[X4U] Consumer Reports

[A. Scott McCulloch]

On Sep 8, 2005, at 2:14 PM, keith_w wrote:

> I run Mac OS 10.3.9, and will be installing a brand new copy of MS  
> Office 2004 in about a week.
> Valid reason? My wife uses PC programs at work, and has decided she  
> wants the ability to do some work-work on the home Mac.
> So, back to having MS products on my Mac!  Sighhhh.
>
> Anyhow, first question is, must you be actually using a Word or  
> Excel macro in order for the "macro virus/worm" to activate?
> If I use the various parts of MS Office bareback, no macros, etc.,  
> do I have to concern myself about viruses or worms?
>
> If so, what's the least obtrusive solution that still works?
> In your most humble opinion, of course!  <wink>
>
> Should I install Office 2004 on a separate HD inside the CPU? Will  
> that isolate the probability of infection?
> Awww, that raises a ton of other questions, and may not be  
> practical in the long run.
>
> keith whaley

Depending on the types of documents she'll be working on (complicated  
formatting, etc??) you may not have to install MS Office - you could  
try NeoOffice or AbiWord or one of the other Office compatible apps  
(I'm pretty sure there are a couple more - and I'm sure others will  
chime in).

I'm not sure that using one of these Office compatible apps solves  
the issue of malicious macros, etc. - but it keeps MS off your Mac,  
if that's one of your preferences.

Scott
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