Compatibility issues with Pages

[Dana18]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have a strange problem that I haven't seen addressed anywhere. I teach a College Freshman English class, and this year, for the first time, a majority of my students are using Pages rather than Word.

I have an Intel Mac running 10.6.1 and Office 2008 12.2.1.

First, when my students send me documents formatted in Pages on a Mac, I can't open them on my Mac in Word.

I taught them how to save their documents in .doc or .dox format, and now I can open their documents. I have them use Times New Roman 12 pt. font, which is what I have set as my default.

I have a grade breakdown sheet that I always paste to the bottom of their documents, but now whenever I paste from Word into a document that was opened by Word on my computer but originally created in Pages, the font changes to Calibri 11pt, and the spacing changes from single to double. Oddly, whenever I do this, I never get a smart tag, so the only way to deal with this is to reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a lot of time.

Is anyone familiar with this problem or other compatibility issues between Pages and Word 2008 (I have found others as well)? Most websites that deal with compatibility issues only deal with issues between Pages and Word for Windows.

 

[Michael Vilain]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have a strange problem that I haven't seen addressed anywhere. I teach a
College Freshman English class, and this year, for the first time, a majority
of my students are using Pages rather than Word.

I have an Intel Mac running 10.6.1 and Office 2008 12.2.1.

First, when my students send me documents formatted in Pages on a Mac, I
can't open them on my Mac in Word.

I taught them how to save their documents in .doc or .dox format, and now I
can open their documents. I have them use Times New Roman 12 pt. font, which
is what I have set as my default.

I have a grade breakdown sheet that I always paste to the bottom of their
documents, but now whenever I paste from Word into a document that was opened
by Word on my computer but originally created in Pages, the font changes to
Calibri 11pt, and the spacing changes from single to double. Oddly, whenever
I do this, I never get a smart tag, so the only way to deal with this is to
reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a lot of time.

Is anyone familiar with this problem or other compatibility issues between
Pages and Word 2008 (I have found others as well)? Most websites that deal
with compatibility issues only deal with issues between Pages and Word for
Windows.

How about "getting with the program" and dumping Word?

 

[John McGhie]

Well, I haven't seen that problem, but I don't use Pages

My first question would be "Which styles are involved?"

Style are the names of the various kinds of formatting used in the text.

I believe that Pages does not support Table styles, so you would need to
ensure that you style that table in Word with the "Table Normal" style
(which removes all the Table Style formatting) and then apply the formatting
you require.

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have a strange problem that I haven't seen addressed anywhere. I teach a
College Freshman English class, and this year, for the first time, a majority
of my students are using Pages rather than Word.

I have an Intel Mac running 10.6.1 and Office 2008 12.2.1.

First, when my students send me documents formatted in Pages on a Mac, I can't
open them on my Mac in Word.

I taught them how to save their documents in .doc or .dox format, and now I
can open their documents. I have them use Times New Roman 12 pt. font, which
is what I have set as my default.

I have a grade breakdown sheet that I always paste to the bottom of their
documents, but now whenever I paste from Word into a document that was opened
by Word on my computer but originally created in Pages, the font changes to
Calibri 11pt, and the spacing changes from single to double. Oddly, whenever I
do this, I never get a smart tag, so the only way to deal with this is to
reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a lot of time.

Is anyone familiar with this problem or other compatibility issues between
Pages and Word 2008 (I have found others as well)? Most websites that deal
with compatibility issues only deal with issues between Pages and Word for
Windows.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Have you tried Edit> Paste Special & using one of the options there, such as
Formatted Text or Styled Text?

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

 

[Dana18]

Have you tried Edit> Paste Special & using one of the options there, suchas
Formatted Text or Styled Text?

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

On 9/19/09 5:23 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

Hi. Yes, I've tried those options, but it still doesn't work. It's
very frustrating.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Dana,

I'm familiar with Pages, but not Word 2008 -- I use 2004 -- so I may not be
of much help.

However, a few questions:

1. John has inferred that it's in tables but is that so?

2. When you say " reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a
lot of time", do you mean the pasted-in text needs re-formatting or just the
pasted-in text?

3. What happens if you get Pages to apply a style appropriate to what you
want for the text in question?

I might be able to get my brain around it if I can more clearly envisage it.
;-)

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================


On 20/9/09 8:23 AM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

I have a grade breakdown sheet that I always paste to the bottom of their
documents, but now whenever I paste from Word into a document that was opened
by Word on my computer but originally created in Pages, the font changes to
Calibri 11pt, and the spacing changes from single to double. Oddly, whenever I
do this, I never get a smart tag, so the only way to deal with this is to
reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a lot of time.

<snip>

 

[Dana18]

Hello Dana,

I'm familiar with Pages, but not Word 2008 -- I use 2004 -- so I may not be
of much help.

However, a few questions:

1. John has inferred that it's in tables but is that so?

2. When you say " reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a
lot of time", do you mean the pasted-in text needs re-formatting or just the
pasted-in text?

3. What happens if you get Pages to apply a style appropriate to what you
want for the text in question?

I might be able to get my brain around it if I can more clearly envisage it.
;-)

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

I have a grade breakdown sheet that I always paste to the bottom of their
documents, but now whenever I paste from Word into a document that was opened
by Word on my computer but originally created in Pages, the font changes to
Calibri 11pt, and the spacing changes from single to double. Oddly, whenever I
do this, I never get a smart tag, so the only way to deal with this is to
reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a lot of time.

Hi Clive, thanks so much for trying to figure this out!

1. Yes it was not formatted in tables (but thanks for the suggestion, John).

2. I don't know what you mean by question 2, but I mean that the text I paste in needs re-formatting. I want it to be single-spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt font.

Here's what happens. My students send me their papers. I ask them to format them double-spaced in Times New Roman, 12 pt font. Some of them use Word and some use Pages. They all arrive in the correct font, spacing, etc. I have a grading rubric which I have created in Word in the same font, but single-spaced. I paste it to the bottom of my student's paper and then fill it in. Usually, when I paste it into my student's paper, a smart tag appears giving me options. I usually choose "keep source formatting" because I want to retain the single-spacing. However, when some students send me their documents, and I THINK they are the students using Pages, Word opens the documents fine, and the formatting appears to be exactly what I asked them to do. However, when I paste the rubric into their documents, the part that I pasted inexplicably changes to calibri 11 point, double-spaced. The smart tag doesn't appear, so I can't choose "keep source formatting." Also, when I choose "paste special," it doesn't give the option to keep source formatting, so nothing I can do will keep it in the original format.

I also have another problem. I thought that since I upgraded to Word 2008, the "quick access toolbar" was supposed to appear in all documents. I've read online that some people complain that they can't get rid of it. However, one of my students sends me documents that don't have that toolbar. She claims to have formatted her documents properly on her computer, but when they arrive, they appear as a text-only document and the quick access toolbar does not appear. Also, what I initially tried to do was to "select all" of her text, hit Command-N to create a new document, then paste her text into the new document, but when I do that, the new document also lacks the quick access bar and appears to be a window in an older version of Word. The reason it's a problem is that it's incompatible with the "New Comment" feature that I use to give comments to my students. The only way I can correct that is to go to a different document which has a window that looks like the new version of Word, then hit Command-N to open a new document, go back to my student's document, paste it into the new d

 

[Rob Schneider]

See embedded.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

Hi Clive, thanks so much for trying to figure this out!

1. Yes it was not formatted in tables (but thanks for the suggestion, John).

2. I don't know what you mean by question 2, but I mean that the text I paste in needs re-formatting. I want it to be single-spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt font.

Here's what happens. My students send me their papers. I ask them to format them double-spaced in Times New Roman, 12 pt font.

Idea. Since you care how the document looks when reviewing it, instead
of making the students write in that way, why don't you simply view the
document in draft view? It's a simple Times Roman type of font (I'm
looking for how to specify exactly what the draft font should be but
cannot find it in Word 2008 ... it is in specifiable in the Windows
versions, as I recall).

In the Word Preferences for Edit,check how you have setup "Cut and Paste
Options". Anything other than you want?

Some of them use Word and some use Pages. They all arrive in the correct
font, spacing, etc.

Keep in mind that no matter which format created the document,
when Word reads it into itself it will be in Word format. Word
works with Word documents. It will have converted the file it
read into a digital representation of how it wants to view the
information.

How the document is displayed to you, no matter where the source, is
defined by first the styles that the text is attached to and then
secondarily by any hard coded formatting put on top of the styles. It
is, by defintion, a Word document, when in Word.

I say this as I things Pages vs. Word is probably a bit of a red herring.


I have a grading rubric which I have created in Word in the same font,
but single-spaced.

