how to open in windows a macintosh excel file

[Guest]

I have copied a file that I created in windows excell to a floppy disk (that
has only windows word files on it) and tried to open the excell file on
another computer running Windows XP excell. The windows XP machine said the
disc was not formatted or was formatted as a macintosh excell file.

WHAT in the world do I do?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

First, you should NEVER open an Office file on a floppy. Doing so
invites corruption. Copy the file to your hard drive first.

MacOS can read either Windows or Mac formatted floppies. Windows,
without third-party software, can only read Windows format. If you
formatted the floppy on a Mac, make sure you formatted it as a Windows
disk.

MacXL 98/01/v.X/2004 files have exactly the same format as WinXL
97/00/02/03 files, so there shouldn't be any problem using them
interchangeably.

Note that Mac OS will write an additional file to the disk with resource
information. If your file is named MyFile.xls, you may, if your settings
allow you to see "hidden" files, see a file called .MyFile.xls when you
browse the disk in Windows. XL won't know what to make of *that* file,
since it's not an XL file. Open the XL file instead...

 

[JE McGimpsey]

First, you should NEVER open an Office file on a floppy. Doing so
invites corruption. Copy the file to your hard drive first.

MacOS can read either Windows or Mac formatted floppies. Windows,
without third-party software, can only read Windows format. If you
formatted the floppy on a Mac, make sure you formatted it as a Windows
disk.

MacXL 98/01/v.X/2004 files have exactly the same format as WinXL
97/00/02/03 files, so there shouldn't be any problem using them
interchangeably.

Note that Mac OS will write an additional file to the disk with resource
information. If your file is named MyFile.xls, you may, if your settings
allow you to see "hidden" files, see a file called .MyFile.xls when you
browse the disk in Windows. XL won't know what to make of *that* file,
since it's not an XL file. Open the XL file instead...

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Sorry for the double post...

 

[Dave Peterson]

From someone who almost cried when I tried to use a Mac (before Windows,
though), is that how mac's know what program the file is associated with? (And
how much memory to allocate???)

Just curious (for no apparent reason).

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Mac files have two "forks" - the data fork and the resource fork. For
data files, the resource fork contains a File Creator code and a File
Type code that older MacOSes use to determine which application is used.
With MacOS X, that fork is still created, but the OS can also use
extensions.

In older MacOSes, memory allocation is done at the application level.
Mac OS X dynamically allocates memory to apps as necessary, the same as
any other Unix-based OS.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Thanks for the info.

Mac files have two "forks" - the data fork and the resource fork. For
data files, the resource fork contains a File Creator code and a File
Type code that older MacOSes use to determine which application is used.
With MacOS X, that fork is still created, but the OS can also use
extensions.

In older MacOSes, memory allocation is done at the application level.
Mac OS X dynamically allocates memory to apps as necessary, the same as
any other Unix-based OS.