Vital software to buy for a MacBook Pro

[andycam]

Hi guys,

I have just left the world of PC and bought a MacBook Pro. What software is a must to buy... do I parrell it or use it as a stand aloan machine? Any place I can go for cut price software? Do share.

[*Bob*]

Most Mac owners fall into two categories:

Those that have them for work, in which case they ought to know what they need.

Those that have them because they just fancied one, in which case the bundled software will probably do.

It's only vital if you need it.

What did you buy it for?

[andycam]

I actually bought it for video and photographic editing, Bob - Which I have Final cut and aperature for, but want to move completely over to it as my main comp system. Best wordprocessing on Mac would be a good start. Anything I need to know with regard to video playback software on the net. I noticed it doesn't play all vid files being Quicktime based... Anything you recommend to make this a fully fit system so I do not revert back to my PC.

[*Bob*]

Ah well, it sounds like an OSX version of MS Office will probably fill in any blanks.. with zero extra-learning required.

I'm no expert on the video codec front but manged to muddle through by downloading missing codecs (to play WMVs or whatever) without spending money. Some video dudes on here will know more, I'm sure.

Some video plays in one browser but not another, so when you're viewing your web video content (*coughs*) occasionally some stuff might play in Firefox but not in Safari etc.

[andycam]

Ha ha! Cough cough Bob. Thanks for the advice on that one. The online video is actually Kosher without any coughing. lol I'll look for the codecs.

[sophiesofa]

Some geek at my work put VLC (no idea what it stands for, it has a traffic cone icon though) on my mac so I could play videos. That was probably useless advice but I tried.

[andycam]

Actually that was very sound advice. I too have installed that. VLC stands for VideoLan Project if anyone wants to know. The guys who write the free software and put it out there. Boy that sounded geekish.

[*Bob*]

VLC is a good call. It will certainly widen Andy's options for viewing high-quality videos from, say, Scandinavia or Russia.

The WMV player (flip4Mac or something, I remember) is v useful.

I also downloaded a FLV/SWF app which I needed as well.

[andycam]

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar or as they say in Russia 'Spasiba'

[mattham]

you can download (apparently completely legitimate) software from this site for a fraction of the shop retail price; it just won't come with a manual. Though if all you want is Office I guess that won't be a problem.

[andycam]

have you bought from there yourself?

[woofmarkthedog]

*Bob* Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> VLC is a good call. It will certainly widen Andy's

> options for viewing high-quality videos from, say,

> Scandinavia or Russia.

>

> The WMV player (flip4Mac or something, I remember)

> is v useful.

> I also downloaded a FLV/SWF app which I needed as

> well.

_______________________________________________________

Blimey *Bob* is actually Fagin

He knows you know, now come my boy

"You gotta pick a pocket or two"

Thanks for the link M

W**F

[Applespider]

Perian is a really useful extension for playing lots of video codecs. I found it more stable than VLC - and it allows you play things directly in Quicktime.

I have Office on my Mac, I barely use it despite being an Excel junkie at work. Quickview (pick a file and use the space bar to see a very quick preview) lets you look at Office files if it's just to view them and I find Textedit to be adequate for basic word processing things (i.e. lists, letters etc) - unless you're writing a novel or a thesis, you might not need anything more. iWork, the Apple office stuff, is nice if you're doing more page layout stuff - lots nicer than Word. My Mum who isn't an Excel geek finds the iWork spreadsheet package easy to use - as an Excel geek, I struggle slightly more with it. There are quite a few wordprocessors out there for the Mac - some are more technical - i.e. making it easier to write code rather than essays.

Other useful things - Quicksilver (very fast app launching and other task utility) particularly if you prefer the keyboard to the mouse. Omnigraffle is a good Visio alternative. There are a few little graphic apps that people often recommend although since I have PS, I haven't paid much attention - but again depends how much of a poweruser you are. Macs have a pretty good shareware market and things like MacHeist and a few other promo sites quite often offer bundles of useful apps at good prices.

To be honest - tell us what you think you might currently have to go back to your PC for and it might be easier to come up with a Mac equivalent. Solitaire XL is a good free solitaire if you really need a fix... :)