Microsoft Word Doc Compatibility Software

[question fear]

Ok, so I am hopefully going to gather the funds for a new ibook come graduation (end of may)...my big concern is that i have four years of college papers in ms word format that need to be transfered to my new computer. I am transfering from a win98 Dell, so they are all in office 2000 ms word doc format....do i need to buy ms word for the mac to be able to open them without formatting issues? what exactly does appleworks do to these documents? is there any way to get office v.x for less than 500 or whatever it sells for? Sadly, I really cant get it until may and i think the office offer runs out by then if it hasnt already...is ther an alternative or should i start scraping together even more pennies?
--carly

 

[conceptdev]

Well if you buy it just before you graduate and are still enrolled I think that you would be able to get a hefty education discount on office.

BTW - I have been evaluating openoffice lately, and despite the fact it looks like vomit it handles word files really well. So there are opensource alternatives.

 

[kylos]

I got Office for $200 on the student discount. Don't know if that's in your price range but anyway...

 

[question fear]

student discount

Yea, the student discount would work for me....how exactly do I need to show proof of student enrollment? Do I need a letter from the school or will a student ID do? Also, if I go through the website via my school, does that require extra proof or is does the link from brandeis prove my enrollment?
if not, conceptdev mentioned open office...is it worth trying?
--carly
ps thanks for the quick and helpful responses!

 

[Doctor Q]

AppleWorks is really cheap (and even cheaper for students) compared to Word, so it would be easy to get it and try it. Or, to spend no money at all until you know, we can do a test. Post a sample Word document somewhere where I can pick it up. I'll be glad to try the latest AppleWorks on it and tell you how the conversion goes.

 

[conceptdev]

https://store.apple.com/AppleStore/WebObjects/EducationIndividualCustom?qprm=27449&type=higherEd

Should take you to apples online store for brandeis. If not go to apple.com/store click on the education thingy and select higher ed put in your schools zip or city and state. Waltham Mass. And then you click a link and it takes you to the "brandeis uni apple store."

Office is 199.99 and your ibook will be cheaper etc....

If you can get for that price and are not geek inclined forget open office, its there if you need it but its not fun.

PS appleworks sucks.

 

[kylos]

I ordered Office through my school store; I'm not sure about the other methods, but as far as I understand, it doesn't take much to get student prices online (read: easy to cheat the system), so I would guess you shouldn't have too much trouble.

I'm not too big on openoffice. If you don't want the hassle of maybe messing with a little command line and a poor interface, don't bother with it.