When you paste in, do you include the last Paragraph Mark? In Word, the
Paragaph mark can be thought of as holding the formatting for the
Paragrah. If no ending paragraph mark, it will take on the format of
the following paragraph.

The importance of the paragraph mark is such that I always keep it
visible on the working screen.


I paste it to the bottom of my student's paper and then fill it in.
Usually, when I paste it into my student's paper, a smart tag appears
giving me options. I usually choose "keep source formatting" because I
want to retain the single-spacing.

I always Menu: Edit/Paste Special so that I always get to control how
the text goes in. Try that. Again, make sure there is a trailing
paragraph marker, else no matter how formatted it will take on the
format of the next paragraph.


However, when some students send me their documents, and I THINK they
are the students using Pages, Word opens the documents fine, and the
formatting appears to be exactly what I asked them to do. However, when
I paste the rubric into their documents, the part that I pasted
inexplicably changes to calibri 11 point, double-spaced.

To get my head around this would have to look at it. My hunch is that it
is taking on the default style of the following paragraph which is
something other than you want. To see this, when in draft view, open up
the style width panel (Word: Preferences, tab: View) and let Word tell
you what style it using.

The smart tag doesn't appear, so I can't choose "keep source formatting."

Use Menu: Edit/Paste Special.

Also, when I choose "paste special," it doesn't give the option to keep
source formatting, so nothing I can do will keep it in the original format.

Indicative that the source does not have an ending paragraph to hold the
source formatting.

I also have another problem. I thought that since I upgraded to Word 2008, the "quick access toolbar" was supposed to appear in all documents.

I don't know what the "quick access toolbar" is. Sorry. I've searched
Help and looked at all the menus and cannot find it. From where did you
get this understanding?

In any event, Tool Bars do not appear *in* documents. They are made
visible in the Word interface with is not *in* the document. Toolbars
are not part of documents.


I've read online that some people complain that they can't get rid of
it. However, one of my students sends me documents that don't have that
toolbar.

Again, AFAIK, documents do not contain quick tool bars. what tool bars
are displayed are controlled by you.


She claims to have formatted her documents properly on her computer, but
when they arrive, they appear as a text-only document and the quick
access toolbar does not appear.


Also, what I initially tried to do was to "select all" of her text, hit
Command-N to create a new document, then paste her text into the new
document, but when I do that, the new document also lacks the quick
access bar and appears to be a window in an older version of Word. The
reason it's a problem is that it's incompatible with the "New Comment"
feature that I use to give comments to my students. The only way I can
correct that is to go to a different document which has a window that
looks like the new version of Word, then hit Command-N to open a new
document, go back to my student's document, paste it into the new d

Your posting chopped at this point.

 

[CyberTaz]

One suggestion on the original issue: In the paragraph you intend to paste
but before pasting go to the Style List & select Normal. See if that renders
a different result.

As to the following;

I also have another problem. I thought that since I upgraded to Word 2008, the
"quick access toolbar" was supposed to appear in all documents.

The Quick Access Toolbar is a feature specific to the programs in the
Windows Office 2007 programs. My understanding is that customized QATs can
be attached to documents but they will only be presented when the file is
opened in Word 2007 - no other version of Office supports the feature. I
haven't had an opportunity to play with this yet but I hope to squeeze it
into the schedule today... if our IS guy has my wintel box working

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

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Dana:

So far you have not responded about "Table Styles".

These are the key to this mechanism. All formatting in Word is a "style"
internally, whether we recognise it as such or not.

When you paste in, the pasted text will adopt the formatting of the table
style in the target document.

Hope this helps

Hello Dana,

I'm familiar with Pages, but not Word 2008 -- I use 2004 -- so I may not be
of much help.

However, a few questions:

1. John has inferred that it's in tables but is that so?

2. When you say " reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a
lot of time", do you mean the pasted-in text needs re-formatting or just the
pasted-in text?

3. What happens if you get Pages to apply a style appropriate to what you
want for the text in question?

I might be able to get my brain around it if I can more clearly envisage it.
;-)

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

I have a grade breakdown sheet that I always paste to the bottom of their
documents, but now whenever I paste from Word into a document that was
opened
by Word on my computer but originally created in Pages, the font changes to
Calibri 11pt, and the spacing changes from single to double. Oddly, whenever
I
do this, I never get a smart tag, so the only way to deal with this is to
reformat the whole section after pasting, which takes a lot of time.

