Office v. X on Intel Macs ?

[Norm]

Didn't find a compatibility chart on Mactopia.

Trying to find out if Office v.X runs on Intel Macs.

Currently running v. X with OS X 10.4.11 and OS X 10.5.6 on PowerPC Macs.

Thank you for any directions to this information.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Didn't find a compatibility chart on Mactopia.

Trying to find out if Office v.X runs on Intel Macs.

Currently running v. X with OS X 10.4.11 and OS X 10.5.6 on PowerPC Macs.

Thank you for any directions to this information.

Yes, it does.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Norm:

Office v. X requires "OS 10.1 or higher...". However, some parts of it use
"Classic" and thus will not run in OS 10.5. It's nothing significant,
chances are you won't notice.

HOWEVER: Do a fresh Install on your Intel Mac. Do NOT try to "migrate" --
migrating from PowerPC to Intel is guaranteed misery that will take many
hours or days to fix

Make sure your Intel Mac OS X is fully up-to-date before you install. And
after you have installed, you MUST re-apply all the updates up to and
including 10.1.9. Again, the patches you have currently applied would have
installed the PPC bits: now you need the Intel bits.

After that, you can bring all your documents and data over: no problem. But
get Office running first, with a clean install.

Hope this helps

Didn't find a compatibility chart on Mactopia.

Trying to find out if Office v.X runs on Intel Macs.

Currently running v. X with OS X 10.4.11 and OS X 10.5.6 on PowerPC Macs.

Thank you for any directions to this information.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Norm]

Thanks very much. Very helpful.

Will Office v. X open documents (Word and Excel) created and saved by
the newer versions of Office?

And is there a MS resource web page that answers these compatibility
questions so I don't need to bother you all?

Thank you.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Norm,

Will Office v. X open documents (Word and Excel) created and saved by
the newer versions of Office?

Not directly. You can download a free converter from Mactopia which will
convert the new Office OpenXML documents into the old binary file format
used by earlier Office versions. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/mac, click
on Downloads and look for an application called "Open XML File Format
Converter for Mac".

And is there a MS resource web page that answers these compatibility
questions so I don't need to bother you all?

No, since Office v.X is no longer supported by Microsoft. Don't worry,
though; that's what these newsgroups are for.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Norm -

See the in line below...

Thanks very much. Very helpful.

Will Office v. X open documents (Word and Excel) created and saved by
the newer versions of Office?

There is a free converter pkg which works with Office X but doesn't
integrate with it. IOW, you have to convert the file first then open it in
the appropriate X app. However, since X doesn't support many of the features
of 2008 there's no guarantee that any given file will render as designed.
Formatting, graphic objects & other aspects of the file may present
challenges - it just depends on the file content. The more it deviates fromm
"plain vanilla" text the more likely & more severe the problem. Also, most
users of 2008 are probably working with Unicode fonts about which X has no
knowledge whatsoever. That will be another issue.

And is there a MS resource web page that answers these compatibility
questions so I don't need to bother you all?

The most complete source for MS product for Mac is the Mactopia web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.mspx

As well as the MacBU Blog linked to from there. However, you'll not find
much - if anything - pertaining to Office X because the the product reached
End of Life nearly 2 years ago. Even MS doesn't put much time & money into
compatibility concerns for deprecated product. You'll find info about the
features & capabilities of the latest version, but even 2004 gets little
face time any more.

The one thing that's safe to assume is that as OS X continues to develop
Office X is going to get left farther behind. Don't forget that X originated
as a "get-it-to-market-quick" derivative of Office 2001 produced [IMHO] for
no puurpose other than for MS to say they had an "OS X version" to offer...
but it was offered for OS X 10.0 & hasn't been updated specifically for
anything beyond 10.3.9, if that, and no further updates are forthcoming.

 

[Norm]

Thank you. You and others have been most helpful. I appreciate.

One other ?: Will MS Office 2008 open prior versions of Word, etc.?

I think it is time for us to upgrade. Though given our vanilla usage
Word 5.1a was just fine.

Thanks again.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Will MS Office 2008 open prior versions of Word, etc.?

Yes

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Norm:

Again, it's a "Yes, but...."

Office 2008 will not open anything earlier than Office 6/98 format. So make
sure you keep Office X installed until you make sure you do not have any
really old files.

There is a new version of Office on the way, probably within a year -- I
strongly suggest that you wait for that before upgrading.

There are some functions you may be using in Office X that Office 2008 does
not have: they will be restored (and many new ones added...) in Office
Next...

Any minute now, you should see "coupons" appearing that will enable you to
purchase Office 2008 now, then upgrade at a very low price to the next one
when it arrives. If you decide to avail yourself of this, make certain that
you read ALL the fine print and KEEP the necessary items for "proof of
purchase". We had some tales of misery last time because people didn't read
the instructions properly: it said they needed to return the original
packaging they bought the product in. The threw out the packaging, keeping
only the sales receipt. That was not enough, they were not able to claim
their discount...

