Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Won’t be required at school. Not sure about other screen. No special software required AFAIK.
The issue is that I think she needs it today or tomorrow at the latest so eBay may not suit.

I don’t really understand your point. I’m used to MS Word and I think that’s what they use in school. There is some sort of discounted MS Office available through the school so I would have thought that’s what she needs to use.
To be fair, I’m old and not very computer literate.

word and onedrive can do the same job as dropbox/sheets etc

Uh get her to use google apps or some such cloud app. Forget MS word and remembering to save files, this isn’t the 1950’s

To be fair, office will happily save to the cloud and if you try to manually save a doc then the app reminds you that versioning and saving are automatic and tells you there's no need to save. You can use the web editor, iOS, MacOS, Android, Windows all changeably and they'll happily function as you'd expect.
Lots of MS isn't from the 1950s anymore.

If they use MS Word in school, stick to that

What kind of budget do you have?

Budget is limited to £500 but I would like to spend less.

Something from here perhaps? https://minkosmacs.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=76

Her homework may be recoverable. You could pull the hard drive out and pop it in a caddy and plug it into another PC or Mac.
Your budget is 500 right? I'd defo grab a MacBook Air for that or there were also MacBooks going for that price on this forum. Let me see if I can dig one out...

It was @mariofuckinghantous but looks like they are all sold, unless they have any more to list?

Could anyone recommend a laptop which would work and not break the bank please.

Perhaps a bit out there but an iPad and the keyboard + the MS Apps might do the trick and be a bit more robust / easier to use than a laptop? A cursory glance at Apple.com looks like you can get a 10.2" + the keyboard for £500. Then you get a subscription to MS Office 365 which includes Word, Excel etc.

Also easier to lock the fuck down and prevent dark shit

She has an iPad but it’s old - maybe 6 years old. And an iPad mini. Strange that she didn’t mention that as a solution although she mentioned it wasn’t updating so that may be the issue.

i bought my mother in law a lenovo ideapad, was cheap and does the job. get them from pc world or john lewis or somewhere.
one of these: https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-s130-81j20076uk-laptop-intel-celeron-4gb-ram-64gb-emmc-14-inch-mineral-grey/p3991485

Yeah you need the new ones as I think Apple are trying to shift them in to low end Laptop replacement do-it-all devices, hence the pencil and the keyboard and the HDMI adapter.

You also need a bit of a leap of imagination to think that it can do what a laptop can.

huh that sounds really patronising - sorry didn't mean to be.

How's the build quality on that? Will it survive being lugged around by a teenager for a few years?

In a less direct manner, the point is that apps like Google docs are cloud based so automatically back up as you type. The documents you have saved can also be accessed from any device you log into, so a phone, tablet, laptop or friends/schools device.

I use an iPad plus a Bluetooth keyboard for writing and it’s a great solution. MS office apps are all on the App Store these days too. If other family members have iOS devices you can turn on family sharing and share purchased apps between members. As a parent you could also set ‘screen time’ limits on certain apps and/or lock down certain apps entirely.

What’s the devices main use going to be? Online research and writing word documents? If it’s just that, an iPad can do that as well, if not better than a laptop.

The App versions of Office are a bit shit though. If you're going that route you may as well get a Chromebook that's cheaper and designed for keyboard/mouse and run the Android app.

it seems pretty good. plus i think lenovo sell every single part as a spare just in case, every nut and bolt.

The App versions of Office are a bit shit though.

In what sense? I've only used them for a bit and they seemed OK, like what you'd expect on a tablet device. Bad enough to make a 13yr old's life difficult?

Or use Word and Onedrive which does the same.

My experience of using full fat office and onedrive is better than Google docs although may be overkill for some.

Formatting doesn't always translate properly is the major bugbear. Limits on exactly what is and isn't available in terms of tools, etc

And obviously in Excel you're missing loads of stuff.

Any recommendations on a tagging app for OSX?

Since the Remote app stopped working under Catalina for Music, I need an other way to control my music on the Mini we use for media. As we already use Plex for video, might as well do audio too.

I have seen some ways on getting iTunes on Catalina, but still on Mojave for the Mini and hesitant to upgrade.

But would like to ready my library just in case...

I might have a child just so I can teach my 13 year old how to use markdown and Ulysses so they can avoid MS Word for life.

Sorry, no idea. I used Tag&Rename for mine but it's Windows only.

Nah, LaTex is the way forward.

Ulysses

What is a;

A pleasant, focused writing experience

when it's at home?