Use of outlook and other office programmes with Macs

After the positive experience I have had with my iPad, I am becoming increasingly tempted by the new Macbook airs.

I have seen some reviews that say that Microsoft Office applications lose some of their functionality on Macs. I seem to remember Nigel Harris insisting on getting Outlook running when he had his Damscene conversion. Does anyone have recent experience of using Outlook, Powerpoint, Word and Excel on a Mac and any issues with transfers to Windows machines?

At the moment I'm not really convinced that calendar, contacts and email on my iPad are anywhere close to Outlook - it's possible that the grownup versions are better.