Hi Bet -

Yep, add me to all the happy Maccies. Nice to see everybody again (hi you guys) - no doubt Andrez and Rowan will be checking in before too long.

iWork is sort of the Apple equivalent to Microsoft's Office Suite. I think Pages is WONDERFUL and wish that it, and not Word, was the industry standard for word processors.   

One other thing you should check out - everybody else take note too - is a fantastic text programme called Scrivener, which will only run on a Mac. It's for large and complex written projects such as a novel, research paper, biography, or anything which requires a lot of note-taking and information processing, where you don't want to be required to think or work in straight lines. I find it invaluable and urge you to take a look at the website, which also has a friendly online users' forum. The whole thing is administered by the man who invented this programme (based in the UK), who is very approachable and hands-on; so you're not dealing with some cold impersonal corporation. The programme is Scrivener and the website is called Literature and Latte - do go check it out. The fact that I first read about it not from an advert but from an article in The Author (British writers' union trade mag) by an enthusiastic private user who was not being paid to endorse it speaks volumes.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/

I don't believe in Windows-bashing (I have a PC too) but another thing to think about is that the Microsoft computers are undergoing something of a turbulent transition at the moment because of their operating system. You'll probably have to buy one with Vista, which a huge number of users are unhappy with. So unhappy that M$ has now released Windows 7 in beta (a trial period to indentify bugs & problems) but any new OS will have teething troubles so I think the headaches are going to continue for some time yet. I love my XP but generally it is a bad idea to cling onto old software because it becomes obsolete. Waiting for the new system (Windows 7 which isn't even officially out yet) to be released and then settle down means - what? - a couple of years yet? - and I personally wouldn't gamble on Vista unless you know from experience that you're satisfied with it. The Mac OS (which also had some initial woes when it debuted) is now functioning smoothly. This is another point to consider when trying to make a decision.

Of course the best thing about getting a Mac is then you can come talk to us about it in Mudcat   ;-)