Parallels launched Parallels Desktop 14 for the Mac on August 21 with support for Apple’s macOS Mojave plus a a host of new features and enhancements. A virtual machine (VM) system, like.
If you have to use Visual Basic, then you will need the Windows version of Office. I run it in Parallels on my Mac mini and it's fine - actually, it's much more responsive than the Mac version. So long as your machine has lots of RAM, you are good to go.
The only thing I don't like is the way Windows software renders fonts, but that's Windows for you. The current release of Mac Office (whatever patch number it is up to) is actually excellent - responsive, works with retina displays, and they have finally fixed the crashing problem with track-changes mode. I used to lose a lot of work to that (hence the need to use the Windows version of Office). I have to say I love the look of Pages, and it renders fonts beautifully.
But it's missing tonnes of features. I'm not really an Office power user, but Pages doesn't even have a document map.
When you're dealing with very long documents, this is an essential feature for me. I've used Office for mac for years and I've never had any issues with it (wrote my bachelor's thesis with it and so forth), so I can't really recommend going the roundabout way via Parallells. When it comes to the talk about Visual Basic, as a programmer I would recommend that you don't bother with it as it's generally pretty hated language mainly suited for beginners. If you're going to go with a 'Baby's first programming language' that holds your hand I'd recommend going with Python as it's also pretty darn beginner friendly and there's a lot more demand for Python programmers than Visual Basic ones. My needs are fairly basic in Word and Excel and I haven't had any problems using the Mac version. I occasionally help by brother with some real estate brochures which he does in Windows. I can make changes and he is able to use them.
I just prefer working in OS X instead of Windows. Was working in Windows last night making changes to an old Visual Basic program I maintain for a non-profit. That is one of the few programs I have to run in Windows. I have used Office in Parallels but find the Mac version easier to use.
Office for Mac versus Parallels + Office I have both with my Office 365 subscription, and have used both at a novice level. I agree with most posters that the Windows version has more features and works well. Parallels runs this flawlessly.
The main difference I see though is in Outlook. The Mac version is incompatible with everything, no iCloud function whatsoever, even the Windows version has that.
As a long time user of Outlook, I'm hoping the upcoming version of Outlook for Mac has better ability to use iCloud and do things such as importing current outlook folders, etc. Click to expand.Boot Camp will actually take up less space on your computer than Parallels, so I would personally go with Boot Camp. I have an application called Wine and Wine Bottler that I use for the moment which helps me use windoww-based programs, but Boot Camp is much easier to use.
I have Office for Mac. I knew I was going to use it and thats it. I didn't have to go through the process of seeing if it was the best option really since I needed it ASAP. I like it though. I haven't had any issues with it, I can send it to people with windows or print and edit things from a windows computer.
It can still read everything even if i edit the document and send it back to myself. So just pick what helps you the most.
If you think you'll use a few Windows programs and/or don't want to find another program that can work just as well for Mac, then use Boot Camp. If you don't think you'll use anymore Windows programs and/or you know programs that work on Mac that work for you, then I'd suggest getting Office for Mac Hope that helps. Office for Mac is often a CPU hog I use both Office for Mac and on Windows 7 via VMWare Fusion. Mac Office generally works OK, apart from handling some macros, but the consistent problem that I have with MS Word is frequent excessive CPU usage. I find that Word will often suddenly start using 90-99% of one CPU core and the only way to stop it is to close and re-open.