centering gone. I gotta hope I find some kinda workaround for all that! Anyone out there have suggestions???

Beyond all that, I gotta say I'm amazed by this machine so far. My expectations were probably absurdly high but, even despite that, those same expectations have been pretty well surpassed. Highly recommended to any of you who are thinking of 'making the switch'.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Chris Bauer on 25 February 2003 at 06:58 PM.]</p></FONT>

what mail client application are you using on the mac? the bundled OS X mail app? MS Office Entourage? MS OutlookExpress?

What mail server are they running at your work address?

it's likely a translation issue or an easily changed setting in client preferences.

Are you saying you sent and retreived it on the Mac and it looked okay when you sent it but not when you opened the message you sent?

please clarify ... I'll try to help


Earnest-

<SMALL>Will the OSX Macs emulate Microsoft Windows?</SMALL>

Microsoft has recently purchased the rights to Virtual PC, the leading cross~platform emulation for the Mac. It basically creates a PC in software on mac hardware and then runs Windows on it.
In my opinion a pointless thing to do, butit works.With the price point for PC's now if you want to run windows just by a "disposable" PC.

If you want to use a computer, get a mac running OS X.

Neither platform is ideal, I know...they are complex electro-mechanical devices made by human beings basically out of sand, and are prone to failure;But that said, in my "day job" I have to support hundreds of iMacs, several OS X servers and dozens of PC's in 6 elementary schools...but we cover that with two full time techs, whereas each of the exclusively PC outfitted middle and high schools has a full time tech for JUST THAT BUILDING.

It's a running joke twixt me (the resident Mac guru)and one of the PC techs. He admits PC's are a bigger pain to configure and troubleshoot- but he says he enjoys the "daily challenge"
Me I just want things to work...<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 25 February 2003 at 07:44 PM.]</p></FONT>

Dave,

My answers are certain to do a better-than-ever job of showing off just how ignorant I am of even basic computer jargon. But here goes my best shot...

On the Mac, I am using Eudora 5.2 with incoming mail through my website and outgoing through my Comcast cable modem. I have sent mail to my wife's Imac (She uses MacMail.) and to various PCs including my soon-to-be-former machine using Eudora in the same configuration as my Mac and to work which uses GroupWise (though I know nothing else about how we're set up there). Apple to Apple works without a hitch. The PCs each seem to reproduce the test messages in a variety of wacky ways. The 'calm' version is to simply show the text and ignore italics, bolding, and margins. Other machines 'mix and match' what they will and won't show...

Because in my freelance work it helps to be able to send a lot of formated emails, I'm trying to figure out a way to compose them in a manner most likely to allow them to be seen by PC users in a way as close to the way they were originaly formatted as possible. Am I dreaming too big here???

I think that what you are seeing has more to do with the encoding schemes used by various mail systems than with which platform is receiving and displaying the email. Mail gateways do a lot more to the traffic passing through them than platforms do. I would suggest that you use Microsoft word for your formatted documents and send the formatted text as attachments. that way both platforms could read your formatted text.....assuming of course that the receiving end had Word...

Dave

Mr K has the right idea... Create your document in Word,layout/ format your doc the way you want it- "save as" a Rich Text Format document (look in the help file if this is a mystery), then attach that document to your email message. RTF should open in modern Word Processors with formatting intact.

If you know your recipient hs MS Word, just save it in .doc format

Thanks folks.

Now I have to see how PowerPoint shows up in PC land after being created on the Mac.

The Mac continues to amaze me, by the way. I spent so much time agonizing over whether or not to get it that I really wish I'd just jumped in right off the bat and not wasted the energy on worrying. It's GREAT!!!