Hi Clive, thanks so much for trying to figure this out!

1. Yes it was not formatted in tables (but thanks for the suggestion, John).

2. I don't know what you mean by question 2, but I mean that the text I paste
in needs re-formatting. I want it to be single-spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt
font.

Here's what happens. My students send me their papers. I ask them to format
them double-spaced in Times New Roman, 12 pt font. Some of them use Word and
some use Pages. They all arrive in the correct font, spacing, etc. I have a
grading rubric which I have created in Word in the same font, but
single-spaced. I paste it to the bottom of my student's paper and then fill it
in. Usually, when I paste it into my student's paper, a smart tag appears
giving me options. I usually choose "keep source formatting" because I want to
retain the single-spacing. However, when some students send me their
documents, and I THINK they are the students using Pages, Word opens the
documents fine, and the formatting appears to be exactly what I asked them to
do. However, when I paste the rubric into their documents, the part that I
pasted inexplicably changes to calibri 11 point, double-spaced. The smart tag
doesn't appear, so I can't choose "keep source formatting." Also, when I
choose "paste special," it doesn't give the option to keep source formatting,
so nothing I can do will keep it in the original format.

I also have another problem. I thought that since I upgraded to Word 2008, the
"quick access toolbar" was supposed to appear in all documents. I've read
online that some people complain that they can't get rid of it. However, one
of my students sends me documents that don't have that toolbar. She claims to
have formatted her documents properly on her computer, but when they arrive,
they appear as a text-only document and the quick access toolbar does not
appear. Also, what I initially tried to do was to "select all" of her text,
hit Command-N to create a new document, then paste her text into the new
document, but when I do that, the new document also lacks the quick access bar
and appears to be a window in an older version of Word. The reason it's a
problem is that it's incompatible with the "New Comment" feature that I use to
give comments to my students. The only way I can correct that is to go to a
different document which has a window that looks like the new version of Word,
then hit Command-N to open a new document, go back to my student's document,
paste it into the new d

--
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, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Yeah I was right Custom QAT's can be "attached" to documents/templates
in Office 2007 & when those files are opened in 2007 the Custom QAT
displays. Other versions of the program do not recognize it, though. Nor are
the toolbars of those versions affected.

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

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 7/10/09 12:03 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,

1. Yes it was not formatted in tables (but thanks for the suggestion, John).

2. I don't know what you mean by question 2,

Neither do I, now that I look at it! I was unwell with the flu at the time
and I suspect I broke off while dictating that and came back without looking
at it. Or I was even more dopey than I thought. What I wanted to establish
was whether only the pasted-in text needed re-formatting or whether
additional (pre-existing) text needed formatting. Based on your subsequent
comment I am assuming the former rather than the latter.

but I mean that the text I paste
in needs re-formatting. I want it to be single-spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt
font.

Here's what happens. My students send me their papers. I ask them to format
them double-spaced in Times New Roman, 12 pt font. Some of them use Word and
some use Pages. They all arrive in the correct font, spacing, etc. I have a
grading rubric which I have created in Word in the same font, but
single-spaced. I paste it to the bottom of my student's paper and then fill it
in. Usually, when I paste it into my student's paper, a smart tag appears
giving me options. I usually choose "keep source formatting" because I want to
retain the single-spacing. However, when some students send me their
documents, and I THINK they are the students using Pages, Word opens the
documents fine, and the formatting appears to be exactly what I asked them to
do. However, when I paste the rubric into their documents, the part that I
pasted inexplicably changes to calibri 11 point, double-spaced. The smart tag
doesn't appear, so I can't choose "keep source formatting." Also, when I
choose "paste special," it doesn't give the option to keep source formatting,
so nothing I can do will keep it in the original format.

Does this work?: put your insertion point where you want your material to be
added and apply single spacing and your desired font (there's no need to
have selected anything before doing this). Then choose Edit menu => Paste
special => Un-formatted text. That will paste the material on your clipboard
with the same format that you have just imposed.

As I mentioned earlier, I am hindered somewhat by not being in Word 2008; it
would be a breeze, I suspect, if you were using Word 2004!

If the foregoing does not work, could you provide extra information on the
extent to which you format by styles and/or direct formatting in this
instance? The specific applicability to Word 2008 may place limits on the
usefulness of any further comments by me, but that information may help my
learned colleagues...

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

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