Data Transfer: Word for Windows 2004 to Word for Macs 2008

[elena004]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Hello, I just transfered all my files from a PC (using word for Windows 2004) to a MAC (using Word for Macs 2008). I did this using an external hard drive. All my files transferred successfully but are in "Compatibility Mode." What are the consequences of "Compatibility Mode." My documents look the same, but is it safer to save them all as .docx files so they ar no longer in "Compatibility Mode?" Is there a way to change all of them to .docx files instead of doing this individually? If I do this will they no longer be compatible with Word for Windows? Thank You!

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi,

"compatibility mode" simply indicates that your current file is still saved
in the old binary format (.doc) and that some of the features introduced in
Word 2008 will not be available while in that mode. If you save your
document in the new Office Open XML format (.docx), the "compatibility mode"
message will disappear, and you will have access to all the features that
can be found in Word 2008. Don't worry; there's nothing wrong with documents
in compatibility mode, and there is no need to convert them all to .docs
file format. As far as I know, there is no batch utility to do this for you,
anyway, so it would take a long time to open and resave all your documents.
My advice: don't bother, unless you have a good reason to do it. I would
also recommend using the new file format from now on; it is much more stable
than the old one, and the file size is generally smaller.

As for compatibility with Office for Windows: Word 2007 uses the new file
format by default, and any version of Office for Windows, right down to
Office 2000, ought to be able to open files in the new file format, provided
all the updates have been installed. If you want to play it safe, though, it
might be better to save your .docx files as .doc files prior to transferring
them to a PC (unless you know that all the updates have been applied).

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Elena;

"Compatibility Mode" simply indicates that the file is saved in the earlier
(.doc) format. That means that although you can do with it what you wish,
there are some features in Word 2008 which aren't supported in the older
format -- such as SmartArt graphics, the new charting features, as well as a
number of others. If you use any of those features you will be notified when
you attempt to save your changes. There aren't really any "consequences"
other than the older format not supporting the newer features, but the newer
format (.docx) is much more stable & results in smaller file size.

As for compatibility with WinWord, the considerations are the same: Word
2007 can use both formats just as Word 2008 can. Earlier versions of the
program (going back to WinWord 2000 & MacWord v.X) can handle the .docx
format if the system is equipped with the free OXML Converters supplied by
Microsoft. The converted version of the file will not always display as
expected if the .docx includes the newer features as mentioned above.

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

 

[Michel Bintener]

Well, Bob, it seems that great minds really do think alike... ;-)

 

[CyberTaz]

And in such a constrained time span -- it's obvious I didn't have an
opportunity to copy your term paper

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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

For most practical purposes it may be as simple as the others have said,
but in fact .docx files can also be "in compatibility mode". This is not
what Word Help says, but...

.doc is "automatically" in compatibility mode
.docx may or may not be in compatibility mode

You can see this if you open a .doc and use Save Ss to save as a .docx.
There's a compatibility mode checkbox - if you check it, the file is
saved in the new .docx format but in compatibility mode. When you work
with either .doc or docx in compatibility mode, you don't see options in
Word 2008 that cannot be understood" by earlier versions of Word, such
as inserting Smart Art grpahics.

If you have a compatibility mode .docx and Save As again, you still see
the checkbox. Once you have saved without compatibility mode, the option
disappears.

There's a topic in the Word Help contents titled "About Word
compatibility mode" which describes the things that are lost wehn you
save as .doc.

No, I don't know of a batch conversion facility in Word 2008 either,
sorry, although it may be possible to write some AppleScript to do it.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk