Word and Excel files not opening for PC users! Help!

C

celticlass66

I don't know why this is happening now, but I am having terrible
trouble getting Word and Excel files to open on a PC. It is saying it's
a binary file and can't open it. I'm taking classes online, and this
hasn't been happening before. The only change is I went from DSL to a
cable modem - I can't see how that would be different. Any suggestions
- I'm lost!
 
B

Beth Rosengard

Since you didn't say what your OS and Office/Word versions are nor what
email application you are using, I'm going to assume you're using Word 2004
in OS 10.x and either Entourage or Mail.

Use a different encoding to send these files (and make sure you have the
option to use extensions, like .doc or .xls, checked). To do so in Mail,
check the option that says something like "send Windows friendly
attachments". In Entourage, open the attachments window and then click on
the "Encode for ..." line in order to bring up the attachment dialog. Check
the Windows encoding option.

Also, on the PC, don't try to open the docs from within the email. Download
them to the hard drive (the desktop will do) and then double-click. If that
doesn't do it, use File>Open from within the application.

Finally, either don't compress the files or zip them. If you use Stuffit to
stuff them (the default method of compression on a Mac), they won't be
accessible unless the Windows machine has installed the free "Stuffit
Expander" for Windows. On the other hand, Windows machines can unzip files
by default so Command>click on a file or folder and select "Create Archive"
which makes a zipped file.

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

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>
 
C

celticlass66

I'm on OS X and using Word 2004, running through a newsgroup on
Thunderbird :)

I don't see anything in the Thunderbird preferences that allows me to
encode for Windows. I will pass on the PC user suggestions to my
classmates and see if that's the problem. Thanks for giving me some
ideas to try!
 
J

JosypenkoMJ

I don't know why this is happening now, but I am having terrible
trouble getting Word and Excel files to open on a PC. It is saying it's
a binary file and can't open it. I'm taking classes online, and this
hasn't been happening before. The only change is I went from DSL to a
cable modem - I can't see how that would be different. Any suggestions
- I'm lost!


Something similar - someone I work with said slides in Excel files made
on a Mac do display properly with Excel on a PC. Any ideas ?
 
J

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]

Not sure what you're asking here: I schlep files from Mac Excel to PC Excel
on a daily basis -- no problem.

However, PC Excel does not support Mac Excel's List Manager. List Manager
is a new "database-like" feature in Excel 2004. The PC version does not
have it (yet...).

List Manager can create complex formatting -- that will be lost when you
transfer the file to a PC, and will re-appear when you send the file back to
the Mac.

Maybe that's it?

cheers


Something similar - someone I work with said slides in Excel files made
on a Mac do display properly with Excel on a PC. Any ideas ?

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <john@mcghie.name>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
 
H

Helpful Harry

I don't know why this is happening now, but I am having terrible
trouble getting Word and Excel files to open on a PC. It is saying it's
a binary file and can't open it. I'm taking classes online, and this
hasn't been happening before. The only change is I went from DSL to a
cable modem - I can't see how that would be different. Any suggestions
- I'm lost!

The simplest and most common mistake when transferring files from Mac
to Windows is that the files should have the correct threee letter
extension on the end of the filenames.

For Word files the filename has to end with ".doc" (without he
quotemarks) while Excel documents have to be ".xls".

Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)
 
K

Kurt

Helpful Harry said:
The simplest and most common mistake when transferring files from Mac
to Windows is that the files should have the correct threee letter
extension on the end of the filenames.

For Word files the filename has to end with ".doc" (without he
quotemarks) while Excel documents have to be ".xls".

Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

And Mac users are still trying to figure out why we can't just name a
document what we want for PC users since they work fine for us ;-)

Always wondered why MS doesn't get beyond this holdout from the DOS era.
 
H

Helpful Harry

Kurt said:
And Mac users are still trying to figure out why we can't just name a
document what we want for PC users since they work fine for us ;-)

Always wondered why MS doesn't get beyond this holdout from the DOS era.

Mac OS X actually does something basically the same, it's just that the
default is to hide the filename extensions from the user.


Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)
 
J

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]

Hi Kurt:

Oh, Microsoft did move beyond it, years ago :) PCs have not needed file
extensions since Windows 95... :)

The only OS that still wants them is... Ummm .... Mac OS X :)

This is not a holdout for the DOS era, it's a compatibility feature retained
in DOS from Unix, which has now come full circle; now WE use extensions and
THEY don't :)

Harry's not wrong, but his advice is unlikely to solve the problem, because
whatever it is, it's not likely to be lack of file extensions.

What is more likely to be the problem is that when the user upgraded his
Internet connection, he re-configured his firewall and antivirus (or the
installer did that for him...). Now, he's trying to open Word and Excel
files by double-clicking them from inside his mail program. If his virus
program is working correctly, it won't let him: it will force him to save
the file to disk first so it can get a good look at it :) As it should!

