Date problems with Word for OS 9 on a OS X Tiger Platform

[turlough.oriordan]

We are using Ms Word for OS 9 on an OS X platform so as to avoid, as
far as possible, virus contamination of our work, and thus we save in
5.1 format. Recently however, the date assigned to saved files have
been literally haywire - often listed as anywhere between 1937 and
2047. The machine we store these files on more often than not displays
their saved/modified date correctly. However, when the same files are
open in a OS X finder window on the network these crazy dates are
given.

We looked at upgrading to MS Word 2004 for OS X - However, there were
serious compatability problems whereby a 2003 version of MS Word lacked
the ability to open pre-1995 word documents (of which we still have
many in use and on record). Does the newest version of MS Word for mac
alleviate this?

Any help would be most appreciated

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Turlough,

I can answer at least some of your questions so here goes. WinWord 2003 and
MacWord 2004 can open all versions of Word documents going back to WinWord
97 (and vice versa). Some caveats:

1. If you create a document in a version of Word with more advanced
features than an earlier version, then you may lose something by opening the
doc in the earlier version.

2. There can/will be minor differences in spacing and such from Win to Mac
(or Mac to Win) and/or from earlier Word to later Word due to variations in
fonts or methods of rendering them.

However, your situation involves going back to pre-1995 docs and that's a
horse of a different color. You have a couple of options. You can save the
old docs as RTF and open in any version of Word. Or you can get Data Viz'
MacLinkPlus (<http://www.dataviz.com/products/maclinkplus/>) which goes back
to MacWord 4.0 and will convert just about anything to anything else. Since
you have a lot of such docs, I recommend the latter.

Second issue: Why are you concerned about viruses in OS X? It's not that
it can't or won't happen, but there aren't any yet. This is partly because
the virus hackers want to infect as many users as possible (hence Windows)
and partly because it's just damned difficult to write viruses for Macs.
Office 2004 is so superior to Office 2001 that you really should be
updating!

Your date problem: Not sure what's causing this. I know that dates can go
screwy on older machines when the internal battery needs replacing. But the
symptom usually displays as one wrong date, not an assortment of wrong
dates. It's worth checking out though. Otherwise, maybe someone else will
have a suggestion.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

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

Hi Turlough:

We are using Ms Word for OS 9 on an OS X platform so as to avoid, as
far as possible, virus contamination of our work, and thus we save in
5.1 format.

That's not a strategy *I* would use It won't "protect" you from
viruses, just make you more likely to unknowingly distribute them The
viruses can still get in your document, but the old version application
won't find them and warn you about them. Of course, there are viruses the
new versions can't find either: Personally, I rely on a good antivirus
solution.

However, by saving back to Word 5.1 format, you *will* eventually break your
documents. Word cannot work in an earlier-version format. It up-converts
the 5.1 document each time you open it, works on it in 2001 format, then
down-converts it again each time you save it.

Since the internal structure of the two formats is different, and the
conversion isn't perfect, eventually the documents will corrupt.

Recently however, the date assigned to saved files have
been literally haywire - often listed as anywhere between 1937 and
2047. The machine we store these files on more often than not displays
their saved/modified date correctly. However, when the same files are
open in a OS X finder window on the network these crazy dates are
given.

Yep. That's one sign of the problem.

We looked at upgrading to MS Word 2004 for OS X - However, there were
serious compatability problems whereby a 2003 version of MS Word lacked
the ability to open pre-1995 word documents (of which we still have
many in use and on record). Does the newest version of MS Word for mac
alleviate this?

I don't know who told you that.

All versions of Word will open documents from all earlier versions of Word
going back to Word 2 format. The exception to this rule is Word 2004, which
cannot open documents protected by the Office 2003 Information Rights
Management mechanism.

The later versions of Word are restricted in their ability to save earlier
document formats. As noted by Beth, Word X/2004 can't save a document in a
format earlier than Word 97. However, all versions of Word will save in RTF
format, which is compatible with all earlier versions of Word back to Word 2
(Word 4 on the Mac).

There are really only three Word document formats out there: Word 2, Word
6, and Word 8. The Word 2 format is the simple format used in Word versions
earlier than 5 on the Mac and earlier than 6 on the PC.

Word versions earlier than 2001 on the Mac and 97 on the PC all use the Word
6 format. Later versions, including the current versions, all use the Word
8 format.

However, within the Word 8 format, later versions of Word can write objects
the earlier versions of Word cannot understand. The Word 2004 Compatibility
Report will warn you if this is about to happen, and give you the
opportunity to remove them.

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. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Word versions earlier than 2001 on the Mac and 97 on the PC all use the Word
6 format.

Niggle: Word versions earlier than *98* on the Mac use the Word 6 format.

 

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

{Blush} forgot about 98...

Niggle: Word versions earlier than *98* on the Mac use the Word 6 format.

--

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. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410