Word Documents

[Kristen_Marenco]

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

I save my word documents, and send them to associates as email attachments.
Several people have told me that they cannot open my documents. One friend said "I can open it, but it looks like Russian."
The font I am using is Times New Roman, so there shouldn't be a font compatibility issue.
Can anyone shed some light on this? I only bought Word so it would be compatible with my PC user colleagues and friends.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Kristen -

It isn't a Mac/PC - Word compatibility issue When you send an attachment
you aren't delivering the file itself but rather a *copy* of it... A copy
which has been encoded/decoded/handled by several different culprits along
the way to its destination. Certain precautions need to be taken, but they
have nothing to do with Word compatibility.

Starting with Word, however, make sure to check the box in Save As to Append
File Extensions regardless of where [or whether] the file may eventually be
directed. It's a one time setting - you don't have to repeat it for each
file you save. You're correct to consider Fonts, bit that isn't the problem
here. If it were the characters would more likely appear as hollow squares.

Next, check your email software settings for encoding of attachments. Make
sure it's set for "Windows Friendly" (or whatever phrasing your software
uses), although it's best to select MIME/Base64 if you have the setting
available. In general, Windows systems are quite picky, Macs not so much, so
your Mac correspondents should be OK with that too.

Also, Zip the file before attaching & send the compressed version - it will
far better survive the trip to the Dark Side - if sending more than one file
at a time create a folder, put all in the folder & zip the whole thing.

Finally, *gently* encourage your PC-Based associates to STOP double-clicking
attachment icons in their email. The attachment should be downloaded/saved
as a local file & opened from the Hard Drive.

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

 

[judy]

I had a similar problem with Word for Mac 2008 when I sent Word documents to people with PCs. Those with older Windows couldn't open the attachment. I found that my document was being saved automatically with an extension of .docx and because this is a newer extension, older computers didn't recognize it. I save my documents with .doc now and find that everyone can open it. Hope this helps.

I save my word documents, and send them to associates as email attachments.
Several people have told me that they cannot open my documents. One friend
said "I can open it, but it looks like Russian." The font I am using is
Times New Roman, so there shouldn't be a font compatibility issue. Can
anyone shed some light on this? I only bought Word so it would be compatible
with my PC user colleagues and friends.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Judy -

Although your "workaround" serves as a band-aid solution it doesn't solve
the problem, which is on the PC user's end. If they've been keeping their
updates maintained anyone using Office 2000 or later has been provided with
converters which enable opening the OOXML files created by Office 2007/2008.
It's also quite likely that anyone using a version of PC Office older than
than that are having other compatibility issues - even with files from other
Windows users.

By working strictly in .doc format you're depriving yourself of many
features that may well have drawn you to upgrade to 2008 in the first place.

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

 

[padams]

My problem is slightly different. Sometimes when people send me Word documents as attachments to emails the Word document do not come through as .docx files. Instead, when I download them to my computer, they appear as a large set of nested folders. The outer folder is named word.docx Folder. Inside are folders named things like docProps, [Content_Types].xml, and _rels. Inside these are more folders and documents with the .xml extension.

In the most recent case the document was sent from a Mac to my Mac, so we can't blame Windows.

I am unable to open any of these documents. Aaargh.

Anyone able to help me understand this problem?