Hi blu. I have a question that’s been puzzling me for weeks.
I receive weekly newsletters from one of my children’s teachers. The file is a .doc and while it will download fine, when I click to open it, I get a jumping Microsoft Word icon. It says it’s Microsoft Office 2004 Test Drive; good for 30 days.
Now why would Apple be advertising for Microsoft? Are they trying to get us to buy the Microsoft package for the mac? And is there a security risk if or once a Microsoft product is installed? Or, is that just if I were to use Explorer to surf the net?
I’m so afraid I’m going to screw something up.
don’t use Explorer, use Safari or Firefox. Faster, better.
OH, and Apple is advertising for Microsoft because Micro did us such a BIG favor and made Word 2008 for Mac, after taking a few years off.
It is one of the two or three trial wares that Apple includes on the Macs. However, the Mac can open a Microsoft Word document in TextEdit with no problem. If you don't want the MS 2004 Office on your computer drag the folder to the trash and get rid of it. Then when you click on the .doc files, it will default to TextEdit or Pages (if you bought iWork) and open the file there.
As to why? MS Office for Mac is still the pre-eminent word process and spread sheet application on the market for Macs. It does work and it works well... most of the time. It can be frustrating, though.
However, most people need Word like you need a jack hammer to drive a brad. The same job can be done with iWork's Pages for a lot less money... and you get the bonus of having Keynote that blows the doors off of Powerpoint included... or even for free with the included TextEdit application that can both read and save in Word's .doc format. You can find iWork08 on the net for as low as $47.50 for a family pack (five install license). Retail for a single install license is $79
And is there a security risk if or once a Microsoft product is installed? Or, is that just if I were to use Explorer to surf the net?
There is a small, very small, risk if you use Word. Word Macro viruses (really trojans masquerading as a macro) can be run on a Mac with Word... but generally they can't do anything malicious because they might, for example, be trying to format the C: drive and Macs don't have one. Most of those Macros won't even hurt a Windows machine anymore.
Also, there have been several cross platform vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, in Windows Office applications that could allow "arbitrary code" to be run on the host computer... but those, on the Mac, have usually only crashed the Office app when an exploit is attempted. MS is pretty good about getting on top of those vulnerabilities and patching them.
All in all, compared to Internet Explorer or Outlook, I'd say its safe.
I have Office for Mac 2004 on my computer and have used it for years and Mac Office for X before that and even Mac Office 97 before that. I have never run into one of the macro viruses. I am trying to switch to Pages for my word processing use because I don't need that Jackhammer and I am tired of the little quirks you run into with Word (and I TEACH Word to computer users of both platforms!)