Software for IMac?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

So I just got a new one but it came with no software- wordprocessing, spreasheets, nothing.
The previous Mac we had came with Appleworks, which my wife was quite happy with.
So my question is, should I get one of the Apple products? or get a Windows package. I am going to use Boot Camp anyway for a CAD program so there is no problem there.
Any suggestions/recs?

[meegbear]

1. Office for the Mac is quite good ...

and it's compatible with the Windows version, document-wise; there's no Access version for the Mac, but no biggie.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. What do you mean by Access version?

and how is the spreadsheet? I really like Excel, and I have heard not good things about Apple's.

[meegbear]

4. The Mac version does not have Access ...

It has Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (Mac's version of Outlook).

While the apps have been adapted for the Mac, and look alot slicker, they have the same functionality. The software is written by Microsoft and works great.

The apps have floating toolbars, so they can be hard to learn at first, but once you figure it out, no problem.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I used Excel & Word on a PC for work, and have Office for Mac at home

But, I've found formatting issues between Word for Mac & Word for PC, so it makes it difficult to swap files from work & home.

I haven't used Excel for my Mac too often, but I was not all that impressed. I don't like how it looks on the screen, and it seems to randomly rename some of the files from Excel for PC.

[bicentennial_baby]

3. i have Office for Mac, works great...

Word, Excel, Powerpoint...

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. Is there a 'Paint' program?

Appleworks had a very nice one.

[jmowreader]

9. Try Photoshop Elements for that

[SecularMotion]

6. Try Open Office

it's free. It has a word processor, spreadsheet, powerpoint program, and a database program.

http://www.openoffice.org

[Pierre.Suave]

7. Agreed and seconded

unless you need Office for Mac for some reason, Open Office is great, and it is free.

[no name no slogan]

10. ThinkFree Office is pretty good

$50 for a package that contains clones of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Otherwise OpenOffice is probably the best.