Very Disappointed with Word 2008 Bugs

[Focus]

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

Hi everyone,

I am running OS X 10.5.2 and have a Macbook 2,1 2.0Ghz C2D with 3GB RAM. While running Office 2008, I have found these 2 bugs with Word 2008 that hamper my productivity. I just updated it to 12.0.1 and to my disappointment, these 3 bugs still remain:

1. Word 2008 has serious problems with Expose. When I stack windows, and mouse over the documents that are open to switch to that window, the title of the window is absent and the blue highlighting of the window is truncated. I tried this with Powerpoint 2008 and it works when I mouse over its window. This bug is very annoying because I usually have several Word windows open at once and I need to know what document I am switching to.

2. Word 2008 has problems with Spaces. When I shift one open document into a separate space, ALL other open documents are transplanted to that space.

3. Whenever I type a document and run a compatibility check for Word 97 - 2008, it says "The compatibility are set to Word 6.0/95, which may cause lines to break differently....." I changed this to "Microsoft Word 2000 - 2004 and X" but this compatibility issue always pops up.

I would be grateful if anyone knows a fix for these 3 pretty fundamental bugs of Word 2008 and if MS is going to release a fix for it anytime soon.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[John McGhie]

Issues 1 and 2 may not be Microsoft's to fix.

There is some discussion as to whether Spaces and Expose are actually
working correctly. I think we might be waiting on an Apple fix for those.

If you wanted to, you could roll back to OS 10.4 an you would not get the
issue.

Issue 3: You may have a corrupt document there.

Exactly how are you setting the compatibility, and where? I need to
understand exactly what you are doing.

Cheers

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

Hi everyone,

I am running OS X 10.5.2 and have a Macbook 2,1 2.0Ghz C2D with 3GB RAM. While
running Office 2008, I have found these 2 bugs with Word 2008 that hamper my
productivity. I just updated it to 12.0.1 and to my disappointment, these 3
bugs still remain:

1. Word 2008 has serious problems with Expose. When I stack windows, and mouse
over the documents that are open to switch to that window, the title of the
window is absent and the blue highlighting of the window is truncated. I tried
this with Powerpoint 2008 and it works when I mouse over its window. This bug
is very annoying because I usually have several Word windows open at once and
I need to know what document I am switching to.

2. Word 2008 has problems with Spaces. When I shift one open document into a
separate space, ALL other open documents are transplanted to that space.

3. Whenever I type a document and run a compatibility check for Word 97 -
2008, it says "The compatibility are set to Word 6.0/95, which may cause lines
to break differently....." I changed this to "Microsoft Word 2000 - 2004 and
X" but this compatibility issue always pops up.

I would be grateful if anyone knows a fix for these 3 pretty fundamental bugs
of Word 2008 and if MS is going to release a fix for it anytime soon.

Many thanks in advance!

--
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, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Christer Ekebom]

I have the same problem with the compatibility control, but I do not think it vill do any harm. I am running OS X 10.4.11 on an iMac G4 with 512 Mb memory and I have seen some problems: Before Office 2008 I used Office X (10.1.9) and there seem to be some serious compatibility-problems between X and 2008 (Word): I had to create a totally new user-account and move all my documents there before the 2008-version began to run properly, but now it does (version 12.0.1) - in the new account. Do anyone know what to do about this issue? I haver tried to clean all files with any connection to Microsoft,but nothing seems to help. 2008 runs properly in the new account even when the old X is reinstalled!

Hopefully someone who knows more about the secrets of the program-codes can find out the reason to this issue. I am waiting for the next update

Office 2008 is beautiful when it works properly! :smile:

 

[Focus]

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply. The Expose and Spaces problem is weird because all the Office apps like Powerpoint, Excel and Entourage work perfectly fine with it so I don't understand why Word is the exception. Hopefully MS / Apple have a fix for this soon since I use Word most frequently.

