Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The English-Teacher-in-Japan's Mac Toolbox 2
Word Processors for the English MacFan in Japan
Hello again. Well, your response to yesterday's discussion of English speakers using a Mac in Japan was very positive, so I think I'll make a little series out of it. I apologize that yesterday's post was long-winded, and in some places difficult to follow. I hope that by limiting future articles to a single software category I'll be able to keep it shorter and simpler.
Yesterday I recommended Pages (part of Apple's iWork(日本語版)
software package). Pages is not just a word processor, it's also a page layout program like an Adobe Illustrator lite. It has many templates for easily putting together newsletters, handouts, calendars, worksheets and so on. The program is OS language aware--if you boot up your iBook in English, Pages' menu bars and help are all in English, even if you buy the program in Japan. (Don't worry about the 日本語版-"Japanese Version"-in this case.) Pages does documents containing both Japanese and English very well. It can even open MS Word files, and it can export your work as MS Word files if you are trading with Windows users. At 8,190 yen for both iWork's Pages and Keynote presentation software together, it's a bargain.
Another popular Apple word processor is the aging AppleWorks suite. It is included with every new "consumer" Mac, meaning iMacs and iBooks. If you bought your Mac in an English speaking country you already have it. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, AppleWorks on a Mac bought in Japan is Japanese only. Unless you are already familiar with the program, or else confident in Japanese, you will want a word processor that processes Japanese, but functions with English as its interface language. You can buy the English version of Appleworks from Apple Store Japan online, but iWork is a better deal.
One other major word processing software with a good reputation for multi-lingual performance is Nisus Writer Express 2.5. The most recent version has overcome numerous stability problems and is receiving favorable review across the net. Best of all, you can buy it online for about $70 and download it. The site is set up to accept credit cards from a variety of countries, meaning your Japanese credit card should not pose a problem. (This isn't always the case when buying download products on the net!)
Finally, let me go back to MS Office. The English version of Office either from the Apple Store or Amazon Japan
runs about 51,000 yen. I think that's just too much. If you already have an older version of Word, Amazon Japan sells the English Upgrade Version
for 13,080 yen. If you feel comfortable dealing in Japanese as your main language, you may be eligible for the Japanese academic version of Office 2004 Mac
if you're a full time student or teacher in Japan.
Because I not only teach, but also work at a city hall translating documents between English and Japanese, I needed to be able to read and write Word and Excel documents. My answer was to purchase the Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2004 Macintosh
while I was home in the States.
(You may be able to buy it at the US Amazonsite with your Japanese credit card, but they only ship software within the US borders, so you'll need someone to forward it to you if you can't get to America. Technically, full time students/teachers outside the US are not eligible for the academic pack, but when I bought one at CompUSA along with a computer and a bunch of other software titles, no one asked for proof my my status as a teacher. One great advantage of the academic pack is that you get three serial numbers. This allows you to install Office 2004 on your desktop at home, your laptop, and your computer at school. Historically, MS has wanted us to buy Word 3 times in that case.)
If you trade documents between English and Japanese versions of Word and Excel, and between Mac versions and Windows versions, that makes for a pretty complex situation, as far as compatibility goes. Pages and some other word processors claim to read and write documents in MS format, but none are perfect. Even MS Office itself has a few compatibility issues across languages and platforms, though it's the best choice.
If you are new to Japan and anticipate that most of your word processing will be producing your own stuff--worksheets, handouts, tests, letters and so on--Pages (or Nisus)will meet your needs and delight you. If, however, you will be trading files with co-workers using different languages and different computing platforms, you'll probably need to invest in MS Office soon. You may be able to persuade your company to foot the bill as I did.
Good luck with your multi-lingual word processing on the Mac. Full disclosure: The Amazon links here will take you to the product pages. If you choose to order from Amazon I would get a few pennies because I'm an Associate. If that makes you uncomfortable, go to their respective home pages and search for the product you want, bypassing my links.
