Mac leopard to Windows XP and Word

D

DavidM

I am trying to read a word file created on an Apple running Leopard and
Office 2008 for Mac. I am running Windows XP and Office 2000. I have
downloaded the compatibility patch and can read Office 2007 files from pcs,
but I cannot read Word files sent from Leopard. Any ideas?
 
J

Janine

Hi David,

Word 2008 is not compatible as far as I know. Word 2004 Mac is - so save it
on the Mac with an option to Save As Word 2004 if Word 2008 provides that
(most probably not!).

Also try the Mac group microsoft.public.mac.office.word
Janine
 
J

Janine

Here is a quote from John McGHIE from the Mac group - so subscribe...

"Well, we are delighted to help you here...

The first thing: Save your files as a "Word 2008 document" and send those.
Do not say ANYTHING about Mac Word. If you do not tell the PC users that it
came from a Mac, the majority of them will open it just fine.

The ones that can't open Word 2008 documents on the PC are missing one or
more important updates: you should advise them to go to the Microsoft site
and download all the updates they are missing, including the "Compatibility
Pack". When they do that, they too will be able to read your documents.

If you send it as PDF, most users on the PC will be able to open it (99.9
per cent). However, if you send it as a PDF with an embedded "document"
attachment, again, those who have not updated will fail. THEY need to go to
the Adobe site and download their updates.

Apple Mail has a poor track record of sending stuff to Windows boxes. You
can do it, but you need to set Mail to send "Windows friendly attachments".
See the Mail help topic " Windows users have problems with files I send".

You will have an easier time of it if you use Entourage to send attachments:
you can set Entourage to send in MIME format, and if you do, almost nobody
will have problems with it :)

When sending Word 2008 documents, it is safest to Zip the file using
Finder's "Create Archive" command and send the zipped version. This works
around problems with email setup at the PC end.

If you save a document as "Word 97 compatible", then yes, you may get
problems. It is best to avoid that, because when you down-convert the file
you may lose some information.

If you have to save back, save back to the "Word 2004" version, and make
sure you add the .doc extension to the name to guide it through the system
at the other end.

Hope this helps
 

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