First of all, it's "Mac" not "MAC"... MAC is an acronym referring to a Media Access Card. ;^)>I'm very surprised at her not getting knowledgeable Apple reps in an Apple store... I suggest she try again at the White Plains store. My experience and the experiences of my clients at Apple Stores is that they are very helpful and are also very knowledgeable about the availability of Mac software. Every time I have been in an Apple Store the staff has been willing to spend as much time with me as I require... Clerks at places like Best Buy and CompUSA or independent Apple resellers will be much less knowledgeable.
She might want to try the Apple flagship store on 5th Avenue... it's the largest in the world and is open 24/7/365. All the Apple Stores have free introductory classes... and you can also purchase a year's worth of 1 on 1 training for $99.
Perhaps you should go with her and assist with the questions. It would help her and let you become knowledgeable as well.
2) How dangerous is using mail order to save some money on the MACs? Has anyone used dealmac.com? Are there any reputable mail order MAC dealers? Are there any issues to watch out for when buying a new MAC mail order? What about warranty issues? What about going with a refurbed system?
MacMall, the Apple online Store, SmallDog, Amazon are all safe to use. Refurbed Macs are generally only available from Apple and come with a full factory warranty. It matters not to Apple where you buy your Mac... you can still get full service and technical support as well as warranty exchanges, etc., at the nearest Apple Store.
3) Does the MAC come with a paint program? How does it compare with some of the freeware/shareware or even commercial PC programs? Are there any freeware/shareware "paint" programs for MACs? Any decent (but simple) commercial paint programs? She may eventually also get Photoshop Elements for the MAC, but I have no doubt that this would be WAY beyond her. As I said, she doesn't really know anything about computers, and she has a HUGE phobia about them.
There are large numbers of Mac paint programs out there, commercial, shareware and freeware. Remember, the Mac has been the pre-eminent graphics platform for over 23 years.
4) How is file compatability between PCs and MACs? I figure that I'll either burn all of her work to CDs or maybe copy them onto a flash drive to move to the MAC. Are MACs OK with bitmap (.BMP) files? I'm sure that they're probably OK with TIFFs, PCX, GIF, and JPG (or am I assuming too much?)
You will have no problems. As to getting her work from the PC to the Mac, you can take both computers to the Apple Store and they will migrate all your documents for you for free. There are also some commercial applications that will do it.
5) She would like to be able to use some of her existing hardware if possible. She's got an HP Office Jet 6110 "All in One" and according to the HP web site, it should work. She's also got a Wacom graphics tablet, a CTE-430/W. I really couldn't find anything much about this on the Wacom web site. I did find a reference to the Graphire3 in a google search based on the model number. However, I don't know if this is a USB or a serial interface model (the Graphire3 mentions USB), and that question is WAY beyond what my step mother is able to answer for me. She's afraid to follow the cable and tell me what the connector looks like. If it is a USB model, it should work with no problems. I don't know about a serial model.
That should be no problem if the device connects via USB. You usually can plug in any device and the Mac will recognize it instantly and start using it... without installing any drivers. The Mac is truly plug-and-play. If the device has Bonjour, it is even easier. If it is REALLY OLD and uses a parallel port, she should buy new equipment anyway.
I'm not. Some of the sales reps at our local store never seem to know as much as those at the genius bar. If I ever have any serious questions, I go straight to them and bypass the sales reps.