Member Avatar for parkpointer

Hi,
I recently (Nov '06) moved over to an iMac from a Dell pc. The switch was good as newer OS's and hardware was needed. I am a newsletter editor for two separate organizations and a secretary & historian for another. I do a lot of word processing and record keeping for these groups. I would like to find Mac software that can do it all at few $$$.

On the Dell, I was using MS Office 2000 Premium (Word, Access, Publisher, Excel, etc.) and it was filling my needs. Unfortunately, as we all know, Office for Mac does not have Publisher nor Access (Sigh!); for what-ever reasoning. Anyways, I tried Mac's iWork '06 and found Pages to be a good product, but limited.

I need to find a publishing program that can integrate with 'Pages' if at all possible. I would also like to know if there are any database programs for a Mac's similar to the workings of MS Access.

I have upgraded considerably, but I need better programs than I have found to help me.

PS - In the meantime, I have installed Parallels, Windows XP Home, and MS Office 2000 onto a virtural drive within Parallels. It allows the newsletters and some other needs, but I really would like to work with the iMac and software designed for it.

Thank You for taking time to help!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rkukmedia
Member Avatar for John A

The best commercial solution for databases on the Mac platform is FileMaker Pro. Although it does offer an Access database conversion tool, I'd avoid it as MacWorld is quoted as saying along the lines of "experts agree that the conversion tool will need much tweaking to get the database working." So, if your database is small, you might be better off recreating it.

As for a Publisher replacement, I'd recommend checking out this thread here, as many suggestions for it were offered here:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread14020.html

Member Avatar for parkpointer

Joeprogrammer,
I went through the thread and have been looking over 'Ragtime'. Between that and PrintShop 2 from Mackiev there maybe lots to use at relatively low buck. Thank you very much for the steering to the other thread.

Member Avatar for parkpointer

Jeoprogrammer,
I took a look at FileMaker 8.5 and see that it is out of my range of $$$. If you or anyone knows of another less expensive database program that works like MS Access or FileMaker Pro out there for Mac, I would appreciate a reply. Thanks!

Member Avatar for rkukmedia

Yeah. thats sure a problem, but in my case the closest to having to do all that fuss with XP is NeoOffice, the Open Office for Mac. Good thing is it takes up a small 130MB and has its own Publisher etc of course it has word, powerpoint etc alternatives but you can still use MS Office for those uses as their that bit better than Neo's versions. It'll read MS Office docs so thats my choice

Member Avatar for Bill8vp

You might look at the new Office for Mac 2008. I played with it the other day at the Mac store and I found many of the same features from Publisher 2000. I have tried Neo Office and Open Office and yes they both work but neither seem to do what MS Publisher does. Neo Office does do Vector Graphics as does the new MS Office for Mac 2008.

Member Avatar for rkukmedia

One thing I forgot to mention was you could use CrossOver for Mac, its £30 / $50 to buy or a 30 day trial is available at http://www.codeweavers.com
The software allows you to instal a PC app directly on the OSX OS. You could instal MS Office for PC on your mac using CrossOver, its also an amazing way to get Macs gaming machines...

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