Ability to read Word 2004 documents?

[jsafdie]

Hi folks -- John McGhie and several other mavens were able to help me
with a problem some weeks back, so I'm hoping one of you has some
insight on a similar problem.

I'm using the Office 2004 "Student-Teacher" software on my MacBook to
comment on and grade my student essays. Specifically, they turn them
in to me as Word documents, and I open them, highlight some simple
grammar or spelling problems, make comments using the "Comments"
feature, add textual comments of my own, and return them. (And I have
had some success in opening .docx documents now!)

However . . there are now three students who claim that that they
have Word, but are unable to read the comments I made on their essays
-- they see the colored highlights I made, but not the comments. I
think they might only have Word 2000. Does that make them unable to
read my comments using Word with this special Mac program? If so, I'm
wasting a LOT of my time!

Any insight greatly appreciated . . . thanks!

Joe Safdie

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Joe:

No, Comments go back to Word 97 -- they just have not yet learned to look in
the HELP.

You are a teacher: TEACH them

Seriously: Comments are something that the user has to turn ON. Many
business users have yet to learn about this feature also. There are clear
step-by-step directions for whichever version of Word they are using in the
help.

I am amazed at how much better the help file performs if the user looks in
it... One of the most important lessons the students need to learn is that
THEY are responsible for learning how to use the tool of their trade, and if
they want to work as a professional, Microsoft Word is going to be one of
those. Employers will not cut them any slack in the workplace if they can't
use a word-processor properly

Sometimes you just have to say something encouraging like "I explained this
in the comments: if you can't find the comments you're too stupid to be in
my class!"

Cheers

Hi folks -- John McGhie and several other mavens were able to help me
with a problem some weeks back, so I'm hoping one of you has some
insight on a similar problem.

I'm using the Office 2004 "Student-Teacher" software on my MacBook to
comment on and grade my student essays. Specifically, they turn them
in to me as Word documents, and I open them, highlight some simple
grammar or spelling problems, make comments using the "Comments"
feature, add textual comments of my own, and return them. (And I have
had some success in opening .docx documents now!)

However . . there are now three students who claim that that they
have Word, but are unable to read the comments I made on their essays
-- they see the colored highlights I made, but not the comments. I
think they might only have Word 2000. Does that make them unable to
read my comments using Word with this special Mac program? If so, I'm
wasting a LOT of my time!

Any insight greatly appreciated . . . thanks!

Joe Safdie

--
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]