Converter problem

[ghostrider]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

Hello, My wife recently brought home from work some Word 2008 files that could not be opened without installing the converter, which I did. Unfortunately now I constantly receive a "Convert File" dialog whenever I try to open any Word file. I followed the instructions to uninstall the converter and still receive the "Convert File" dialog and can't open Word files such as those created via Word 2003 (11.8215.8211 SP3) on a Windows XP system. I'm running 11.5.2 on my Mac. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thx.

 

[John McGhie]

Check Word>Preferences>General>Confirm conversions on open...

That should be OFF.

Cheers

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

Hello, My wife recently brought home from work some Word 2008 files that could
not be opened without installing the converter, which I did. Unfortunately now
I constantly receive a "Convert File" dialog whenever I try to open any Word
file. I followed the instructions to uninstall the converter and still receive
the "Convert File" dialog and can't open Word files such as those created via
Word 2003 (11.8215.8211 SP3) on a Windows XP system. I'm running 11.5.2 on my
Mac. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thx.

--
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]

 

[ghostrider]

Thanks for the quick response, John! I looked at the preference and it was already off so something else is probably at play. It may not be a problem for long, though, because I'm considering ordering Office 2008 (Home and Student Edition) and before I do I'll probably run "Remove Office" to remove Office 2004 (I have Student and Teacher edition.) since from what I've seen that is the clean/thorough way to remove Office. Thanks.

 

[John McGhie]

I strongly suggest that a better option would be to Run Remove Office and
then re-install Office 2004

Then re-install the converter, and leave it in place this time

If you want to bring work home (or your wife does) Office 2004 is a much
better bet.

Do not forget to fully-update Office 2004 after you re-install -- it comes
off the CD at its base-level version, of course.

Cheers

Thanks for the quick response, John! I looked at the preference and it was
already off so something else is probably at play. It may not be a problem for
long, though, because I'm considering ordering Office 2008 (Home and Student
Edition) and before I do I'll probably run "Remove Office" to remove Office
2004 (I have Student and Teacher edition.) since from what I've seen that is
the clean/thorough way to remove Office. Thanks.

--
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]

 

[ghostrider]

Thanks again for the response, John. I was thinking of uninstalling/reinstalling Office 2004 so glad you said that. If I get Office 2008, I would not need to install the converter, correct? One other thing: in your 3rd sentence, I believe you meant "Office 2008 is a much better bet" rather than "Office 2004 is a much better bet," correct? Thanks.

 

[John McGhie]

No, that is the opposite of what I meant I said what I meant

Office 2008 is not a good product for sharing files between Office on the PC
at work and Office on the Mac at home. Office 2004 will work much better
for that.

And Office 2010 will be far, far better.

If you were to install Office 2008, you would not need to install the
converter a second time, because Office 2008 contains it. The "converter" in
Office 2004 is in fact most of the file I/O module used in Office 2008.

Cheers

Thanks again for the response, John. I was thinking of
uninstalling/reinstalling Office 2004 so glad you said that. If I get Office
2008, I would not need to install the converter, correct? One other thing: in
your 3rd sentence, I believe you meant "Office 2008 is a much better bet"
rather than "Office 2004 is a much better bet," correct? Thanks.

--
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]

 

[ghostrider]

Thanks, John. I appreciate the help.

 

[Carol]

I'm not a techie, so need more clear info.
I just installed Office 2008 on my MacBook Pro (OSX, up to date).
I already had Office 2004 on my computer. Now, I can't open Wlord docs that are in the 2004 version. The Help info talks about how to convert 2008 Word docs into versions readable by older software, but it does not mention the reverse -- how to read older docs when you are using 2008. (Grumble: Didn't anybody from Microsoft think of a user trying to keep and use older documents after installing 2008?)
What do I do now to access my Word 2004 files? And... hopefully, bring them into Word 2008?
thanks

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Carol:

You do not have to "do" anything. It will "just work".

When you double-click a document, it will open in whichever version of Word
is running currently, or if neither are, then it will open in Word 2008.

No conversion of older documents is necessary. I have Word 2008 and Word
2004 both installed on this machine. If you want to open a document in Word
2004, then you start Word 2004 and use File>Open from within Word 2004.

The cause of your problems may be that you allowed Office 2008 to uninstall
Office 2004 when you installed it. If that is the case, you will need to
re-install, and re-update Office 2004.

It may be that having installed Office 2008, you have not yet installed the
updates it requires. If that is the case, you need to visit the Microsoft
site and download the updates for Office 2008.

Or it may be that Office 2008 has not installed properly, in which case you
will need to run the Remove Office tool, remove BOTH versions, then
re-install and re-update both versions.

But before we go any further, there are three things we start with:

1) Download and apply (re-apply) the latest COMBO update for Mac OS X. Now
that you have installed Office 2008, some parts of OS X that were not in use
before may require an update.

2) Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions on the boot drive.

3) Select one of those old .doc files in the Finder, use Get Info to change
it to open in Word 2008, and check "Change all".

These three things may simply fix the issue.

If not, please come back and tell us what is happening after doing those
three things. Don't panic, and don't go racing ahead: we do not want you to
get into a complex back-tracking scenario.

Hope this helps

I'm not a techie, so need more clear info.
I just installed Office 2008 on my MacBook Pro (OSX, up to date).
I already had Office 2004 on my computer. Now, I can't open Wlord docs that
are in the 2004 version. The Help info talks about how to convert 2008 Word
docs into versions readable by older software, but it does not mention the
reverse -- how to read older docs when you are using 2008. (Grumble: Didn't
anybody from Microsoft think of a user trying to keep and use older documents
after installing 2008?)
What do I do now to access my Word 2004 files? And... hopefully, bring them
into Word 2008?
thanks

--
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]

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

The problem is actually a *bug* which MS declares is a feature.

Every other application for Mac on the planet honors: whatever version
created a File, opens that file. MS in its infinite wisdom even though
knowing the problem you ran into is actually a bug, has decided to keep
as a Feature this Overtaking of previous file types by the most reason
version. because to the uninitiated whom do not know any better assumes
that the file must be opened and converted to the new version. So it
fosters abandonment of the old version which make actually be better for
them (sells more copies of Office). Example Word2008 no long uses VBA,
and Macros built with VBA are now broken and do not work.

Another way which, you can open a file is control-click or right-click
on the file when contextual menu pops up, go to Open With... wait for
the mac to build a list of applications that will open it, and choose
word2004.

Hi Carol:

You do not have to "do" anything. It will "just work".

When you double-click a document, it will open in whichever version of Word
is running currently, or if neither are, then it will open in Word 2008.

No conversion of older documents is necessary. I have Word 2008 and Word
2004 both installed on this machine. If you want to open a document in Word
2004, then you start Word 2004 and use File>Open from within Word 2004.

The cause of your problems may be that you allowed Office 2008 to uninstall
Office 2004 when you installed it. If that is the case, you will need to
re-install, and re-update Office 2004.

It may be that having installed Office 2008, you have not yet installed the
updates it requires. If that is the case, you need to visit the Microsoft
site and download the updates for Office 2008.

Or it may be that Office 2008 has not installed properly, in which case you
will need to run the Remove Office tool, remove BOTH versions, then
re-install and re-update both versions.

But before we go any further, there are three things we start with:

1) Download and apply (re-apply) the latest COMBO update for Mac OS X. Now
that you have installed Office 2008, some parts of OS X that were not in use
before may require an update.

2) Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions on the boot drive.

3) Select one of those old .doc files in the Finder, use Get Info to change
it to open in Word 2008, and check "Change all".

These three things may simply fix the issue.

If not, please come back and tell us what is happening after doing those
three things. Don't panic, and don't go racing ahead: we do not want you to
get into a complex back-tracking scenario.

Hope this helps

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET mailto[email protected]
If it's "fixed", don't "break it"! http://www.vpea.org
http://www.phillipmjones.net
G4-500 Mac 1.5 GB RAM OSX.3.9 G4-1.67 GB PowerBook 17" 2GB RAM OSX.4.11
------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[John McGhie]

That's very impressive, Phillip!

Unfortunately, you are not talking about the problem that Carol has. Carol
does not have the "old versions" problem. Carol's problem is that her file
associations are pooched

Cheers

The problem is actually a *bug* which MS declares is a feature.

Every other application for Mac on the planet honors: whatever version
created a File, opens that file. MS in its infinite wisdom even though
knowing the problem you ran into is actually a bug, has decided to keep
as a Feature this Overtaking of previous file types by the most reason
version. because to the uninitiated whom do not know any better assumes
that the file must be opened and converted to the new version. So it
fosters abandonment of the old version which make actually be better for
them (sells more copies of Office). Example Word2008 no long uses VBA,
and Macros built with VBA are now broken and do not work.

Another way which, you can open a file is control-click or right-click
on the file when contextual menu pops up, go to Open With... wait for
the mac to build a list of applications that will open it, and choose
word2004.

--
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]

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Okay. But it sounded like from previous answer she possibly had both.

Let's just say I gave my answer *if* she has both.

That's very impressive, Phillip!

Unfortunately, you are not talking about the problem that Carol has. Carol
does not have the "old versions" problem. Carol's problem is that her file
associations are pooched

Cheers

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET mailto[email protected]
If it's "fixed", don't "break it"! http://www.vpea.org
http://www.phillipmjones.net
G4-500 Mac 1.5 GB RAM OSX.3.9 G4-1.67 GB PowerBook 17" 2GB RAM OSX.4.11
------------------------------------------------------------------------