Word 5.1 and Mac OS X

[Martin Crisp]

Don't remember the exact timing, but WinWord2 had WordBasic back in
1991. IIRC, MacWord5 was introduced after that.

A quick Google shows discussion of Word 5 in comp.sys.mac.apps in
Nov 1990, 5.1 'still about a month away' in April 1992; tidbits
article in Jan 1992 saying that MS were 'promising' wordbasic for
5.1.

Discussion of WordBasic for Windows in March 1990.

Not blaming 5.1 for anything. You seemed to be saying that macro virii
weren't an issue for Macs before Word 6, though, and that, at least in a

They weren't. The same as PC

mixed Mac-Windows environment, is simply untrue.

I was working in such an environment at the time [Government LAN &
WAN, satellite offices, interstate bureaus etc - a few hundred
machines, including about 50 Macs - the Macs and a few PCs were my
responsibility as far as application & network support, amongst
other things].

I can't recall word macro viruses being an issue at all until
Word6.

Google didn't turn anything up either.

Wasn't disingenuous - I'd read your post to mean that the macro virii
were responsible. On re-reading, it's apparent that it was one item in a
list.

OK, accusation withdrawn.

Not sure what you are responding to here.

Unspecified personal experience doesn't carry much weight.

My point was that macros,
along with the attendant risk of macro virii, far from "leveraging Macs
out of business installations", rather were required for them to
continue in business installations.

And mine was that the multitude of issues with Word 6, one of which
were the macro viruses, helped leverage Macs out of businesses.

Certainly: if Word 6 hadn't had macros on the Mac while the Win
version did, that would have been worse. I wasn't trying to suggest
that macros are, of themselves, a bad idea.

And, without putting too fine a point on it, since almost none of the
macro virii in the wild have any affect on Mac platforms, some

That may be the case now: I don't use MS products on principle any
more [yes I still have 5.1 on Mac OS X, no, I don't use it]; but it
certainly wasn't when they first appeared.

Well, yes, I think it was. I've seen only a couple of documented cases
where a macro virus delivered a damaging payload on a Mac, even before
macro virus protection was included.

I guess that depends on what you consider 'damaging'. Me, I don't
like parliamentary secretary's calling me at home on a Sunday
because some PC user has sent her the latest version of 'Concept'
that is printing extra material on the Minister's /other/
documents... and I'd call the lost productivity (not to mention
'free time' for me: paid a salary, no overtime) as a result
'damaging'.

No.

Oh. Well it seems to me that your assessment of the effects of
various macro viruses is flawed.

Have Fun
Martin

 

[Martin Crisp]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004 16:43:48 +1000, JE McGimpsey wrote
(in article
<[email protected]>):
[snip]

Not blaming 5.1 for anything. You seemed to be saying that macro virii
weren't an issue for Macs before Word 6, though, and that, at least in a

They weren't. The same as PC

This is what I get for letting life intervene while online. What I
was going to say, was:

The same as PCs handing on files/disks infected with Mac-only
viruses/worms weren't a problem /for the PC/.

Have Fun
Martin

 

[J.Random Luser]

Of course, the reason that version 6 brought macro virii to the Mac is
that previous Mac versions didn't support macros. Word 5.1 users could,
and did, in blissful ignorance play Typhoid Mary, passing on virii in
documents from infected Windows users.

Huh?
The trick was to Save as...
and in my blissful ignorance I have always assumed that
zapped virus, macro & all.
That's why I still have W5.1 here on a G3 running Panther

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

That's why I still have W5.1 here on a G3 running Panther

I thought Word 5.1 wouldn't run on OS 9, but that Classic had to be OS 9.
Am I confused, or did you finagle something?

DM

 

[JE McGimpsey]

The trick was to Save as...
and in my blissful ignorance I have always assumed that
zapped virus, macro & all.
That's why I still have W5.1 here on a G3 running Panther

IIRC, Save As just saves a complete copy of the file, rather than
zapping anything. But 5.1 was a long time ago for me, so I may be
misremembering.

 

[Fred Moore]

Dayo Mitchell ([email protected]) wrote:
: "J.Random Luser" wrote:
: > That's why I still have W5.1 here on a G3 running Panther

: I thought Word 5.1 wouldn't run on OS 9, but that Classic had to be OS 9.
: Am I confused, or did you finagle something?

No! he says with a satisfied smile. Word 5.1a, the last and perhaps only
really good piece of software M$ ever produced, works well all the way
through OS 9.2.2 and Classic. There are a few, occasional screen redraw
artifacts in 9.x which can easily be gotten rid of by Windowshading the
active Word window. No biggy. And the internal find content within a file
broke with HFS+, but the Finder can step in there. Also I've heard there
are a few difficulties with Equation Editor and some of the more esoteric
functions.

