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General discussion

MAC software for Writing Papers

Aug 15, 2008 4:32PM PDT

I am planning to purchase a mac to use as I work on a masters degree that will require me to write lots of research papers using foot notes (Turabian style). Can MAC's wordprocessing software accomodate the use of footnotes without a lot of hassles? Also, what about office for MAC, will that software accomodate foot notes? Will my professors witn PCs be able to read my papers if I use mac's word processor or Word for mac's word processor? I need to purchase something soon to get acclimated before school starts in a couple of weeks.

Discussion is locked

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Does Word do this?
Aug 16, 2008 12:29AM PDT

If so, why not Neo Office?

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Elablorate on your reply!
Aug 16, 2008 1:16AM PDT

I am not familiar with Neo Office - are you recommending this vs. Office for Mac?

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Depends on your budget.
Aug 16, 2008 1:22AM PDT

Here I'll use Neo Office without issue. Some miss the Microsoft logo and must get the "real thing."

I recommend the version you must have.
Bob

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PS.Do OpenOffice and Neo Office have a foot-notes function l
Aug 16, 2008 5:07AM PDT

Do OpenOffice and Neo Office have a foot-notes function like Word?

Amazingly so. However your question may be showing you don't want to see anything other than Word. There are some that must see the exact same dialog boxes as Word or they get confused. Maybe in your case you should pay up?

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Re: Do OpenOffice and Neo Office have a foot-notes function
Aug 16, 2008 5:35AM PDT

Nope - just like to research my options thoroughly, want same functionality [not necessarily dialog boxes], hope it's easy to use and can interface with those left behind in the PC world.

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Since Neo Office and Open Office are free.
Aug 16, 2008 6:32AM PDT

Why not research this by using them?

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Re: Since Neo Office and Open Office are free.
Aug 18, 2008 4:20AM PDT

OK - Love to!

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Word Processing on a Mac
Aug 16, 2008 1:03AM PDT

If you can produce Turabian style foot notes on a typewriter, then you can do them in a Word Processor.

MS Word, part of MS Office 2008 for Mac, is compatible with MS Word for Windows.
Apple iPages, can open and save as, MS Word documents.

MS Office 2008 for Mac is available as a Student/Teacher edition for a low price
OpenOffice and Neo Office, (as mentioned by Bob) open and save as, MS Word documents and are free

MAC = Media Access Control
Mac = The machine you are thinking of buying

P

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Re: Word Processing on a Mac
Aug 16, 2008 5:02AM PDT

Do OpenOffice and Neo Office have a foot-notes function like Word? Fortunately, I do get a student discount, so getting the software isn't a prov\blem. But saving a few bucks is always a winner.
And thanks for differentiating between mac and MAC! Media Access Control probably wasn't even around when I was doing mainframe programming eons ago. Happy

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Bibliography-specific software
Aug 22, 2008 3:27PM PDT

What you ought to be looking for is bibliography specific software or a bibliography-intensive word processor. Both exist for the Mac; support of Chicago/Turabian style is a little harder to find than APA or some of the others, but they exist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY SOFTWARE:

EndNote:
http://www.endnote.com/ENMac.asp
the most-used one, at least around our university; can pull bibliography data off library & internet databases and auto-format them appropriately).

BookEnds:
http://www.sonnysoftware.com/
The primary direct competitor to EndNote.

Scholarword:
http://scholarword.com/chicago-style.htm (Chicago/Turbian specific)
or
http://scholarword.com/pro.html (all the styles in one app, in case your requirements change)
This is the new boy on the block; not sure how good it is, but it's cheap compared to the others.

Sente:
http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/site/introduction.html
Never tried it, but comes recommended by friends as easy to use, but harder to integrate the output into some word processing & DTP applications...

------------------------------------
WORD PROCESSORS FOR YOUR SPECIFIC USEAGE:

Mellel:
For scholar-specific word processors with bibliography hooks to the most common bibliography software listed above, multi-language aware (including Hebrew), look at:
http://www.redlers.com/mellel.html

Nisus:
Powerful, for the geek who knows GREP, fast, multilanguage aware, bibliography formatting in the app, and ties to the most common bibliography apps, take a look at Nisus Writer Pro
http://www.nisus.com/pro/

Of NOTE:
If your research is apt to include multiple languages (including dead languages), make sure you pick a word processor that supports tagging text for a specific language (i.e. - this paragraph in German, that one in English) AND has a multi-language spell-checker, so the spell checker will correctly check everything instead of flagging all the "other language" stuff each time you do spell-check.

I tend to write/edit in a raw text editor (BBEdit - http://www.barebones.com/ ) and then import the text into a full-fledged DTP program (typically Quark, but sometimes FrameMaker [think anything over 1000 pages] or Adobe Indesign) to stylize it for publishing the final "print" versions. I do this to stay concentrated on the main thoughts while writing instead of worrying about layout & document flow, plus I found out eons ago that while application-specific and application-version-specific documents come and go, text files live forever. Only down-side to this approach is that the text editor, while lightening fast (and capable of doing GREP edits across 1000's of files at once), doesn't support multi-language spell checking in the same document.

PS - most of these apps have demo or time-limited versions you can download and try for yourself, so you can try-before-you-buy.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

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Re: BIbliography=specific software
Aug 23, 2008 9:17AM PDT

Thanks for the tip about the languages. As I'll be using some Greek and Hebrew words, and maybe Latin. I think all are dead languages.

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Dead languages?
Aug 26, 2008 8:10AM PDT

I believe Hebrew is spoken today, although Latin is possibly a "dead" language. I have met a few people who have studied it or speak it though. And, I've got a friend who is of Greek descent, and I think he said they speak it in Greece (go figure). Just a heads-up on that, in case you were referring to those examples.

-BMF

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Re: Dead languages?
Aug 27, 2008 3:05AM PDT

Thanks for replying BMF. The Greek and Hebrew that I study will be the ancient languages as required in seminary. Apologies, I should have mentioned that. Appreciate it!

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if Hebrew is a dead language
Aug 27, 2008 3:08AM PDT
how have i been speaking to my wife, kids and now grandchildren?

j/k

jonah

.,
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RE: If Hebrew is a dead language
Aug 27, 2008 3:41AM PDT

I don't think Hebrew was referred to as a dead language. Quoting the original post, this is what was written: "I believe Hebrew is spoken today."

Cheers!

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true, Hebrew is spoken today
Aug 27, 2008 3:51AM PDT

but just for accuracy sake

BIbliography=specific software
by marpo0828 - 8/23/08 4:17 PM
I'll be using ............... Hebrew words,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I think all are dead languages.

and good luck in the studies!

jonah

.,

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RE: true, Hebrew is spoken today
Aug 27, 2008 4:47AM PDT

Oops! LOoks like I have a lot to learn!

Thanks for the well wishes!

Marpo0828

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Mellel
Aug 23, 2008 4:36AM PDT

If you want to go a different direction, check out Mellel at

http://www.redlers.com/

It is designed especially for scholarly and technical papers. This is a word processor only. It looks as if they are selling it to students for $29 right now.

Good luck in grad school.

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Thanks for the referral abot Mellel!
Aug 23, 2008 8:51AM PDT

Thanks for the tip about Mellel. I went to their web site and it is great! It is exactly what I'm looking for. And it's inexpensive! Also thanks for the good wishes about grad school. I can't wait to get started.

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Mellel
Aug 23, 2008 8:58AM PDT

Is there an echo in here? Didn't I just post about Mellel in the post above yours? haha...

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet