sending/reading files between windowsPC and mac osX

[melomoe]

To Whom It May Concern:

Just wondering how to go about making a Word doc. in mac then save so
it will be opened in a windows PC environment? and vice-versa.

I tried looking at Word's Help area in the program, but to no avail.

Melomoe

Im on a G4 1.5 laptop OSX 10.3.8

 

[Elliott Roper]

To Whom It May Concern:

Just wondering how to go about making a Word doc. in mac then save so
it will be opened in a windows PC environment? and vice-versa.

I tried looking at Word's Help area in the program, but to no avail.

Melomoe

Im on a G4 1.5 laptop OSX 10.3.8

It just works. Don't do anything special. At least at first.
There are a few little annoyances depending on Word versions at each
end, but by and large, everything is ok in both directions.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Melomoe-
Microsoft Word uses the same file format on both platforms and has been
doing so since Word 97 (PC)/Word 98 (Mac). There's no need to convert
anything, a Word file created on a Mac should open more or less flawlessly
on a PC, and vice-versa. If you're running Word 2004, you might want to use
the compatibility report to make sure your document shows up correctly in
earlier versions of Word. Additionally, to ensure that the look of your
documents will not be changed too much, you should try and use fonts which
are installed on most computers, such as Times New Roman or Arial.
Also, make sure that when you save your files on a Mac, the option "Append
file extension" is checked, as Windows users might need the file extension
to open the file.

Michel

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

That's what I do--font Times New Roman and make sure it has an extension and
don't use any weird characters like periods or slashes in your
filenames--and I do this frequently without problems. I don't even use
spaces in the filename, but I think that's me being superstitious.

In addition to Michel's suggestions--the most common source of perceived
problems is not with Word, but with the way people send attachments. If
emailing, make sure you use windows-friendly attachment encoding. More
info:

A 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.