Computer users need to get out of the habit of double-clicking things in
email programs: if they all did that, they would put the virus writers out
of business overnight!

Cheers

And Mac users are still trying to figure out why we can't just name a
document what we want for PC users since they work fine for us ;-)

Always wondered why MS doesn't get beyond this holdout from the DOS era.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <john@mcghie.name>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
 
J

JosypenkoMJ

Referring to some of the above, the problem was not opening the Mac
Excel file on a PC, the problem is that some of the slides displayed
differently. On one slide, some lines would be placed further to the
right. I have to contact the person again to get more details.
Actually, the Mac (OS 9._ at least) supports some file extensions. If
one has a file with no file type (it's icon is a blank document icon;
FTP programs can make these when copying unknown typed files), one can
add the following extensions and the OS will change the file type to
that of the extension and change the file's icon :

..pict
..mov
..txt
..jpeg

If the extension is removed, the OS returns the file to typeless and
blank document icon.
Also if SimpleText .pict files are zipped and unzipped with Stuffit,
the unzipped versions become SimpleText text files. The following
endings can be added to change file type once:

..pict
..mov
..jpeg

I'm guessing this is part of Quick Time.
Almost always I use extensions when sending something across the
great Email server barrier, because they frequently loose the file type
information.
 
K

Kurt

Helpful Harry said:
Mac OS X actually does something basically the same, it's just that the
default is to hide the filename extensions from the user.
Prior to Sys 10, Mac users never had to know what a file extension was.
I always assumed they brought it in because it was necessary to Windows
machines to see when the file was brought from a Mac to a PC.
 
J

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]

Hi Kurt:

Prior to Sys 10, Mac users never had to know what a file extension was.
I always assumed they brought it in because it was necessary to Windows
machines to see when the file was brought from a Mac to a PC.

Not so: They bought it in because Unix wants it. You can't actually have a
Unix File System without it, although Unix does not require files to have
extensions, provided that you are willing to forego the ability to
double-click things in the Finder... Don't you just love consistency?

The ability to read the Creator Code and Mac ID is replicated in OS X by an
application module that is external to the BSD core. BSD Unix expects and
needs file extensions.

Windows does exactly the same, except that they can pretend that the module
is part of Windows (well, it *is* part of Windows, but you could come up
with a philosophical argument that it 'shouldn't' be :))

Either way, Windows these days flies mainly on the file header, which is
contained in the first 500-ish bytes of the file (it's not normally that
big...).

For either of them, this slows things down: The system has to read the disk
directory to find the file name, then read the disk to find the file, then
open the file and read in the first block, then parse the block to work out
what's in the file, then close the file and hand it off to the destination
application. It's a very laborious way of working, brought to you by people
who need to convince you that you need a new computer that is faster than
the old one :)

If the file name has an extension, the system needs read only the name, then
open the destination application and pass the location of the unopened file
to the application. Much more efficient, but not as 'safe'. If users lie
about what's in the file by adding the wrong extension, the system gets very
confused :)

Cheers

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <john@mcghie.name>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
 
J

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]

Oh: Well, yes, slides will have issues moving from Mac to PC and
vice-versa.

On the PC, the slides are expressed internally in Enhanced Metafile format,
which relies on Windows GDI+. On the Mac, they are expressed in PICT which
relies on QuickDraw.

While GDI+ and QuickDraw are very similar concepts (used for the same
purpose: drawing stuff on screen) they are not exactly the same. Various
things such as line widths, line styles, vector origins and the colour table
are different between the two.

A conversion from one format to the other will not be "exact".

If we could get EPS to work properly, our problems would be solved, because
EPS does render exactly the same on both platforms. But Word on the Mac
will not handle EPS properly very often, and printers in Windows often can't
print it. So on the Mac, the printer works but Word doesn't, on Windows,
Word works but the printer may not...

Doncha just love standardisation?

I have already made my opinion of this known somewhat strongly. The idea
that an application destined for the world's mainstream graphics platform
can't handle pictures properly sort of defies belief...

Cheers


Referring to some of the above, the problem was not opening the Mac
Excel file on a PC, the problem is that some of the slides displayed
differently. On one slide, some lines would be placed further to the
right. I have to contact the person again to get more details.
Actually, the Mac (OS 9._ at least) supports some file extensions. If
one has a file with no file type (it's icon is a blank document icon;
FTP programs can make these when copying unknown typed files), one can
add the following extensions and the OS will change the file type to
that of the extension and change the file's icon :

.pict

.mov

.txt

.jpeg


If the extension is removed, the OS returns the file to typeless and
blank document icon.
Also if SimpleText .pict files are zipped and unzipped with Stuffit,
the unzipped versions become SimpleText text files. The following
endings can be added to change file type once:

.pict

.mov

.jpeg


I'm guessing this is part of Quick Time.
Almost always I use extensions when sending something across the
great Email server barrier, because they frequently loose the file type
information.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <john@mcghie.name>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
 

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