I can't open Windows XP files

[Vikram Swamy]

I recently purchased a Mac and made the switch because I was under the
impression that I could use Word and other Excel documents that I
created in Windows on a Mac easily with Office X.

Recently, I had my girlfriend use my old computer with Windows XP
e-mail me some documents. These were all created in Word XP. I can
successfully open them, but all that is displayed is a bunch of
letters, numbers, and slashes. Complete gobbledygook.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - things like my resume, etc. -
it's really important that I be able to get those from my Windows PC.

-Vik

 

[Gene van Troyer]

Recently, I had my girlfriend use my old computer with Windows XP
e-mail me some documents. These were all created in Word XP. I can
successfully open them, but all that is displayed is a bunch of
letters, numbers, and slashes. Complete gobbledygook.

First, were the Word attachments sent as is, or were they compressed? If
they weren't compressed, the chances are they were corrupted in the
e-mailing process. Compress them and resend and see if this helps. It's
always a good idea to compress the files. The Compression protects files
from becoming corrupted.

If this doesn't work, try selecting the font in Word X that you used in XP.
You sound like you could have a font encoding problem.

Hope this helps.

Gene van Troyer