Office 2004 and .wps documents

[jim]

I recently received some wps documents that I'm told are from MicroSoft
Works. I am using Office 2004 for Mac with the latest update. I could
not open these documents except from the "open any document" choice and
that was all messed up with control characters, etc. A Microsoft
Office product cannot open a works document? What gives?

 

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

Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too expensive


PC Office can open them because the converter is actually the PC Word 2/
Windows Write format which already exists as part of Windows.

On the Mac, it had to be specially written, and it ran only in Classic.
Given the complexity of getting it working in OS X (read: the big bucks they
would have had to spend to re-write it...) and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year, world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather they
spent the available budget on.

Sorry

Send the file to a Windows Office user and ask them to send it back to you
as a .doc. Or get the Works user to save it as a .doc or as an .RTF.

Cheers

I recently received some wps documents that I'm told are from MicroSoft
Works. I am using Office 2004 for Mac with the latest update. I could
not open these documents except from the "open any document" choice and
that was all messed up with control characters, etc. A Microsoft
Office product cannot open a works document? What gives?

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Eòin]

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

Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too expensive
... and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year, world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather they
spent the available budget on.

Make that 4 + world-wide. Last week I had to ask someone to re-send an
attachment as soemthing readable! Later he re-sent the file to a whole
group of people as apparently a number had been unable to open it!

Eòin

 

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

Yeah. Works is actually a dying format: current versions of Works on the PC
include a simplified version of Word as the word processor, so they can
produce .doc files just like everything else.

Windows Works users are a bit like AOL users -- it takes them a minute or
two to come up to speed with things like sending files to others

Cheers

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

Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too expensive
... and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year, world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather they
spent the available budget on.

Make that 4 + world-wide. Last week I had to ask someone to re-send an
attachment as soemthing readable! Later he re-sent the file to a whole
group of people as apparently a number had been unable to open it!

Eòin

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Phillip Jones]

A "could be expensive but depends upon how many time you run into this"
alternative is buy a Product from DataViz, MacLink Plus.

Yeah. Works is actually a dying format: current versions of Works on the PC
include a simplified version of Word as the word processor, so they can
produce .doc files just like everything else.

Windows Works users are a bit like AOL users -- it takes them a minute or
two to come up to speed with things like sending files to others

Cheers

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

Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too expensive
... and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year, world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather they
spent the available budget on.

Make that 4 + world-wide. Last week I had to ask someone to re-send an
attachment as soemthing readable! Later he re-sent the file to a whole
group of people as apparently a number had been unable to open it!

Eòin

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

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

Be careful: MacLink Pro Plus supports only MS Works for Windows versions
2.0, 3.0, 4.5, 95. I think it might be missing Works 2000, 6, and 8.

But it's only $80.00.

A "could be expensive but depends upon how many time you run into this"
alternative is buy a Product from DataViz, MacLink Plus.

Yeah. Works is actually a dying format: current versions of Works on the PC
include a simplified version of Word as the word processor, so they can
produce .doc files just like everything else.

Windows Works users are a bit like AOL users -- it takes them a minute or
two to come up to speed with things like sending files to others

Cheers

Sgrìobh John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]:
Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too expensive
... and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year,
world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather they
spent the available budget on.
Make that 4 + world-wide. Last week I had to ask someone to re-send an
attachment as soemthing readable! Later he re-sent the file to a whole
group of people as apparently a number had been unable to open it!

Eòin

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Phillip Jones]

Which version? they are up to V15 now.

Be careful: MacLink Pro Plus supports only MS Works for Windows versions
2.0, 3.0, 4.5, 95. I think it might be missing Works 2000, 6, and 8.

But it's only $80.00.

A "could be expensive but depends upon how many time you run into this"
alternative is buy a Product from DataViz, MacLink Plus.

Yeah. Works is actually a dying format: current versions of Works on the PC
include a simplified version of Word as the word processor, so they can
produce .doc files just like everything else.

Windows Works users are a bit like AOL users -- it takes them a minute or
two to come up to speed with things like sending files to others

Cheers

On 30/12/06 10:20 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Eòin"

Sgrìobh John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]:
Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too expensive
... and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year,
world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather they
spent the available budget on.
Make that 4 + world-wide. Last week I had to ask someone to re-send an
attachment as soemthing readable! Later he re-sent the file to a whole
group of people as apparently a number had been unable to open it!

Eòin

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

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

Yup: That was from the Specs for MacLink V15.

I suspect they took the same view as Microsoft: the Works format's not worth
supporting. Since Works 95, most users of Works have purchased Works Suite,
which includes a real copy of Word.

Cheers

Which version? they are up to V15 now.

Be careful: MacLink Pro Plus supports only MS Works for Windows versions
2.0, 3.0, 4.5, 95. I think it might be missing Works 2000, 6, and 8.

But it's only $80.00.

A "could be expensive but depends upon how many time you run into this"
alternative is buy a Product from DataViz, MacLink Plus.

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh] wrote:
Yeah. Works is actually a dying format: current versions of Works on the
PC
include a simplified version of Word as the word processor, so they can
produce .doc files just like everything else.

Windows Works users are a bit like AOL users -- it takes them a minute or
two to come up to speed with things like sending files to others

Cheers

On 30/12/06 10:20 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Eòin"

Sgrìobh John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]:
Hi Jim:

Yeah, they left that converter out of Mac Word because it was too
expensive
... and the rarity of seeing the
format on the Mac (yours is I think the third request this year,
world-wide)
Microsoft Mac Business Unit figured there were things we would rather
they
spent the available budget on.
Make that 4 + world-wide. Last week I had to ask someone to re-send an
attachment as soemthing readable! Later he re-sent the file to a whole
group of people as apparently a number had been unable to open it!

Eòin

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410