Virtual PC Questions

ch5bw · #1 July 18th, 2005, 01:10 AM

Hi Friends:

I'm hoping to switch back to mac after a few years in dell hell. Problem is, I will still have to use a few pc programs, including ms word, because mac is behind the curve on unicode fonts and entry of unusual foreign languages (I know you don't believe this, but in my case it is true....).

So, the questions are:

1. Is virtual pc running ms word just too slow for an ibook; how much ram to make it tolerable?

2. Can i install pc unicode fonts in virtual pc, to then be used in ms word running in virtual pc?

Many thanks!

Chris

symphonix · #2 July 18th, 2005, 02:40 AM

You are right: I don't believe the Mac is behind the curve - I'd be very surprised if you couldn't just load up the fonts you want in Font Book, and access the language sets you want in the Input manager. Still, using Virtual PC is a very viable and useful option if the Mac still doesn't meet your needs.

1. Performance should be "tolerable" out of the box, though you'd really want at least 512mb to make it shine.

2. Yes. Virtual PC is, as the name implies, a completely virtual machine. So you would install fonts the same as you would do on a PC - it doesn't use the Mac font system at all.

MisterMe · #3 July 18th, 2005, 09:11 AM

Windows fonts install in MacOS X and work perfectly "as is." In what way is the Mac behind Windows in handling Unicode? Are you sure you are talking about the Mac or are you talking about the Mac version of Word? symphonix is correct in that Word:mac 2004 handles Word:win files perfectly so long as all fonts used are installed on the Mac.

perfessor101 · #4 July 18th, 2005, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ch5bw

1. Is virtual pc running ms word just too slow for an ibook; how much ram to make it tolerable?

In my opinion VPC 7.0.2 with Windows XP running on an iBook with 640 MB of RAM and VPC set to its maximum of 512 MB of RAM would be fast enough for occasional use with "business" applications such as MS Word, but extended use would be painful. Even on a dual processor G4/1.25 with 1.5 GB of RAM I can type faster than Word can format and display the text.

I'm not sure what your problem is with foreign fonts, but there are two OS X native word processors Mellel and Nisus Writer Express that were written using OS X's Cocoa (object oriented) frameworks and are explicitly designed form scratch to handle Unicode fonts. Mellel in particular is designed to handle foreign languages including those that go from right to left as well as left to right. So before writing off (no pun intended) OS X's facilities with Unicode you should take a look at both of these excellent applications. Another advantage of these apps on the iBook is both are relatively compact in terms of disk space and RAM requirements.