Ok problem 3 seems to occur for any document I am typing. I will create a new document and start typing (or even create it fresh and run the compatibility check), and after I run a compatibility check using the Toolbox for "Word 97 - 2008", the compatibility problem "1. Word 6.0/95 compatibility options are set" appears under the Explanation as follows: "The compatibility options for this document are set for Word 6.0/95, which may cause lines to break differently than the author intended. To ensure that documents look the same on computers running Word 97 or later, change the compatibility options to Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X in the Preferences Dialog box". I went to Compatibility under Preferences and changed the compatibility options to "Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X" and set it to Default but the message still appears after I recheck the document. Is there a way to remove this compatibility error?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Focus,

Open your Word preferences and click on Compatibility. Change the
Recommended Option to Microsoft Word 2007-2008. Click the DEFAULT button
and say 'yes' to the dialog.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

[Focus]

Hi Beth,

Thanks for your solution, it works with in removing the compatibility error. Just another quick question - I regularly need to send documents to Windows Office XP or 2003 users, does changing the default Recommended Options to "Word 2007/2008" affect how these users view my documents, assuming I save all my documents in "Word 97-2004" doc format?

 

[John McGhie]

I don't recommend saving documents in the old format. It is fragile, and
the documents will eventually corrupt and crash, for you, and for them...

There are two forms of "Compatibility"

1) "Compatibility Options" affects how Word displays things in the
document. Yes, it will affect how documents are displayed on Windows,
although the difference may be difficult to detect.

2) "Compatibility Mode" means the document is being written to the old file
format. This is twice the size, and is not very reliable (which is why they
bought out the new format).

HOWEVER: The old file format will NOT store some of the things that Word
2008 and Word 2007 can create. So if you save to the old file format, Word
removes some information from the file.

Often, this does not matter, because Word constructs a "picture" of what the
new widget looks like, and inserts that instead. But if you expect the
other users to edit the document, they will come to things such as tables,
equations, and pictures that they will not be able to edit (depending on
what they contain). If they try to insert such things, Word will remove
them and replace them with pictures before they send the file back to you.

So I recommend working in, and storing, your documents in the new file
format. I would not save back to the old version unless they ask for it.

Microsoft sent out updates to PC Word a year ago that enable earlier
versions to read the new file format. Users who installed the update will
never notice the difference. Users who didn't will be taken to the
Microsoft download site to get the update.

Users who refuse to put the update in can always ask you for an old-version
copy.

It's OK to send the old version. But I wouldn't keep your own copies in
that format: you will pollute your own document store with partially-broken
files

Hope this helps

Hi Beth,

Thanks for your solution, it works with in removing the compatibility error.
Just another quick question - I regularly need to send documents to Windows
Office XP or 2003 users, does changing the default Recommended Options to
"Word 2007/2008" affect how these users view my documents, assuming I save all
my documents in "Word 97-2004" doc format?

--
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, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[jenhewlett]

"Open your Word preferences and click on Compatibility. Change the
Recommended Option to Microsoft Word 2007-2008. Click the DEFAULT
button
and say 'yes' to the dialog. "

I have been doing that and everything seems fine so I go ahead and
save it, then I close it, but when I open it again it's back to giving
me the error message. it's like once I set the default it resets
itself anyway. I even tried it with a blank fresh document. this is
really annoying because the result is the person I am doing work for
cannot see images I send them.
thanks if anyone can help.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Since you do not have the *exact* same problem being discussed in this
thread, you should have posted a new question.

Impossible to help without knowing OS, what error message you are
getting, and more about the invisible image problem.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Actually, scratch that. But it's entirely possible the invisible image
problem is not related to the Compatibilty error. Why do you think it is?

 

[jenhewlett]

sorry I should have explained more. I am running office 2008 on Mac OS
10.5.2. Basically I get the exact same error message posted above.
The last time it happened I changed the compatibility to 2007/2008 and
he could see the images fine, but for some reason it wont let me do
that anymore. With the file I was working on or any new documents. I
mean it will let me change it but as soon as I close and open it again
I get the same compatibility error message about it being word 6.0/95.
The icons also look different. I made a little screencap,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v664/execjen/screen.jpg the one on
the top is the one saved under 2007/08 and the other one is one of the
ones that keeps bouncing back to 6.0/95 even when it set it as the
default.