Can't read Word 2007 RTF on Mac Word 2004

[wogears]

Hello!

I just discovered that Word 2004 cannot open RTF (not, repeat not, XML)
files created with Word 2007 (beta) on Win XP! I am able to read the
files if I resave them with Word 2003 (Win). Has anyone else seen this
problem? The file APPEARS to open on the Mac, but it is completely
blank!

Any help on this would be enormously appreciated.

Les

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Les,

Sorry not to be of more help--but can you test to see if the problem occurs
with just *this* file, or if it happens with any file saved as RTF?

 

[Michel Bintener]

After reading your post, I decided to give this a try, so I saved a
12-page-long Word 2007 document with graphics and other advanced features,
such as a table of contents, in RTF. Word 2004 was able to open it
flawlessly, and it looked exactly the same way it did in Word 2007. My guess
is that there must be something peculiar about your files that prevents them
from being properly converted into RTF.

Hello!

I just discovered that Word 2004 cannot open RTF (not, repeat not, XML)
files created with Word 2007 (beta) on Win XP! I am able to read the
files if I resave them with Word 2003 (Win). Has anyone else seen this
problem? The file APPEARS to open on the Mac, but it is completely
blank!

Any help on this would be enormously appreciated.

Les

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Poliwog]

Hi!

This happened with several files--not sure what's going on. I CAN say
this. If I open the file in Word 2004, I get blank pages. If I then
click 'Show Invisibles' (the paragraph symbol), I can see the entire
text of the document. It will all be underlined with red dots, as
though every word were misspelled, and spaces will be indicated with
question marks rather than dots as is usual. I reverted the XP box to
Office 2003, so I can't experiment at this point, but I may try 2007
again in the near future--I do think the XML thing is the 'wave of the
future'!

If I have time thie weekend, I will give it another try, now that I
know for certain that XPs 'System Restore' will return me to a
functional Office 2003 should it be necessary. You know, XP is very
stable, never crashes, P and P works great, but I still go to the
ancient Mac when I want to just write in peace!

Les

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello Les -

Here are a few thoughts interjected below:

This happened with several files--not sure what's going on. I CAN say
this. If I open the file in Word 2004, I get blank pages. If I then
click 'Show Invisibles' (the paragraph symbol), I can see the entire
text of the document. It will all be underlined with red dots, as
though every word were misspelled, and spaces will be indicated with
question marks rather than dots as is usual.

The dots suggest that the text has somehow been formatted as 'Hidden', which
is why it appears when the non-printing characters are displayed. The fact
that the files were created with a Beta of '07 may have something to do with
it - the ?s still shouldn't be there. It's possible that there is some level
of corruption or a font issue which could be causing that.

I reverted the XP box to
Office 2003, so I can't experiment at this point

Well, yes, you can ... Have you tried opening the files in Word 2003? See
if that produces any similar result. If there are *any* anomalies it
suggests that the problem lies more with the files or '07. If the files open
'flawlessly' in '03 it suggests that the problem lies more with '04's
translation of the RTF.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Poliwog]

Hi!

The suspect files opened perfectly in Office 2003 on my laptop; in
fact, my workaround for the problem was to resave the files in 2003,
after which the Mac had no problems. I should also note that the files
would open in TextEdit on the Mac, but the formatting had a few
problems (unexpected hard returns, etc.)

Unfortunately, I'm pushing to get out a draft MS on this project, so
I'm not sure what I'm going to do here. I think I will try installing
(but not activating) a release copy of 2007 sometime when it's
available. (Officially available, I mean. Pirate copies I can get.<bg>)

Les

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm afraid I don't have anything to offer in terms of suggestions, but
Office 12 for the PC (2007) was released 30 November.

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Michel, I'm guessing that you might be using a slightly later version than
Les. You have the version that went to manufacturing, right? While Les
maybe has a beta version? This could be a difference there, maybe.

Daiya

 

[Michel Bintener]

No, I used Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh, i.e. the latest (and also
last) beta available. I only tried one document, mind you, and that document
had previously been saved in Word's new .docx format. I'm not sure if that
makes a difference, but I guess it's worth some testing. Will try some more
documents the next time I have access to the PC.

Michel, I'm guessing that you might be using a slightly later version than
Les. You have the version that went to manufacturing, right? While Les
maybe has a beta version? This could be a difference there, maybe.

Daiya

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***