[sylvaticus]

I have used DOS and Windows my entire computing life, and I have always enjoyed my experience. I will even say that I love much about Vista, which I bought the night it was released. However, discovering the Omni site and apps a few years ago, as well as others sites that covered Apple hardware and software, and constantly researching for the best computing experience and software, which really is the most important thing in the end, this past Friday I bought a Mac Pro! I maxed it out (for me) with two Quad-Core Xeons (3.2 GHz), 16 GB of RAM, 2.5 TB for hard drives, and I'm waiting for my two 30" monitors (not Cinema Displays, though). Now I just have to hope that Adobe doesn't mess up (agin) my cross-platform upgrade shipment!

Quite simply, i am in love! There are some minor (but very irritating) quirks getting used to the differences between OSs, and I've learned that OS X programmers are as human as any others, but what an adventure it's been so far! I am completely exhausted and sleep-deprived from staying up all night learning and researching and reading.

OmniOutliner and OmniFocus are the first two applications I have purchased and installed on my Mac It somehow seemed fitting that since the Omni Group (honest, with their "What is Omni?" page) and OO--and then OF--were so influential in my decision, I should start my journey with their software to help me. Thank you, Omni Group! Thank you for being such an inspiring company, and writing such inspiring software. You prove that great, best-of-breed software can also be beautiful. I will certainly do my best to spread the word about you and Omni product line (heck, I'm saving up for a couple more of your apps myself!). </newbie zeal>

So, to finally reach the point, I do have one question: There is clearly integration with iCal and Mail.app, but only those two? Is that correct? I ask because I have spent days now researching a replacement for Office 2007 (Win). I really like Office 2007 on Vista, and Nota Bene, a word processor for scholars, and I have not found decent replacements on the OS X side. I'm tempted to run them in VMWare's Fusion. However, I was curious as to what you users use? Because of OO and OF, I'm tempted to use Mail.app (and not Office 2008 or Thunderbird), and iCal. Or, will OO and OF work with Office 2007 (Win)--at least the files--and 2008 (Mac) software more than I think? I know AppleScript exists; maybe it's time to learn it too and make things happen!

I know that for word processing, if I were just in a business, Pages or some of the other word processors I have discovered might work, but Nota Bene and Word 2007 offer me more options that make writing easier. Perhaps I should abandon most everything in Office but Word. I haven't even installed Office 2008: there's no trial, and so I haven't opened the box in case I get some great advice and suggestions on here. That way I can return it.

So far, I'm not thrilled Mail.app or Thunderbird, but that might be that I've used Outlook for so many years; at least, I'm willing to admit it's more habit than a lack of features I need or want. All I really do is read and respond to emails, sometimes with an HTML formatted letter. I do love Adobe Acrobat's ability to archive email to .pdfs, and apparently it can't do that on the Mac side.

OK, I've rambled on long enough and hopefully asked the right kinds of questions. I apologize for the length of this post and cross-posting between OO and OF, but since there are users of one who don't use the other....

I am grateful for any advice you share! If there are any users in MN, I'd love to meet and chat if you have the patience for someone who is completely new to this and is trying to figure out how best to organize and set up my Mac!

Thanks again and regards,

Keith

Fabricando fabri fimus.