Office version compatibility Thread poster: Can Altinbay
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Can Altinbay 
Local time: 13:12
Japanese to English
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In memoriam
I bought an iMac to replace my PCs, which are both developing problems. I bought Office 2008 for it. Even in compatibility mode, where I open and save files without the additional x extension, i am having problems.
In a PowerPoint file I worked on yesterday, all the numbers were converted to asterisks (*) - looks like it happened on opening the file. even slides I didn't touch were affected. The PM also reported that "the ruler in text boxes looked normal, but changed when you p... See more I bought an iMac to replace my PCs, which are both developing problems. I bought Office 2008 for it. Even in compatibility mode, where I open and save files without the additional x extension, i am having problems.
In a PowerPoint file I worked on yesterday, all the numbers were converted to asterisks (*) - looks like it happened on opening the file. even slides I didn't touch were affected. The PM also reported that "the ruler in text boxes looked normal, but changed when you placed the cursor in it, and it wouldn't go back to the previous state".
I'm pretty sure it's not a Mac vs. Windows problem, but a compatibility issue between the new and old Office versions. I'm willing to find an older Office for the Mac and install that, but I'd like to read any advice and about what experience others have had on this issue.
Also, I would appreciate recommendations for other fora that discuss this issue and those that deal with Mac issues in general (it's been a long time since I last touched a Mac).
Thanks in advance for all help, pointers, etc. ▲ Collapse
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esperantisto
Local time: 20:12
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER | I think you'll need to look into | Sep 26, 2008 |
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mac4translators
As for compatibility issues, Microsoft's products are notorious for lack of it. Sometimes, they are incompatible even with themselves (remember the first release of MS Word'97 for Windows). A rule of finger: never buy new products from Microsoft until at least a first service pack is available.
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Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 13:12
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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| Word compatibility | Sep 26, 2008 |
If the current releases are anything like the previous ones, you can resolve most compatibility issues by saving documents in RTF format instead of Word's proprietary formats.
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Can Altinbay
Local time: 13:12
Japanese to English
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | Group not found | Sep 27, 2008 |
esperantisto wrote: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mac4translators As for compatibility issues, Microsoft's products are notorious for lack of it. Sometimes, they are incompatible even with themselves (remember the first release of MS Word'97 for Windows). A rule of finger: never buy new products from Microsoft until at least a first service pack is available.
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, the link got me a "Group not found". I tried some permutations of the name, but got nowhere. Can you check?
I don't get new versions of MS products until I get a new computer. This is my first Mac and Office 2008 is what they're selling now. If I had bought a Windows PC instead, I'd have the same problem with Office, and I'd also have to have that resource hog Vista. I went with a Mac because my wife and I won't allow Vista in the house, and we're tired of the unreliability of Windows PCs and their lousy support.
I spent way too much time in computers/IT and I'm specifically aware of MS compatibility issues. In fact, if you develop applications for MS-based PCs, you have to add core to deal with things that don't work the same any more each time they change their software.
As I said, I'm not against going down a version. However, a different client likes to work with the DOCX format, and is happy that I can work with it. Sigh.
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Ken Cox
Local time: 19:12
German to English
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| you're apparently not the only one... | Sep 27, 2008 |
It's not especially easy to filter out current, relevant reports on compatibility problems between Office 2008 and Office 2007 (or other Windows versions), but there are a few to be found -- and if you ignore the ones related to the absence of VBA support in Office 2008 or problems with Entourage, they seem to concern the type of problems you are experiencing: the formatting is not always the same on both platforms.
I'm not especially surprised, because it's likely that the Office packages... See more It's not especially easy to filter out current, relevant reports on compatibility problems between Office 2008 and Office 2007 (or other Windows versions), but there are a few to be found -- and if you ignore the ones related to the absence of VBA support in Office 2008 or problems with Entourage, they seem to concern the type of problems you are experiencing: the formatting is not always the same on both platforms.
I'm not especially surprised, because it's likely that the Office packages make extensive use of native (OS-level) graphics support in both systems (Mac and Windows), and these systems are fundamentally different. With a WYSIWYG user interface as the basic formatting paradigm, this is probably asking for compatibility problems.
Incidentally, the following might be of interest in this regard:
http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=373599
Of course, this is after-sales marketing, but if MS sees a market for teaching users how to generate documents that are compatible between the various platforms, you probably can't take compatibility for granted. ▲ Collapse
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