[iBook] OPENING, WORD, XL, AND OTHER MICROSOFT FILES ALSO CREATING PDF FILES ON iBook

[Larry Kollar]

John Finnegan wrote:

> I  am planning to buy an new 1.33GHz ibook with 14.1 inch display.
>
> I will want to be able to open and read the following type of files.
>
> Word, Xl, PDF and Autocad or DXF files. Also would like to create PDF 
> files.
>
> Will the ibook have software to do the above. If not, what software 
> will I
> need.

AppleWorks opens *some* Word and Excel files (I assume by "XL" you mean 
Excel, Microsoft's spreadsheet program). If you're familiar with Unix, 
you can get a port of OpenOffice that can read most Office files (in 
some cases, I found it reads some Word files better than Word). You can 
also buy Microsoft Office for OSX.

PDF is much easier, Apple's Preview program and Adobe Reader both come 
with new Macs and both read PDFs. Both AppleWorks and Microsoft Office 
can generate PDFs from the Print dialog.

DXF might be simple enough -- see if 
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Graphics/DigiCad-3D.shtml would work for 
you; it's supposed to be able to read & write DXF.
--
Larry Kollar    k  o  l  l  a  r  @  a  l  l  t  e  l  .  n  e  t
"The hardest part of all this is the part that requires thinking."
-- Paul Tyson, on xml-doc