Overall, pretty trivial and rather impressive for a piece of software
which is almost pre-historic by personal computer standards.

(BTW, I've started to check out OpenOffice.org for that inevitable black
day when Apple dumps Classic. So far OOo is quite promising.)

--Fred

 

[Tony Soprano]

Dayo Mitchell ([email protected]) wrote:
: "J.Random Luser" wrote:
: > That's why I still have W5.1 here on a G3 running Panther

: I thought Word 5.1 wouldn't run on OS 9, but that Classic had to be OS 9.
: Am I confused, or did you finagle something?

No! he says with a satisfied smile. Word 5.1a, the last and perhaps only
really good piece of software M$ ever produced, works well all the way
through OS 9.2.2 and Classic. There are a few, occasional screen redraw
artifacts in 9.x which can easily be gotten rid of by Windowshading the
active Word window. No biggy. And the internal find content within a file
broke with HFS+, but the Finder can step in there. Also I've heard there
are a few difficulties with Equation Editor and some of the more esoteric
functions.

Overall, pretty trivial and rather impressive for a piece of software
which is almost pre-historic by personal computer standards.

(BTW, I've started to check out OpenOffice.org for that inevitable black
day when Apple dumps Classic. So far OOo is quite promising.)

--Fred

Check out Nisus Writer Express. Version 2.0 is due out soon. Its a great
word processor, no bloat, no talking paperclips.

 

[Mike Rosenberg]

I thought Word 5.1 wouldn't run on OS 9, but that Classic had to be OS 9.
Am I confused, or did you finagle something?

You're confused--Word 5.1 runs fine in OS 9, including Classic.

 

[John Doherty]

No! he says with a satisfied smile. Word 5.1a, the last and perhaps only
really good piece of software M$ ever produced, works well all the way
through OS 9.2.2 and Classic.
[snip]

Overall, pretty trivial and rather impressive for a piece of software
which is almost pre-historic by personal computer standards.

Hey, I still use Word 4.0e, which is from January, 1992. Works fine
for the purposes to which I put it.

--

 

[BroDan]

No! he says with a satisfied smile. Word 5.1a, the last and perhaps only
really good piece of software M$ ever produced, works well all the way
through OS 9.2.2 and Classic.
[snip]

Overall, pretty trivial and rather impressive for a piece of software
which is almost pre-historic by personal computer standards.

Hey, I still use Word 4.0e, which is from January, 1992. Works fine
for the purposes to which I put it.

--

Ah, but how do you print to a usb printer? i can't print. same setup as
u.

 

[Mike Rosenberg]

Ah, but how do you print to a usb printer? i can't print. same setup as
u.

How do you know it's the same setup when the above is all he said?
Anyway, you have to install a printer driver in Classic and, while
running Word or another Classic app, select it in the Chooser.

 

[BroDan]

How do you know it's the same setup when the above is all he said?
Anyway, you have to install a printer driver in Classic and, while
running Word or another Classic app, select it in the Chooser.

oops. i looked at his sig. oops. maybe that was my own. duh. anyway. i
installed it, but can't choose it.

 

[John Doherty]

Ah, but how do you print to a usb printer?

I don't have a USB printer, so it's not an issue for me.

(I added the qualifier about "the purposes to which I put it" because
I wouldn't be surprised if there were other problems that I've never
run across. I don't use it much.)

--

 

[Mike Rosenberg]

oops. i looked at his sig. oops. maybe that was my own. duh. anyway. i
installed it, but can't choose it.

It would help to know which printer you're using and whether you're
using the most recent Classic driver.

 

[Gene van Troyer]

I thought Word 5.1 wouldn't run on OS 9, but that Classic had to be OS 9.
Am I confused, or did you finagle something?

It isn't supposed to, but I know people who have it running in OS 9.1. I
think you can't use the installer to install to OS 9, but you can copy an
installed version from in its entirety from an older OS to OS 9, and it will
run. I don't know about Classic OS9.2.2, though.

Gene van Troyer

 

[clw]

It isn't supposed to, but I know people who have it running in OS 9.1. I
think you can't use the installer to install to OS 9, but you can copy an
installed version from in its entirety from an older OS to OS 9, and it will
run. I don't know about Classic OS9.2.2, though.

Word 5.1a runs perfectly on 9.2.2 in the classic mode under 10.2.6.
And, prints fine to USB printers.

 

[BroDan]

Word 5.1a runs perfectly on 9.2.2 in the classic mode under 10.2.6.
And, prints fine to USB printers.

glad to know. but how? will check on driver to see if it is recent. i
have an hp 1300xi all in one psc