compatibility report issue

[Moncklee]

I have transferred some files over from my husband's PC to my Mac and
after I have worked with them and go to save them, the compatibility
report comes up and says there is an issue because in my Preferences
section for Word 2004 for Mac, it is set on that document to 6.0/95
compatibility options. But, everytime I go and change it to 2000-2004
and X as it recommends, it keeps reverting back to the other selection,
so I keep getting a compatibility issue. I have even tried to set the
2000-2004 and X as the default option with no luck. What am I doing
wrong? Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

I have transferred some files over from my husband's PC to my Mac and
after I have worked with them and go to save them, the compatibility
report comes up and says there is an issue because in my Preferences
section for Word 2004 for Mac, it is set on that document to 6.0/95
compatibility options. But, everytime I go and change it to 2000-2004
and X as it recommends, it keeps reverting back to the other selection,
so I keep getting a compatibility issue. I have even tried to set the
2000-2004 and X as the default option with no luck. What am I doing
wrong? Any suggestions? Thanks!

The default format setting applies to an individual document, it is not a
global setting for all documents.

I haven't tested this yet, but it may be possible to set that default format
for an empty document, save that document as a document called 'Normal'
(without the .DOC extension), then quit word and copy that Normal document
in the Microsoft User data folder. I half suspect that Word may not like
having an old format normal document, but if it doesn't mind, then all new
documents created in word will have this default setting set.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

The default format setting applies to an individual document, it is not a
global setting for all documents.

I haven't tested this yet, but it may be possible to set that default format
for an empty document, save that document as a document called 'Normal'
(without the .DOC extension), then quit word and copy that Normal document
in the Microsoft User data folder. I half suspect that Word may not like
having an old format normal document, but if it doesn't mind, then all new
documents created in word will have this default setting set.

But in general, trying to create your own Normal is a bad idea, and it will
be lacking some features that a Word-created Normal has. Mostly just the
full text of default AutoText entries. (And I suspect it would be possible
to set that default in Normal itself, no need to make your own).

Also, it doesn't sound like she has this problem with newly created
documents, only with the ones from the PC. So changing the default wouldn't
help, if that's the case. Or did I miss something?

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Whoa, Barry!!

A finger-slip there squire

"Save as a TEMPLATE..." (not a 'document')

(Barry made a typo: he knows as well as I do that documents and templates
are not interchangeable. The Normal template must be a template, not a
document. Otherwise Word will neither use nor recognise it. A Template has
a different internal file format.)

To cure the original problem, go to Word>Preferences>Save and ensure that
"Save Word files as..." is set to "Word Document". If it is set to "Word
4-6..." this is exactly the symptom: if that's set wrong every document you
create is saved in the old format.

Once a document has been saved in the old format, you have to correct each
document the next time you save it: they are different binary file formats.
Next time you open each document, when you save, correct the format.
Eventually, you will have converted every document you have.

Cheers

The default format setting applies to an individual document, it is not a
global setting for all documents.

I haven't tested this yet, but it may be possible to set that default format
for an empty document, save that document as a document called 'Normal'
(without the .DOC extension), then quit word and copy that Normal document
in the Microsoft User data folder. I half suspect that Word may not like
having an old format normal document, but if it doesn't mind, then all new
documents created in word will have this default setting set.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

Whoa, Barry!!

A finger-slip there squire

"Save as a TEMPLATE..." (not a 'document')

(Barry made a typo: he knows as well as I do that documents and templates
are not interchangeable.

Yeah, I know that.

Sorry for the slip.

 

[n17man]

Whoa, Barry!!

A finger-slip there squire

"Save as a TEMPLATE..." (not a 'document')

(Barry made a typo: he knows as well as I do that documents and templates
are not interchangeable. The Normal template must be a template, not a
document. Otherwise Word will neither use nor recognise it. A Template has
a different internal file format.)

To cure the original problem, go to Word>Preferences>Save and ensure that
"Save Word files as..." is set to "Word Document". If it is set to "Word
4-6..." this is exactly the symptom: if that's set wrong every document you
create is saved in the old format.

Once a document has been saved in the old format, you have to correct each
document the next time you save it: they are different binary file formats.
Next time you open each document, when you save, correct the format.
Eventually, you will have converted every document you have.

Cheers



--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Moncklee]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! I did go back and check to see how
the files are being saved, and it is as a Word Document. I just can't
seem to get it to recognize when I change old files compatibility - it
just doesn't keep the new setting. I'm not too worried because I know
that the files were created on a more recent version of Word, but it
bugs me that I can't seem to get the software to notice that I have
followed its advice and changed the compatibility preference. Any more
ideas? Thanks again!!

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Monklee:

I am not quite clear what's happening.

1) I assume that you are changing the Word>Preferences>Save to Word
Document?

2) You then do a File>Save As... And change it to Word Document there too?

3) Then Save the document?

When you open a document in the old format, Word will preserve it in the old
format until you explicitly save the document in the new format.

That's all I can think of...

Cheers

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! I did go back and check to see how
the files are being saved, and it is as a Word Document. I just can't
seem to get it to recognize when I change old files compatibility - it
just doesn't keep the new setting. I'm not too worried because I know
that the files were created on a more recent version of Word, but it
bugs me that I can't seem to get the software to notice that I have
followed its advice and changed the compatibility preference. Any more
ideas? Thanks again!!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[AndyH]

I've also had that problem when my clients send me docs created in Word
for Windows saved as Word 6.0/95 docs. The only way I've been able to
fix the problem is to first create a new blank document in Word 2004
then "select all" in the Word 6.0/95 doc and copy and paste the text
into the blank Word 2004 doc. If you do a compatibility check on the
new document you will likely find no compatibility issues. This has
worked well for me with docs created in Word for Windows applications.
I've had similar problems with documents that were created with some
optical character recognition software. In that case, the process has
been the same, but I've had to "paste special" as unformatted text to
clear the compatibility issue. Of course that sometimes requires some
careful going over the document to make sure the formatting is correct.

I really hope this helps you out.

AndyH

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Andy:

Yep: That *could* indeed happen if your clients are still stuck in Word
6/95 format on the PC. One of the sillier design decisions in Word was Word
97's ability to save in a toxic format named "Word 6/95 and Word 97 Combined
(RTF)".

A lot of customers mistakenly changed their default Save format to that in
the early days when Word 97 was rolling out and many people didn't yet have
it.

The stupid design decision was that that change stuck, and remains to this
day, through four upgrades to Word!

If you send that format to the Mac, and the Word 6 and Word 97 versions are
different, Mac Word will have problems with it. The cure you recommend will
indeed fix it (provided you don't attempt to save in the combined format
again )

Cheers

I've also had that problem when my clients send me docs created in Word
for Windows saved as Word 6.0/95 docs. The only way I've been able to
fix the problem is to first create a new blank document in Word 2004
then "select all" in the Word 6.0/95 doc and copy and paste the text
into the blank Word 2004 doc. If you do a compatibility check on the
new document you will likely find no compatibility issues. This has
worked well for me with docs created in Word for Windows applications.
I've had similar problems with documents that were created with some
optical character recognition software. In that case, the process has
been the same, but I've had to "paste special" as unformatted text to
clear the compatibility issue. Of course that sometimes requires some
careful going over the document to make sure the formatting is correct.

I really hope this helps you out.

AndyH

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410