Using Remote Disc to transfer Office to Macbook Air and Time Machine backup

Question

Hello,
I just bought the new version of Macbook Air. At the store they said that transferring programs such as Office for Mac was as easy as just opening the sharing folderin preferences on my Imac and new Air and it would be a breeze. Do I have to install anything from the DVD that came with the Macbook Air to enable anything, or will I just, by wifi, start the two machines communicating?
Also, is there any easy way to just backup my last Time Machine backup from my Imac to the new Air, or does this take some doing? Can I backup the Time Machine info while still keeping all of the info on it for my usual work with the Imac?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

First, the instruction book that comes with your MBA will walk you step by step through how to use remote disc. Its not just an open and play thing -- you do have to futz with your other machine, copy over security codes to allow communication, etc -- but it will walk you right through it, so the manual is the place to start.
You can use your Time Machine backup by using the Migration Assistant -- that starts right off the bat when you first initialize your MBA right out of the box, or you can go to Applications>Utilities>Migration Assistant anytime you want.
One thing you should be aware -- you don't really have too many options for the migration -- it will copy over everything from your TIme machine so you better have enough room on your MBA to do that. You can select if you don't want files copied (i.e. music) but that is about it. I did just that wiht my MBP backup on TIme machine -- it was about 100 GB and my new MBA is 120 GB. No problems there, worked perfectly.
Don't do your migration wirelessly -- about 100GB wirelessly on the MBA with a fast cable broadband connection would take 16 - 20 HOURS to do a migration. Connect your MBA via the optional ethernet dongle to an ethernet cable, and hardwire that to an open ethernet port on your router -- 100GB will then take about 2 - 3 hours instead.
ANother thing you should be aware of -- while Apple really touts the Remote Disc and wireless capabilities of the MBA, they are for the birds. Invest the 99.00 in a superdrive. It will be the happiest purchase you make for your MBA. If you install your MS Office via remote disc, for example, your installation will take about an hour. It takes 3 minutes with the superdrive. That is the same for anything you try to do via remote disc. Yeah, it works. It just takes hours and hours of your time. I don't know about you, but I have no interest in waiting an hour for a program to install.
As to your final question -- your Time Machine backup will ALWAYS remain associated with your iMac. After the migration assistant completes, you do not have a connection to that backup on your MBA anymore. You will have to do a fresh backup of your MBA if you want to back it up to your TIme machine. The Time machine makes a specific backup for each computer that you own. You can copy from the backup, but you can't reaccess it later. It will remain accessable to your iMac.