PC users can't open Mac word document

[Gabriela Bernal]

Hi,
I emailed a Word file from Windows PC to my Mac and had no trouble
opening it. However, I edited & saved the file and I tried to email it
to a couple of Windows users and none of them were able to open it.
Should I be saving it differently...or are they opening it wrong?
Please help!
Gabriela

 

[Glenn]

Did you try adding the .doc extension to the name of the document?
Also you might try saving it in .RTF and then sending it again. glenn

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Gabriela:

I wouldn't bother fiddling around with file extensions: PCs have ignored
them for years! However, it is very important that you do NOT send PC users
files compressed with Stuffit, because they can't read that. (Well, they
can if they get Stuffit Expander, but in an Office you are not allowed to
install software so they can't...)

If you have the full version of Stuffit, use it to create a Zip format file
the Windows users can open. If you do not have Stuffit, send the file
uncompressed.

When you specify an Encoding for the file, make sure it's either MIME or
AppleDouble. PCs can't read BinHex, and only professional email programs
can decode UUEncode these days.

It is interesting (to me!) that Mac OS X needs and uses extensions, but PCs
basically ignore them these days. Personally, I am a believer in extensions
on both platforms: it's the "right way to do thing". But bitter experience
has taught us that you can't trust an extension these days, so most
computers are ignoring them. Pity...

Cheers

This responds to article <[email protected]>,

Hi,
I emailed a Word file from Windows PC to my Mac and had no trouble
opening it. However, I edited & saved the file and I tried to email it
to a couple of Windows users and none of them were able to open it.
Should I be saving it differently...or are they opening it wrong?
Please help!
Gabriela

--
All Spam and attachments blocked by Microsoft Entourage for Mac OS X. Please
post replies to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs

 

[Phillip M. Jones, C.E.T.]

Hi Gabriela:

I wouldn't bother fiddling around with file extensions: PCs have ignored
them for years! However, it is very important that you do NOT send PC users
files compressed with Stuffit, because they can't read that. (Well, they
can if they get Stuffit Expander, but in an Office you are not allowed to
install software so they can't...)

If you have the full version of Stuffit, use it to create a Zip format file
the Windows users can open. If you do not have Stuffit, send the file
uncompressed.

When you specify an Encoding for the file, make sure it's either MIME or
AppleDouble. PCs can't read BinHex, and only professional email programs
can decode UUEncode these days.

It is interesting (to me!) that Mac OS X needs and uses extensions, but PCs
basically ignore them these days. Personally, I am a believer in extensions
on both platforms: it's the "right way to do thing". But bitter experience
has taught us that you can't trust an extension these days, so most
computers are ignoring them. Pity...

The reason Mac OSX uses extentions is that it is Basically UNIX with the
Mac OS on top.
UNIX 'has always" used extensions since day one in the 1970's when UNIX
got started. And probably always will. UNIX except for cleanup of code
and addition of some commands; looks much like it did in the 1970's.

OS9 and lower used extensions because when Apple decided to take on PC
Compatibility, DOS and Windows "absolutely required" extensions. Then I
guess MS took another item from Apple's playbook and decided drop the
need for extensions. Heck at one time extensions were even need in PC's
to differenciate between Word files, Wordperfect files, Lotus123 files ,
Excel files and so on.

Cheers

This responds to article <[email protected]>,


--
All Spam and attachments blocked by Microsoft Entourage for Mac OS X. Please
post replies to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |MEMBER:VPEA (LIFE) ETA-I, NESDA,ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
24112-1809
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>

 

[Tim Murray]

I wouldn't bother fiddling around with file extensions: PCs have ignored

them for years! ... It is interesting (to me!) that Mac OS X needs and
uses extensions, but PCs basically ignore them these days.

Umm, I would not word it like that; to one who doesn't know about extensions,
I think it minimizes them far too much. There are still lots of applications
that rely on them, even to the point of if the actual contents don't match
the extension, it chokes. Also, you have the issue of what happens when you
double click a file.

It's safer to say that many apps don't rely on them to the degree they once
did

 

[Gene van Troyer]

Umm, I would not word it like that; to one who doesn't know about extensions,
I think it minimizes them far too much. There are still lots of applications
that rely on them, even to the point of if the actual contents don't match
the extension, it chokes. Also, you have the issue of what happens when you
double click a file.

I thought the situation was not that the new Windows OS ignores extensions,
but that the default is to hide them so that you just don't see them even
though they're hidden. Hence if you add .doc to the file, you have a double
extension...

Gene van Troyer

 

[Tim Murray]

I thought the situation was not that the new Windows OS ignores extensions,

but that the default is to hide them so that you just don't see them even
though they're hidden. Hence if you add .doc to the file, you have a double
extension...

The default, which is an absolutely silly one, is to hide the extensions. In
Win2K if you manually add an extension, yes, you get two.

 

[John McGhie [MVP]]

Hi Gene:

No, unless the user has been fiddling, Windows actually does "ignore" the
extension. It reads the file type and creator code, except for TXT and
HTML.

If you use File>Open, you short-circuit the OS file recogniser method on
both systems. This is why we keep telling people to use File>Open when
things won't open. If they have munged their extensions, it will work
anyway.

Windows Xp is quite happy with file.doc.doc -- because it's actually running
of the type and creator codes

But Tim is quite correct: older Windows applications and badly-designed
applications can run into trouble if the extension is "wrong". A case in
point is email filters on mail servers. They tend to believe the extension,
and if that's not what they find in the file, they just hammer it anyway
without trying any harder.

Cheers

I thought the situation was not that the new Windows OS ignores extensions,
but that the default is to hide them so that you just don't see them even
though they're hidden. Hence if you add .doc to the file, you have a double
extension...

Gene van Troyer

--
All Spam and attachments blocked by Microsoft Entourage for Mac OS X. Please
post replies to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <[email protected]>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs