1. Sonia Kay Gold

    Consultant at 120 Feet

    06 May 2009 19:10pm

    Sonia Kay

    I'm considering making the switch to Mac from PC, but as a project manager the thing that is holding me back is the fact that MS Project is not available as Mac Software (don't want to go down that whole partitioning/boot camp road)

    I'm looking for viable alternatives.  So far what I've found is Merlin and Omniplan.  Anybody got any experience of using these?  Have they come up to scratch?  Have they been restrictive in anyway?  Are project plans easily exportable into other formats for clients/team members?  All tips gratefully received.

  2. Tom Stuart Staff

    Chief Architect at Econsultancy

    06 May 2009 20:44pm

    Tom Stuart

    Hi Sonia,

    OmniPlan is very good; it imports/exports MS Project files and has a free trial, so that's probably about the best you're going to get in terms of native OS X software.

    If you wanted to be really radical and agile you could switch to a web-based product like Basecamp which of course will work on any machine with a web browser, making collaboration with clients and other team members about a million times easier.

    Either way, good luck with the switch!

    Cheers,

    -Tom

  3. Sonia Kay Gold

    Consultant at 120 Feet

    07 May 2009 08:38am

    Sonia Kay

    Thanks Tom, reassuring to hear your feedback on OmniPlan.  A friend of mine has also been in touch to say how good OmniGraffle is as an alternative to Visio.

    I've used basecamp before for things like collaborative documentation and running bug logs, but never really found the scheduling side of it adequate to be able to do complex ganntt charts which can then be packaged up and sent on to clients.  But it may well be worth another look, I haven't tried it for a while.

    Looks like I'm getting a step closer to the world of Mac!

  4. Tom Stuart Staff

    Chief Architect at Econsultancy

    07 May 2009 08:46am

    Tom Stuart

    I'd second the recommendation of OmniGraffle. I do all my diagramming in OmniGraffle and all my outlining in OmniOutliner, and I'm very happy with them both. I should do an advert.

  5. Sonia Kay Gold

    Consultant at 120 Feet

    07 May 2009 08:51am

    Sonia Kay

    Shame we're not having this chat on Twitter.  Omni might pick it up and send you a mars bar or something :-)

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