Collaborating with 2007 in 2008

[Bill Weylock]

I collaborate many times a week, and often many times a day, with colleagues
who use Office 2003, and increasingly 2007.

I¹ve just read that there are ugly compatibility issues between 2008 and
2007. I¹m guessing they are going to occur primarily in Excel, because I
notice that some of the cooler things don¹t seem to be on the Mac side.

But is there a list of known issues? I am going to be very disappointed if I
have to do all my work in Fusion and 2007 after buying a new iMac. I figured
the compatibility would be wonderful between 2008 and 2007. Oops?

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

I am afraid the compatibility between Office 2008 and Windows Office
"anything" on the PC side is not good.

The compatibility with Office 2007 has some real show-stoppers,
particularly, as you surmise, in Excel.

No, the "list" is not actually ready yet. However, if you look in the Help
in 2008, there is a "Known Issues" topic that is being updated daily. The
Help in Office 2008 updates dynamically, provided that you allow it to go
online.

I would also have a hunt around on the MacTopia site. There is a new
version of the Admin Guide due to appear literally any day now, and that may
have more information in it.

Hope this helps

I collaborate many times a week, and often many times a day, with colleagues
who use Office 2003, and increasingly 2007.

I¹ve just read that there are ugly compatibility issues between 2008 and
2007. I¹m guessing they are going to occur primarily in Excel, because I
notice that some of the cooler things don¹t seem to be on the Mac side.

But is there a list of known issues? I am going to be very disappointed if I
have to do all my work in Fusion and 2007 after buying a new iMac. I figured
the compatibility would be wonderful between 2008 and 2007. Oops?

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Bill Weylock]

It helps a lot.

Sadly, it means I still have to do a lot of my primary work in Fusion/Office
2007. I was really hoping for better.

Thanks, John!

Hi Bill:

I am afraid the compatibility between Office 2008 and Windows Office
"anything" on the PC side is not good.

The compatibility with Office 2007 has some real show-stoppers,
particularly, as you surmise, in Excel.

No, the "list" is not actually ready yet. However, if you look in the Help
in 2008, there is a "Known Issues" topic that is being updated daily. The
Help in Office 2008 updates dynamically, provided that you allow it to go
online.

I would also have a hunt around on the MacTopia site. There is a new
version of the Admin Guide due to appear literally any day now, and that may
have more information in it.

Hope this helps

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Bob Brookshire]

This is ridiculous! Office 2008 ought to read Office 2007 files without any conversion.

 

[John McGhie]

It does

What they don't say is "But it can't understand everything in them!" A bit
like me and Mathematics Textbooks really. I am fine all the way up to
Chapter 1...

The new XML document formats are very similar to web pages (almost exactly
the same). Your browser can read the HTML, but it may or may not be able to
read the other widgets on the page, depending on whether or not you have the
correct plug-ins installed.

Now, you may not like this situation any more than I do. But the sad fact
is that Office 2008 can only go so far. If you need to go further, one
"plug-in" you are going to need on your Mac is a copy of Windows Vista, and
another is a copy of Office 2007.

If you haven't got them, and you get stuck, give us a shout in here: we'll
try to find a way to help you out in an emergency.

Hope this helps

This is ridiculous! Office 2008 ought to read Office 2007 files without any
conversion.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

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]

 

[Bill Weylock]

Since we¹re talking.... Do you like Vista? And any idea what version I
should get? I usually want everything including bells and whistles, but
applications are really business. Of course, since I¹m doing this... Might
want a game to run, but I would never care about joystick games. The joy
passes me by.

Thanks as always.

Many have told me to stay with XP until SP1 for Vista at least.

It does

What they don't say is "But it can't understand everything in them!" A bit
like me and Mathematics Textbooks really. I am fine all the way up to
Chapter 1...

The new XML document formats are very similar to web pages (almost exactly
the same). Your browser can read the HTML, but it may or may not be able to
read the other widgets on the page, depending on whether or not you have the
correct plug-ins installed.

Now, you may not like this situation any more than I do. But the sad fact
is that Office 2008 can only go so far. If you need to go further, one
"plug-in" you are going to need on your Mac is a copy of Windows Vista, and
another is a copy of Office 2007.

If you haven't got them, and you get stuck, give us a shout in here: we'll
try to find a way to help you out in an emergency.

Hope this helps

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Bill Weylock]

I agree. And it¹s very confusing as well.

Just today someone sent me a word doc with a little activeX demo in it. Even
though I opened in 2008 with macros enabled and maintained the .doc format,
it still was messed up when reopened in 2007. So I am sadly beginning to
work strictly in 2007 when I need to collaborate on a document I didn¹t
originate.

This is ridiculous! Office 2008 ought to read Office 2007 files without any
conversion.

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

This is REALLY not the place

Personally, I don't think even its mother "likes" Vista. However:

For any long-term Mac users who lack the tap-dancing in a minefield skills
needed to maintain Windows, then yes, I recommend Vista. It is much, much
better able to protect itself from "Bad Things That Can Happen".

It is also much more "automatic" in maintaining itself.

However, it also sucks substantially more horsepower and memory than
anything before it. And the more bells and whistles you add, the greedier
it becomes.

Running in Parallels on a 2GHz MacBook, I loaded Vista Ultimate. I soon
started turning things off to get a bit more speed out of it.

Have a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

And really THINK about what it is you want to do with the product. For
example, Windows Instant Search is a lot better than Spotlight. But since
you already have Spotlight, you don't want to run both, because it's a pain
on the Mac until you learn how to disable it.

I would start with Vista Basic, and upgrade only if you need to.

Cheers

Since we¹re talking.... Do you like Vista? And any idea what version I
should get? I usually want everything including bells and whistles, but
applications are really business. Of course, since I¹m doing this... Might
want a game to run, but I would never care about joystick games. The joy
passes me by.

Thanks as always.

Many have told me to stay with XP until SP1 for Vista at least.




Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

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

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

There are answers to both those problems Pop off to the Windows groups
and talk to the experts

Cheers

OK, maybe one more round before the thread police descend on us... Wait!
That¹s you!

I just tried the compatibility checker for Vista using Vmware Fusion... It
wanted me to have a different video card among other things. I guess I¹ll
wait. A lot of the cool things it does are already, as you say, available
under Leopard.

Speaking of automatic stuff, though, the instant scan utility in Office 2007
runs constantly on my notebook PC. I have to turn it off when I¹m trying to
do serious work because it degrades performance horribly.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

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