Opening Word X documents on PCs.

[Shelley]

When I email Word X documents and try to open them on a PC,
sometimes I can and, at other times, they won't open.
Similarly, when I receive a series of PC Word documents, I
can only open some of them.

The only way I've found to ensure that I can open them on
the PC is to save them in Word for the Mac 5.1. Does anyone
know how I can resolve this without saving in an earlier
version? Also, does the 2004 version for the Mac make this
possible? I'm willing to invest in the latest version.

Thanks!

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

The file format for Mac/WinWord has been the same since Word 97, so it is
unlikely that 2004 will fix the problem you are having. When you say "can't
open", did you try both double-clicking on them and using File | Open from
within Word? Sometimes double-clicking does not work if the OS does not
recognize it as a Word doc (in which case fix the extension), but File |
Open will recognize Word files regardless.

Some tips that may help with sending Mac docs to a Windows computer.

Make sure the file has the .doc extension.

It may be a problem with how the attachment is encoded by the email program.

My Mac email program, Entourage, has this to say in Help:

About attachment encodings
When you choose an encoding format, it is helpful to understand how
Macintosh files differ from files created on other computers. Macintosh
files include additional resource information that files created on other
types of computers do not. If you are sending a data file, such as a
Microsoft Word document or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, such resource
information may not be necessary. However, if you are sending something more
complex, such as a program, to another Macintosh computer, you must choose
an encoding format that preserves all the data.
The AppleDouble encoding format preserves the additional resource
information, and can be read by both Macintosh and other types of computers.
AppleDouble is a good choice for your default encoding format; it works most
of the time with most computers. However, if AppleDouble fails, you can
choose a different encoding format depending on the type of computer you are
sending the attachment to:
€ To send an attachment to a Macintosh computer, use BinHex, which
preserves the Macintosh resource information and data.
€ To send an attachment to a Windows-based computer, use MIME/Base 64,
which preserves the data only.
€ To send an attachment to a UNIX computer, use UUEncode, which preserves
the data only.

Don't know why you would be having problems opening WinWord documents on a
Mac, I do it all the time. Adding the extension may help. Also make sure
your Word X is completely updated:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Update.htm

DM
Mac MVP for Word