Hope this helps

Thank you. You and others have been most helpful. I appreciate.

One other ?: Will MS Office 2008 open prior versions of Word, etc.?

I think it is time for us to upgrade. Though given our vanilla usage
Word 5.1a was just fine.

Thanks again.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Norm]

Office 2008 will not open anything earlier than Office 6/98 format. So make
sure you keep Office X installed until you make sure you do not have any
really old files.

So then my old Word 5.1a files that I have in some of my archives can be
opened by Office X but cannot be opened by Office 2008 and beyond?

Thanks.

 

[Norm]

Didn't find a compatibility chart on Mactopia.

Trying to find out if Office v.X runs on Intel Macs.

Currently running v. X with OS X 10.4.11 and OS X 10.5.6 on PowerPC Macs.

Thank you for any directions to this information.

OP back.

Thanks to all who responded for the help on this subject. The input was
very helpful and educational.

I appreciate.

 

[dow]

Office 2008 will not open anything earlier than Office 6/98 format.  Somake sure you keep Office X installed until you make sure you do not haveany really old files.

Odd: my version of Office 2008 is happy to open my Word 5.1a files -
though not if I just double-click on them: I have to open them via
Word 2008's Open dialog box.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Odd: my version of Office 2008 is happy to open my Word 5.1a files -
though not if I just double-click on them: I have to open them via
Word 2008's Open dialog box.

Hmm, until I read this I was going to suggest to Norm to get MacLink Plus
from Dataviz, so I'm glad I didn't do that. I don't have Office 2008 so
can't test.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
============

 

[John McGhie]

That may be my fading memory... There is a LIMIT to how far back it will go
‹ I thought it would go to 6 but not 5.1a ‹ are you sure the files you have
are actually 5.1a, and have not been updated to a later format?

Anyway: there is a limit: Word X will open the "old" files ‹ Word 2008 will
not

Cheers

Odd: my version of Office 2008 is happy to open my Word 5.1a files -
though not if I just double-click on them: I have to open them via
Word 2008's Open dialog box.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Norm]

That may be my fading memory... There is a LIMIT to how far back it will go
‹ I thought it would go to 6 but not 5.1a ‹ are you sure the files you have
are actually 5.1a, and have not been updated to a later format?

Anyway: there is a limit: Word X will open the "old" files ‹ Word 2008 will
not

Cheers

Will the two versions coexist "happily" on one's Mac?

Thanks.

 

[dow]

That may be my fading memory...  There is a LIMIT to how far back itwill go
‹ I thought it would go to 6 but not 5.1a ‹ are you sure the files you have are actually 5.1a, and have not been updated to a later format?

Anyway: there is a limit: Word X will open the "old" files ‹ Word2008 will not

I'm definitely opening Word 5.1a files with Word 2008!

(I find Word 5 works so much more crisply than any of its successors,
so it is still my word processor of choice. This does have the side-
effect of forcing me to stick to Tiger and pre-Intel macs so that I
can continue to use Classic and thus Word 5)

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, they will. The only proviso is: Do not try to run two versions of
Entourage at the same time.

Everything else will happily co-exist and will even run concurrently should
you wish.

The only 'gotcha' is that 2008 will take over the shortcuts and
double-clicks; so to get something to open in X you must start the
application first, then use File>Open within the application to open a file.

Cheers

Will the two versions coexist "happily" on one's Mac?

Thanks.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi John -

<snip>

The only 'gotcha' is that 2008 will take over the shortcuts and
double-clicks; so to get something to open in X you must start the
application first, then use File>Open within the application to open a file.

<snip>

Although basically true - I haven't tried it with Office X - but with both
2004 & 2008 installed dbl-clicking a .doc in Finder will open it in 2004 if
2004 has already been launched - even if 2008 is running as well. It's only
if 2004 isn't running that 2008 dominates when opening from Finder.

Another option if the earlier version isn't running, of course, is to
Ctrl/Right-Click the file in Finder & use Open With to specify which version
to be used but as we know that can't be set effectively as the default.

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

 

[Michel Bintener]

Although basically true - I haven't tried it with Office X - but with both
2004 & 2008 installed dbl-clicking a .doc in Finder will open it in 2004 if
2004 has already been launched - even if 2008 is running as well. It's only
if 2004 isn't running that 2008 dominates when opening from Finder.

Another option if the earlier version isn't running, of course, is to
Ctrl/Right-Click the file in Finder & use Open With to specify which version
to be used but as we know that can't be set effectively as the default.

One more suggestion: drag/drop the document onto the Word v.X icon in the
Dock.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[Norm]

OP Back.

Per your suggestion, I'm up to installing Word v. X

Where do I find the Office v. X updates that I need to apply?

The first one I applied on the PPC was 10.1.6.

Thank you.