MAC/PC problem

[moonjam]

I have this pesky little problem - I sit in a mixed office environment
with both PC's and MAC's. We exchange Office documents all the time.

If a collegue of mine, sitting on a PC, makes a neat Excel document
with a logo at the top, all fitted to be nicely printed aso., when I
open it on my iMac (20" G5) it seems to stretch everything on the page.
All the cells including the logo are stretched +15-20%

Same thing happens the other way round - however it gets shrinked this
way.

This is a major headache, since these documents need to be identical.
Both PC's and MAC's are running the latest OS and Office.

The document is set to 100% - I've tried fitting it to 1 by 1 .. which
almost does the trick but not good enough.

I could understand if it was a font problem only, but when all cells
and even images get stretched, it's kind of an inigma for me.

The problem already occurs when I open a document made on the PC -
we're running 2003 on the PC's and 2004 on the Mac's.

I REALLY hope some bright head in here can help me, coz it's getting
seriously annoying!

Thanks

Nick

 

[Ken Johnson]

Hi Nick,
I've had the same problem. A circle drawn on PC is an oval on Mac, for
example.
Sorry I don't have a solution other than have two logos and make the
distorted one invisible when the workbook is opened using the
ThisWorkbook's Private Sub Workbook_Open() event procedure.
The following worked for me using two Shape logos. I named the one that
looks OK on PC PCLogo and the other one MacLogo, just by selecting each
one individually then typing its name in the Name Box on the left of
the Formula Bar, then pressing Enter (Return).
Then I used the following code in the ThisWorkbook module of the VBA
Editor...

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Dim PCLogo As Shape
Dim MacLogo As Shape
Set PCLogo = Sheet1.Shapes("PCLogo")
Set MacLogo = Sheet1.Shapes("MacLogo")
PCLogo.Visible = _
Left(Application.OperatingSystem, 1) = "W"
MacLogo.Visible = _
Left(Application.OperatingSystem, 1) = "M"
End Sub

to get the code in place...
1. Copy it
2. Right click any sheet tab, then select "View Code" from the popup
3. Go View>Project Explorer to ensure that the Project Explorer is
visible
4. Look for, then double click, the ThisWorkbook icon (has green Excel
cross)
5. Paste the code into the blank module

For the code to work Security will have to be set to Medium
(Tools>Macro>Security>Medium)

When the workbook is opened the the "Enable Macros" button on the
Security Warning dialog will have to be clicked for the code to work.

Ken Johnson

 

[moonjam]

Hi Ken.

Thanks for your time and reply!

I think your suggestion is a little over our heads .... I have a
boss, who seriously dislikes Mac so this HAS to be dealt with, without
having to make all kinds of workarounds and so on (which actually
shouldn't be a problem if you ask me - this should just work!!)

I really think it's strange that there apparently aren't many others
who are experiencing this problem - a quick Google of the matter turned
up with nothing

Any further help would be greatly appreciated!! ...... am I missing a
checkbox i need to activate?

Nick

 

[Ken Johnson]

Hi Nick,
If you ever find that checkbox to activate please make sure you let me
know its whereabouts.
Surely we're not the only Mac/PC users to have struck this problem. I'm
certainly tired of having to double up on my work with a version for
the PCs and another for the Macs.
We need the opinion of an expert here eg JE McGimpsey.
..
I think we'll just have to be patient, this forums a bit slower than
the PC forums.
I think there a a lot of Mac haters out there.

Ken Johnson

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Folks -

This is an issue which has been bandied about since the beginning of
time. A little searching would have answered the question as well as
can be done. For a little of what is going on you might take a look at:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...cced3a6c2?q=different&rnum=2#1aa9074cced3a6c2

which goes back to 2002, and here is a more recent thread with a
response from the expert to which you refer:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...67a000e8?q=different&rnum=42#c5fb626667a000e8

Regards |:>)

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

I don't know whether or not you've seen this, but it is a good place to
start:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/produc...d=usingexcel2004#Cross-platform Compatibility

If you're not using macros, give this a try and see how it goes. Save
your Excel workbook as a Web Page. On the Pictures tab of the web
options dialog box change the setting to 96 pixels per inch.

Make an archive (a zip file) of the the resulting web page and web
files. Unzip the contents on the windows side then use Excel to open the
htm file. Most people don't know that Excel is a web browser, but it
will open the htm document and it might cure the cross-platform blues
you are are experiencing.

-Jim

 

[Ken Johnson]

Hi CyberTaz and Jim,
thanks for all of that I'll see how I go.
Ken Johnson