Wondering which Windows apps are getting the job done on Macs? Here are the most popular picks...
The good news: QuickBooks 2011 for Mac made huge strides (Jan/11, 3.5 stars). The bad: Its key failing is that it doesn’t allow interoperability between Mac and PC users. That means if your accountant, clients, or anyone else whom you must obey is using the Windows version, the Mac version won’t work for you. And as Mac|Life’s reviewer Stuart Gripman put it, “Windows users get more sharing options, more reports, access to a whole range of third-party software integration tools, and at least eight other features absent from the Mac version of QuickBooks.” So it’s no exaggeration to call QuickBooks one of the primary reasons that many of us need to run Windows on our Macs.
Word 2011 for Mac is fine and dandy, but Outlook 2011 lags far behind its Windows equivalent.
Yes, Office 2011 for Mac achieved new heights with the latest Mac edition of this omnipresent suite. But for longtime users of Outlook for Windows, Outlook 2011 won’t impress. It doesn’t let you create archived folders, the address book’s a bit buggy, views of tasks aren’t configurable, and there’s no calendar syncing for non-Exchange users. Until Microsoft patches Outlook 2011—a major update is due in “the first half of 2011,” which was as specific as the Microsoft rep whom we queried would get—the Windows version remains the only choice for many Outlook users.
For many professional project managers, it’s all about Microsoft Project.
Another area where Windows software rules the roost is project management. In this case, viable Mac options exist—especially OmniPlan (omnigroup.com) and Merlin (projectwizards.net). Both import and export Microsoft Project files, but both have different menus and terminology that takes some getting used to for Project pros. But in many businesses, Project is the standard, and files are shared around so regularly that sticking with the Windows version is the only realistic option.
One of the most common reasons for needing to run Windows on Macs is enterprise-specific software—a custom app built specifically for a business. Since we use nothing like that here at Mac|Life, we reached out to our Twitter followers to understand how this works. One sysadmin at Western Michigan University told us about a legacy database that requires Internet Explorer 6 and Java Runtime Environment 1.5.10, while a partner in a prototyping company shared that his firm runs a VM to power the proprietary software for his 3D printer. If you’ve got a similar situation, Boot Camp or a VM will keep you and your Mac working smoothly together.
Aside from those key highlights, there’s lots of other interesting Windows apps. So many, in fact, that we couldn’t fit them all in this article, so for a list of our favorite Windows utilities, head over to maclife.com/flo_utils.
millman
April 06, 2011 at 1:05pm
You forgot one important piece of information. Parallels can virtualize a BootCamp installation. I installed Windows 7 in BootCamp for when I want to play those really intensive games like Crysis or a fast running development environment for .NET development. However, I can launch that same Windows 7 install from with Mac OS X using Parallels. Great for when I just need to do some quick .NET development and want to have quick access to my Mac applications and environment.
The only real downside is that each time you switch between running Windows directly off of your BootCamp partition and Parallels Windows will need to log back out after you login to update your shared profile.
