Finance/Accounting/Statistics?

Hey everyone. I'll be looking for a new laptop before fall semester starts, and I don't want to rule out any company. I have one concern about the macbooks though.

I'm a finance majors and I have to be able to do some statistical calculations in excel for my classes, but people in my classes who have macbooks are unable to do certain things like regression analysis. So my question to anyone who may know, is it actually possible to do all functions in either iworks or MS office for mac that you can do in MS office for windows? If not is there anything I can use that would have it that can be saved in an excel format?

Thanks in advance.

 

not sure I have all the answers...

there are some VBscript stuff you can do in Windows Office that MS didn't add into Mac Office.

NeoOffice (open office based) supports this though, and supposedly the upcoming MS office being released soon will support them.

Other than that difference, there shouldn't be anything Excel does in Windows that can't be done otherwise.

 

You can buy a copy of windows, install it onto a virtual machine, then use your copy of windows office to do the calculations in excel.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I'd rather not have to run dual OS, especially since getting another copy of windows isn't cheap.


Do you know if the new macoffice will be able to do pivot tables in excel? Actually I don't even know if the current one can or not.


Does NeoOffice allow you to save into xl/xls format? Sometimes the professors require the entire excel document to be submitted to them so I will need to be able to send it to them in a format they can open.



Which reminds me. I did a group project last semester and one of the team members had a mac. Not sure if he had iworks or macoffice, but everytime he submitted his ppt and excel files to the group there was someone who had trouble opening them. Is this a common problem, or what is the cause?

 

My friend has a Macbook Pro 15" non-unibody and he's a Accounting and Finance double major, he's been putting up with the MBP, but he says he needs to change to a PC. IDK for what reason.

TBH, I rather save all the trouble and get a solid PC like a Pro/Elitebook, Latitude or a Thinkpad.

 

In all likelihood I will go with a PC, but I really want to keep my options open.

 

yes.. but it doesnt mean it will always work right.

You can take 2 different versions of Excel for Windows and have problems between them... you can surely have problems with anything.

If its just Excel you need, but you want the rest of your stuff on a Mac, its easy to just run the version of Excel you want and not have to run a Windows machine for every single thing just cuz of 1 program.

Now if you don't really want a Mac, then don't get one.

 

Sorry didn't mean to come off as trashing Mac.

The reason I wouldn't want a mac is for the reasons stated. If the new MacOffice does the VBscript things that the PC versions do then that eliminates my main concern and it just comes down to what is the best buy for me.

I know there are compatibility issues with Office 2003/2007, but there is a download that fixes that problem. I never had an issue opening this team member's documents, but I'm not really sure why so I want to be sure any professors I am submitted files to won't be having any issues.

There are a lot of things I like about macs. They are very aesthetically pleasing and they have the very best touchpad I have ever seen/used. The lack of system resources required by MasOS is also nice.

Like I said I don't want to rule out any laptop makes right away. I just want to be able to make the most informed decision possible.

 

Get a Thinkpad. You're bound to need a PC for the Finance/Accounting/Statistic odd software you're going to come across in your field.

It's a fullblown x86 PC world.

 

I'm a stats major and I am getting a Macbook Pro.

Basically for what you are doing, Excel should be sufficient. You can definitely do regression analysis using Office Mac (one of my stat teachers did it using Excel).

I would recommend getting some version of Windows Professional (XP, Vista, 7, whatever); some software packages you'll run into are not supported on OSX.

I need to use SAS, SPSS, and a few other statistical software packages that are not supported by OSX. You can technically run SAS on OSX, but it is a very very old verson and is pretty much not supported anymore.

 

Your teacher did it on MacOffice?

 

Looks like people are wasting their time here.

 

Wow you were able to look through my post history and find a thread that is almost a year old. Too bad you missed my new "what laptop should I buy" thread that doesn't list either dell or apple in the dislikes. Guess you have also missed where I haven't trashed mac at all in this thread, but rather asked questions that directly apply to my situation. We'll go ahead call that a fail on your part .

For I think the 3rd time now in this thread...I don't want to eliminate any make/model simply because of the manufacturer. I have a separate set of criteria I will be looking for in a laptop when I choose to buy it, and I want to make sure that the macbook pro is a legitimate option for what I need. To do that I have to ask questions to those with knowledge of the system.

Thank you to everyone who has offered constructive advice, the information about MacOffice 2010 was very helpful. For those who have chosen to take the baseless position to be defensive you really need to lighten up. Asking questions /= criticizing.

 

I wouldn't say eight months is almost a year and the new "What laptop" thread you created yesterday AFTER starting this one. To be honest I only looked due to some of your comments in this thread, starting with your opening.

Sounds like you already have your answer. If you had doubts about their skills I would have just left out the that part and just ask if people knew if it was possible to do the function on a Mac. It just set the wrong tone.

Not quite as bad but when you combine the previous two comments with the third and you start to see a pattern.

Of course then I found the "dislike Apple" and felt the need to post it. You came in with a negative tone, admitted you were most likely getting a PC anyway and had shown previous bias towards Apple computers. Sounds like people were wasting their time trying to answer your questions because you pretty much knew from the start you didn't want an Apple. I could be wrong but they are your words.

 

After I started this one and before your first reply.

So then, what would you call almost a year? Is there some magical percentage I have to eclipse to make "almost a year" an accurate statement? I just knew that I made that thread at the beginning of Fall semester last year which would have been in either August or September. I guess I could have said "about 3 quarters of a year ago", but really who says that?

I really don't understand how any of my comments in this thread could be deemed as anything other than a basic inquiry, but after someone said "if you don't like mac don't get a mac" I assumed people were getting somehow getting the wrong idea. So I further clarified that it was not my intention to get some kind of Apple bashing thread going.

So you've never had some situation arise and ask for clarification based on your experience? I was in a situation where I had some experience and I wanted to know if it was true/if there were any fixes to the issue. Could I have left out the 'why' I am asking this question. Of course, but I thought it would be helpful for anyone kind enough to give me a complete answer.

You're right there was a pattern. The pattern of course being I don't know a lot of about mac software and compatibility so the only way to learn would be to ask questions. I had some experience and I wanted to know if it was common or not. As someone mentioned before there can be compatibility issues with anything so I wanted to make sure it wasn't a common problem.

It's like this. If you went on some tech support forum are you going to tell them "hey I have a problem with my sound card how do I fix it" or are you going to say "Hey I have a problem with my sound card, I just did a clean install of windows and now it isn't working". When you have some problem you try to explain how this problem arose (in my case, can Macs do certain statistical operations in Excel because I knew a couple of people who could not figure out how to do it) so that people in the know can better help you.

Acer, Asus, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Samsung, Sony, and at least a half dozen other companies compared to just one who makes Mac. That alone should tell you that if you are in the market for a new computer and are not ruling out any particular brand then PC is going to be more likely. Combine that with the fact that I am more familiar with Windows and that it was only rumored that MacOffice 2010 would have what I need then it isn't hard to come to the conclusion that getting a PC is simply more likely. It doesn't mean it is a definite, but giving percentage of Windows based machines to mac and the others it is simply more likely. Also, since you wanted to argue semantics earlier I'll do that now. I said "probably" which is not a definite. I really doubt someone would say "probably" if they simply hated mac and would not consider getting one.


I'm not ruling out any company. It's easy to just say "well you have your answer don't get a mac", but in a post you seemed to have missed I listed some of the qualities I really like about Mac. I also forgot to mention that the battery life on them is pretty nice. I think the MBP 13" is listed at 10 hours.


I'm sorry you interpreted everything in this thread the wrong way. Next time I'll be sure any comments I make concerning Apple computers can only be considered divine.

 

"Over six months ago" would have been more accurate, no magic needed. I would think that someone who works with statistics would want to be accurate in their estimates. You didn't say your class mates can't figure out how to do it you just said they can't do it, there is a difference. If you had just asked if the function was possible it would have received a warmer response. While saying you probably would buy a pc leaves the possibility that you could buy a Mac it doesn't change the fact that you were biased against them a little over 6 months ago. You could also be saying the possibility is there in order to hide that bias.

Your questions could have been answered better by doing a google search. There are a few discussions to be found of people describing how they have worked around the problem of office for Mac not having a regression wizard. Others discuss using open office or numbers in iWork.

There is no prerequisite that you must speak of the divinity of apple products but it is appreciated when you are fair with your accusations. I wish you luck with your future purchase.

 

No one ever said I was particularly great at statistics

In all seriousness though, I did not bother to look up the date of my previous post. I knew that basically an entire school year had passed since I made that thread, and since a school year consists of everything except for summer I just estimated it to be close to a year. I could have said "more than 6 months" or any variation of an approximation and it would have made little difference to the relevance of that old post.

I was bias against apple before because my classroom experiences of people being unable to do these functions is not new information. This time around however I wanted to verify my experiences before I cast the MBP out as an option because I like the specs on the machine.

I could have done a google search you're right. If that is your position though there isn't much use for this forum as everyone here could simply do some google searches and look up fixes for what technical problem they are having, or go through on cnet and check out the reviews on every laptop to decide which one to get.

I could have worded things better, but that is always possible. I maintain though that the defensive position you took was unwarranted. I have made no accusatory remarks in this thread, and long before your first post I commented that I there were things about apple that I liked and that I wanted to leave all options open.

I thank you for your well wishes, and I guess that does it for this thread unless you wish to continue this through PMs.

I do hope you are less quick to jump to conclusions in the future though. It is not a very becoming trait to possess.