[X Newbies] Alternatives to Word/MS Office

[marina]

  >And as far as I can tell, when it comes to basic spreadsheets 
AppleWorks' ability to save in Excel format works flawlessly. I've 
never had a single problem.
  >

This is what I thought - but because what I have in mind are older 
versions of ClarisWorks/AppleWorks, it's good to know that the new 
version hasn't lost this ability.

Which reminds me - does AppleWorks support multiple sheet spreadsheets now?


  >You'd probably LOVE Keynote then. Check out www.apple.com/keynote

Thanks, I'll certainly do it (I don't need to use, and I'm not a fan 
of presentation apps in general, though :-)


  >It's an email/PIM/calendar app -- it's really one of the best 
things MS has ever produced for the Mac to be quite honest, but the 
combination of Mail/iCal/Address Book/iSync beats it (just) IMHO.
  >

Mail is going to be the next biggest challenge for me, I fear. Ten 
years with Eudora have made me a very difficult customer for any 
other email software....


  >Actually, in Mac OS X *all* applications that can print can create PDFs.

Thanks. This is something else I have just discovered (=been told 
since I've been on this list) and it's great news.

Cheers,

marina