Apple/Macs and BHQ

[Arnie]

I don't know the appropriate place to ask this but this seemed the best place . . .

I'm going to switch back to Macs after fiteen plus years with PCs. How have those with Macs fared on BHQ? Are there any issues of which I should be aware as I make the transition?

Thanks.

[NICK@HQ]

On the HQ site? No problems. I can download the projections and open them in OpenOffice just fine. No other issues.

[PD@HQ]

Nick ... I know you don't do MS but to your extensive Mac knowledge, are there likely to be any problems using Excel for Mac?

[BRENT@HQ]

Nick ... I know you don't do MS but to your extensive Mac knowledge, are there likely to be any problems using Excel for Mac?

I'm not Nick (of course!), but am a longtime Mac user and have never had any problems with Excel files opening/translating in Mac Office. Cross-platform issues, at least from the Office suite, have not been an issue for years.

Arnie, the only issue I can think of is some of the useful software HQ users talk about here -- thinking mainly of RotoLab, and Burnson's Wheelhouse -- are PC-native. However, there's software available that will run a Windows system, though which you use RotoLab. And this is supposedly quite a bit smoother on the new Intel-based Macs than my own setup -- Viritual PC on a several-years-old iBook.

[teddyballgame]

Mac user here also.

I do have probs with Excel on Mac...wait, that is only because I am Excel illiterate.
The Excel program itself seems to work flawlessly.

Had a few probs on HQ a couple years ago, but I switched browsers, I think from Explorer to either Firefox or Safari when using HQ (and pretty much always) and have had no HQ probs.

By the way, just got an email from rotolab and unless you use emulators to translate.
So, apparently, cannot get rotolab stuff or Wheelhouse stuff without translators until those guys get up to speed and stop their Racist Mac ways.

Take the hoods off guys, and stop burning apples on my lawn!

[GoldenEagle]

So, apparently, cannot get rotolab stuff or Wheelhouse stuff without translators until those guys get up to speed and stop their Racist Mac ways.

Take the hoods off guys, and stop burning apples on my lawn!

Let's tread carefully here, please.....There is not a conspiracy vs. Mac users. It's simple economics. If you create a software product, you start with the largest potential user base, which is obviously Windows. To add Mac functionality and support it properly, you have to face at least 2.00X the development, support, and maintenance costs (higher up front) and in return, you get 1.05X or maybe 1.10X the revenue. It's an easy business decision to simply DEFER the Mac development.

[teddyballgame]

Is my sarcasm just wasted on you GE?

I will put some smiley faces on my levity laced comments.

I know it is a business decision, in that 90% of computer users are PCs because of decisions made by Steve Jobs early in Apple's development with who was allowed to make the machines and other marketing snafus.

Without me throwing out the "racist" coment, I could not very well use the imagery of burning apples on my lawn.

[pate]

To add Mac functionality and support it properly, you have to face at least 2.00X the development, support, and maintenance costs (higher up front) and in return, you get 1.05X or maybe 1.10X the revenue. It's an easy business decision to simply DEFER the Mac development.

Good Points GE, but it's even worse than that. I use several third party tools and controls that help pickup the performance in RotoLab and provide functionality that is not available right out of the box. And most of them don't have Mac counterparts for their tools either. That's a heck of a lot more coding just to make up for the missing tools. Bottom line is until there is a substantial Mac user base no way to justify the incredible expense of converting, building in the functionality that is missing, and maintaining the code base on two platforms for another 5% increase in Revenue.

I don't mean to veer off on this topic because I can't really respond (its crunch time for me), but I haven't found one thing that I needed to do on a PC that Windows couldn't do. Maybe the Mac is more entrenched in certain fields like graphics and desktop publishing. But I have never looked at my PC and thought there was something I needed to do and I couldn't find a top-notch program for it. I am sure there are others that this would disagree with their own needs, but for what I do, it's all there.

-Merv

[Arnie]

Thanks, guys.

Just as I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

I did learn another thing. Hadn't ever heard of Burnson's Wheelhouse. Will be looking it up, shortly, just to see what it's about.

[NICK@HQ]

Nick ... I know you don't do MS but to your extensive Mac knowledge, are there likely to be any problems using Excel for Mac?

Until recently I did use Excel for Mac, and it's a great program. It's completely, and I mean completely, compatible with the Windows version (same is true of the Mac version of Word). I had no problems with either program and can recommend them wholeheartedly.

I only switched to OpenOffice (actually NeoOffice, the Aqua-version of OpenOffice) when I got my hot new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. It's so fast, even the beta NeoOffice works quick. It's not 100% compatible in functionality, but in format it works just fine. And being MS-free? Priceless...

[RobR]

Does Excel for Mac and the OpenOffice spreadsheet support VBA/macros?

[NICK@HQ]

Does Excel for Mac and the OpenOffice spreadsheet support VBA/macros?

Yes and maybe. Excel does, though that was one area where it might get a little quirky if you had a massive spreadsheet. But yeah, my VBA code worked. With OpenOffice I haven't tried yet, though I see that it does have a NeoBASIC menu, does recognize a sheet with macros in it, and if you try to open up some VBA code there it is. So the support for such things is in there, but I haven't actually tried it to tell you how good it is or isn't.

The beauty of OpenOffice, of course, is that the easiest way to see if it's right for you is to just download the thing (either for PC or for Mac). It's free, the code is open, you lose nothing by trying it. If it's not for you, MS Office for the Mac is an excellent product. The Mac folks at Microsoft work in a separate office in California, and they sort of do things a little different (tm). They make good stuff.