Urgent - Word 2008 Documents sent by Mail toWindows XP oder Vista do not open

I

Irmel

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hi,
working professionally with my Mac I have a big problem with korresponding customers and their Windows-PCs. If I create a Word2008 document and save it as Word-97 kompatible and send it by Mail to the customer, regularly they cannot open them. If I save it as a PDF-Document, they again cannot open it. Some of them can open the document, when I save it as Word-.dot, but not all. Some of my customers have no problem at all with the documents. Who can help me?
 
J

John McGhie

Well, we are delighted to help you here...

The first thing: Save your files as a "Word 2008 document" and send those.
Do not say ANYTHING about Mac Word. If you do not tell the PC users that it
came from a Mac, the majority of them will open it just fine.

The ones that can't open Word 2008 documents on the PC are missing one or
more important updates: you should advise them to go to the Microsoft site
and download all the updates they are missing, including the "Compatibility
Pack". When they do that, they too will be able to read your documents.

If you send it as PDF, most users on the PC will be able to open it (99.9
per cent). However, if you send it as a PDF with an embedded "document"
attachment, again, those who have not updated will fail. THEY need to go to
the Adobe site and download their updates.

Apple Mail has a poor track record of sending stuff to Windows boxes. You
can do it, but you need to set Mail to send "Windows friendly attachments".
See the Mail help topic " Windows users have problems with files I send".

You will have an easier time of it if you use Entourage to send attachments:
you can set Entourage to send in MIME format, and if you do, almost nobody
will have problems with it :)

When sending Word 2008 documents, it is safest to Zip the file using
Finder's "Create Archive" command and send the zipped version. This works
around problems with email setup at the PC end.

If you save a document as "Word 97 compatible", then yes, you may get
problems. It is best to avoid that, because when you down-convert the file
you may lose some information.

If you have to save back, save back to the "Word 2004" version, and make
sure you add the .doc extension to the name to guide it through the system
at the other end.

Hope this helps


Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hi,
working professionally with my Mac I have a big problem with korresponding
customers and their Windows-PCs. If I create a Word2008 document and save it
as Word-97 kompatible and send it by Mail to the customer, regularly they
cannot open them. If I save it as a PDF-Document, they again cannot open it.
Some of them can open the document, when I save it as Word-.dot, but not all.
Some of my customers have no problem at all with the documents. Who can help
me?

--
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]
 
C

CyberTaz

One addendum to John's advice: Make sure to use the Append File Extension
checkbox in the Save As dialog or type the proper file name extension
yourself when you save the file. Many mail systems and/or security services
will butcher the file if it doesn't have one.

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

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