I have a client who bought MS Office Home and Business 2010 for the list price of $279.99 from Best Buy. We installed it, and she ended up not liking it because it was too different from MS Office 2003, which is what she was used to. So I uninstalled it for her and put MS Office 2003 back on. I uninstalled it because MS Office 2010 and MS Office 2003 can’t be installed on the same computer at the same time. It makes both of them not work correctly.

Since Best Buy won’t take back software after it has been opened, I threw it up on eBay for her.

By the way, I called Microsoft, and they confirmed that the 3 installs that came with this software are still available.

So if you’re interested, head on over to eBay! This auction ends this Sunday, March 6, 2011, around 4pm PST, which is in 1 day and 20 hours. Good luck and happy bidding!

Los Angeles Computer Repair | Los Angeles Computer Tech | Computer Repair Services

I recently bought Pages ’09 (for only $19.99, btw) for a client via the Mac App Store on my Mac, because you need at least Mac OS X 10.6 to get the Mac App Store on your computer, which he did not have. And my client wanted to buy Pages separately. He did not want to buy the whole iWord suite. He also didn’t feel like leaving the house. ;) So logged onto the Mac App Store, bought it, and downloaded it thinking I could just take the installation file, copy it onto a USB flash drive, and then install it on his computer.

However, that’s not how it went down. I ended up having to keep it, because at the time, it looked like when you buy an app from the Mac App Store, you don’t buy the installation file, you buy the installation of the program on the Mac that you are using to buy the app, because right after it downloaded, it installed without asking me. And nowhere on my Mac was there an installation file for it.

However, I just found out yesterday that if you log into your account on the Mac App Store on another Mac of yours, you can download and install an app that you have already purchased and installed on the Mac that you used to buy it. Very cool of Apple to do that.

Anyway, back to issue at hand. So what happened was I already had Pages ’08 on my Mac. So I figured that when I downloaded and installed Pages ’09, it would simply take the place of the older version. NOT SO. Pages ’08 and Pages ’09 can co-exist on the same Mac, meaning they can both be installed on the same Mac and each be fully functional without any issues. I did not know this. So when I launched Pages from my Dock (the launch pad on the bottom of the screen of every Mac where you launch apps), it would launch Pages ’08.

I didn’t know why, so I called Apple Care (800.APL.CARE) and they told me that when you buy an app that is part of a suite (e.g. the iWork suite is made up of the following apps: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), it does not put it in the folder for that suite. It simply installs it as a standalone app and lists it with all of the other apps in the Applications folder, NOT in the suite folder.

To give you a visual, here is a screenshot of how the iWork ’08 suite is listed in the Applications folder when it is installed as a suite from a disk:

You see how Pages is INSIDE the iWork ’08 folder?

Now here is a screenshot of how Pages ’09 is listed in the Applications folder on your Mac when you buy it from the Mac App Store and download & install it:

As you can see, this time Pages is listed with all of the other apps. It’s not in the iWork folder. This proves that Pages ’08 and Pages ’09 can co-exist on the same computer, because they are not located in the same folder. So, in order to launch Pages ’09, I either have to go into the Applications folder, which is not necessary, or I can just drag the icon for Pages ’09 from the Applications folder down to my Dock, which is exactly what I did.

And with regard to the icon for Pages ’08 that is already on my Dock, I can either click on it, drag it up, and let it go on the desktop so it will disappear in a puff of smoke, and I will just have one icon for Pages in my dock, or I can just leave both of them in the Dock and remember which one is which, or put them in different locations on my Dock.

So if you ever buy an app separately on the Mac App Store that is part of a Mac suite like iWork or iLife, then remember to go into the Applications folder, click on the icon for the newly installed app, which will be listed with all of the other apps, and drag it down to your Dock.

Enjoy!

Los Angeles Computer Repair | Los Angeles Computer Tech | Computer Repair Services

Today I attempted to purchase an Apple application called, Pages (Mac’s equivalent to MS Word), on my Mac via the Mac App Store. Pages is part of Apple’s iLife software suite. It’s a great suite and is MUCH less expensive than M$’s Office.

Anyway, since my client does not have the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X, Snow Leopard 10.6, and you need Snow Leopard to get the Mac App Store, I decided to purchase it for him on my Mac since I had the Mac App Store already installed.

Well, we signed in with his Apple ID, clicked on “Buy,” entered his password again, and NOTHING. Tried it again. NOTHING. Signed me out of iTunes thinking me being logged into my iTunes account on my Mac while logging into his account via the Mac App store was causing an issue. It wasn’t. Still didn’t work.

Called Apple, and we tried doing it via a different user account on my Mac. Still no go. So they told us to contact iTunes. That was going to take too long, so I thought of the brilliant concept to just buy it for him and have him pay me for it. So I did.

When I clicked “Buy” while logged in with my account, it worked flawlessly. However, there was one thing that we were not aware of. When you buy an app from the Mac App Store, you are not buying the installation file that you can just throw on a USB stick and install on another Mac. You are buying the app being installed on the Mac that you are using to buy it, and that’s it! It works just like a software update. It downloads, and then installs right away.

Just thought I would share that little tidbit with ya so you don’t waste any money buying software for a friend or family member because you have the latest version of Mac OS X and they don’t.

Of course I understand why Apple does this, and I’m sure you do, too. If we were buying the installation file, we could just take it and install it on multiple computers while only paying for one copy.

However, they could monitor that by setting it up so that you have to enter a product key to install it, which would be noted on their servers (Like MS does with their OS), and then it would know that it has already been installed on a system if you try to install it on another Mac.

But, Apple certainly seems to know what they are doing, and I love them for it. So, I’ll let this slide and enjoy the latest version of Pages. ;)

Update: You can actually buy one app and install it on all of your Macs. All you have to do is log into the App store of each of your other Macs with the same Apple ID that you used to purchase it, and it will let you download and install it. You’ll simply do that process for each of your Macs.

The second way of going about this would be to download the trial version of iWork if you don’t mind paying for the whole suite, and then purchase a serial number for it if you like it. However, just realize that if you buy them separately in the App Store, you’ll save $15.

One of our readers pointed this out. Thanks, Justin!

Los Angeles Computer Repair | Los Angeles Computer Tech | Computer Repair Services

Is an application that you are using on your Mac not responding? Do you get the notorious beach ball spinning around, not allowing you to do anything with that app? Or maybe your Mac is slower than usual and you’re not sure why.

Well, in either case, it could simply be a matter of an application not responding, which is an easy fix (see below).

Or, if you are new to the Mac world and are used to hitting Control-Alt-Delete on your PC keyboard to bring up Task Manager so that you can force an application to close by “end tasking” it when it is not responding, then you’ll want to know how to do that on a Mac, as it could be helpful to you in the future, or it could even be helpful to you now.

Well, true to Mac form, it’s very easy to do.