¶ 10/04/2005 04:10:00 PM
Hello again. Well, your response to yesterday's discussion of English speakers using a Mac in Japan was very positive, so I think I'll make a little series out of it. I apologize that yesterday's post was long-winded, and in some places difficult to follow. I hope that by limiting future articles to a single software category I'll be able to keep it shorter and simpler.
Yesterday I recommended Pages (part of Apple's iWork(日本語版)
software package). Pages is not just a word processor, it's also a page layout program like an Adobe Illustrator lite. It has many templates for easily putting together newsletters, handouts, calendars, worksheets and so on. The program is OS language aware--if you boot up your iBook in English, Pages' menu bars and help are all in English, even if you buy the program in Japan. (Don't worry about the 日本語版-"Japanese Version"-in this case.) Pages does documents containing both Japanese and English very well. It can even open MS Word files, and it can export your work as MS Word files if you are trading with Windows users. At 8,190 yen for both iWork's Pages and Keynote presentation software together, it's a bargain.Another popular Apple word processor is the aging AppleWorks suite. It is included with every new "consumer" Mac, meaning iMacs and iBooks. If you bought your Mac in an English speaking country you already have it. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, AppleWorks on a Mac bought in Japan is Japanese only. Unless you are already familiar with the program, or else confident in Japanese, you will want a word processor that processes Japanese, but functions with English as its interface language. You can buy the English version of Appleworks from Apple Store Japan online, but iWork is a better deal.
One other major word processing software with a good reputation for multi-lingual performance is Nisus Writer Express 2.5. The most recent version has overcome numerous stability problems and is receiving favorable review across the net. Best of all, you can buy it online for about $70 and download it. The site is set up to accept credit cards from a variety of countries, meaning your Japanese credit card should not pose a problem. (This isn't always the case when buying download products on the net!)
Finally, let me go back to MS Office. The English version of Office either from the Apple Store or Amazon Japan
runs about 51,000 yen. I think that's just too much. If you already have an older version of Word, Amazon Japan sells the English Upgrade Versionfor 13,080 yen. If you feel comfortable dealing in Japanese as your main language, you may be eligible for the Japanese academic version of Office 2004 Macif you're a full time student or teacher in Japan. Because I not only teach, but also work at a city hall translating documents between English and Japanese, I needed to be able to read and write Word and Excel documents. My answer was to purchase the Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2004 Macintosh
while I was home in the States. (You may be able to buy it at the US Amazon
site with your Japanese credit card, but they only ship software within the US borders, so you'll need someone to forward it to you if you can't get to America. Technically, full time students/teachers outside the US are not eligible for the academic pack, but when I bought one at CompUSA along with a computer and a bunch of other software titles, no one asked for proof my my status as a teacher. One great advantage of the academic pack is that you get three serial numbers. This allows you to install Office 2004 on your desktop at home, your laptop, and your computer at school. Historically, MS has wanted us to buy Word 3 times in that case.)If you trade documents between English and Japanese versions of Word and Excel, and between Mac versions and Windows versions, that makes for a pretty complex situation, as far as compatibility goes. Pages and some other word processors claim to read and write documents in MS format, but none are perfect. Even MS Office itself has a few compatibility issues across languages and platforms, though it's the best choice.
If you are new to Japan and anticipate that most of your word processing will be producing your own stuff--worksheets, handouts, tests, letters and so on--Pages (or Nisus)will meet your needs and delight you. If, however, you will be trading files with co-workers using different languages and different computing platforms, you'll probably need to invest in MS Office soon. You may be able to persuade your company to foot the bill as I did.
Good luck with your multi-lingual word processing on the Mac. Full disclosure: The Amazon links here will take you to the product pages. If you choose to order from Amazon I would get a few pennies because I'm an Associate. If that makes you uncomfortable, go to their respective home pages and search for the product you want, bypassing my links.
¶ 10/04/2005 04:10:00 PM
