Section 7.25. Microsoft Money

7.25. Microsoft Money

Microsoft doesn't make Money for the Macintosh (although it certainly makes money from the Macintosh). If you're looking for a home-finances program for Mac OS X, though, look no further than Quicken (www.intuit.com).

You can even export your Money data into Quicken, although not every scrap of information comes through alive . You'll lose your Money abbreviations, comments, and Lifetime Planner information. Fortunately, the important stuffyour accounts and the transactions in them, including categories, classes, and stocks that you've set upcome through in one piece.

Unfortunately, you have to export one account at a time. Furthermore, you'll be creating something called a QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) file as an intermediary between Windows and the Macand this file format can't handle category names longer than 15 characters . Before you begin, then, you might want to take a moment either to shorten them or to make a note of which ones might get truncated in the transfer.

UP TO SPEED
Viruses in Mac OS X (Not!)

One of the greatest perks of moving to Macintosh is that viruses are practically nonexistent. There have been a handful over the last 15 yearsbut only for Mac OS 9, and generally of the "I'll display a funny message on December 13th" variety, rather than the "I'll eat all your files and make you wish you were never born" type.

At this writing, in fact, not a single virus for Mac OS X has been reported .

The one kind of virus that manages to sneak into Mac OS X are Microsoft Word macro viruses that hide in ordinary Word files sent to you by your Windows friends .

Fortunately, on the Mac version of Word, most of these either don't run at all or don't run the way they were intended. Second, whenever you try to open a document that contains macros that you didn't create yourself, you see the error message shown here. All you have to do is click Disable Macros. The file opens normally, 100 percent virus free.

If you have Apple's .Mac service (described on Section 5.4.2), you have free access to McAfee's antivirus softwarejust in case. Otherwise, it usually doesn't make financial sense to buy an antivirus program at all.

Ready? Fire up Money on your Windows PC and then proceed like this:

1. Choose File Export .

   The Export dialog box appears. It wants to know if you are exporting your information to another version of Money ("Loose QIF") or to some other, rival financial program that shall, as far as Microsoft is concerned , remain nameless.

2. In the resulting dialog box (Figure 7-2), choose Strict QIF, and then click OK .

   In the resulting dialog box, you're supposed to name and save the exported file. Make sure you give each account a descriptive name (like Citibank Savings).

   

   Figure 7-2. Use the Strict QIF option. It lops off category names longer than 15 characters.

   
   

3. Specify a name and folder on your PC for the exported file, and then click OK .

   Repeat these three steps for each of your Money accounts.

4. Transfer the exported files to the Mac .

   You can do it via network, burned CD, or any of the other techniques described in Chapter 5. Then move to the Macintosh, open Quicken 2003 or later, and create a new file (see the Quicken instructions). Then, once you've got an empty "check register" before you, continue like this:

5. Choose File Import QIF. In the "Select a QIF file dialog box, navigate to, and open, the first exported account file .

   If all goes well, you should see a progress bar appear and then disappear. When the dust settles, you'll see your Money transactions safely ensconced in Quicken. (If you see a message that some transactions couldn't be completed, don't worry; it's usually just telling you that some of your category names were longer than 15 characters. and have been marked with asterisks to make them easier for you to find and correct.)

If you have more than one account, choose File New Account to set it up, and then repeat step 5 to bring in your other Money accounts.