Word, Werd or Weird?

Hey guys,

Still in the debating stage.. stupid PC user question time:

1. I know that Microsoft Word works on both Mac and PC, but does the base Mac software and the freeware office look alike programs open, save and read Microsoft Word programs?

?

bonafide said:

Hey guys,

Still in the debating stage.. stupid PC user question time:

1. I know that Microsoft Word works on both Mac and PC, but does the base Mac software and the freeware office look alike programs open, save and read Microsoft Word programs?

?

Click to expand...

You mean "..documents" or "..files", the answer is no, and it depends on which version of Word the files come from.

The "base Mac software" will read plain text files, pdf files and rich text files so if you export in one of those formats from Word you can then read them at the Mac end. Pages can import simple Word files as well (but that's not "base").

Open Office can read most Word files and also export them as well but it doesn't pay to get too fancy, also the latest versions of Word will produce files that aren't yet fully supported in OO, best to stick with Office97/2003 compatible files.

Word can have trouble reading Word files from other versions of Word so you can't really expect OpenOffice to do much better.

Amen-Moses

The software in OSX like Text Edit can open Word document but I'm not sure how accurate it is as reproducing the contents. I only have documents that just have words in them so I don't know how Text Edit will cope if there were images, tables, hyperlinks etc in there.

Pages, part of iWork can open Word documents too however neither program can save in the .doc format so producing a file that can be read by someone who doesnt have these programs installed i.e. a PC user might be a problem.

OpenOffice is supposed to be compatible with all major Office Suites so I would assume it can both read and save the .doc format or at least save in a format that can be opened by Word on a PC/Mac without any formatting issues.

HTH

Amen-Moses said:

You mean "..documents" or "..files", the answer is no, and it depends on which version of Word the files come from.

The "base Mac software" will read plain text files, pdf files and rich text files so if you export in one of those formats from Word you can then read them at the Mac end. Pages can import simple Word files as well (but that's not "base").

Click to expand...

But I can open a .doc file created in Word and saved as the 'standard' Word format in Text Edit?

So Open Office can view, and save .doc (Microsoft Word) files? Completely interchangable?

I have opened Word documents in Pages and it looks exactly the same as the original I made in Microsoft Word. I haven't tried the other way yet (saving a Pages document in .doc). Microsoft Word does look slightly different on the Mac, but I personally prefer the Mac version of Microsoft Office. Office 2004 for Mac is fully compatible with all versions of Office for Windows from 97 through XP, it may not support some of the features of Office 2007. Running a compatibility check in Office 2004 for Mac will tell you how compatible the document is with Windows. With Word most things will be compatible with 2000 onwards, which is what most people use anyway. The only compatibility problems you may have is with PowerPoint because Microsoft add in new animations and transitition with each new version, however, this is a problem with different versions of Windows PowerPoint as well.

I have never used NeoOffice or OpenOffice personally so I can't comment on it. Although I have had great success in opening both PowerPoint and Word documents in both Keynote and Pages respectively I still prefer to rely on Office 2004 for Mac if I have to submit assignments electronically. It is better to be safe than failing an assignment because of compatibility issues. Office 2004 Student Teacher Edition is a very affordable price and is well recommended if you use Word a lot.

I would use word but the price tag is the part that's going to kill me. I'd rather spend that $$ on the upgrade from a 20" iMac to a 24" iMac.

Peakoverload said:

But I can open a .doc file created in Word and saved as the 'standard' Word format in Text Edit?

Click to expand...

Text Edit might open some .doc formats, I've never tried it, but I doubt very much it will open anything complicated.

Pages doesn't seem to like Word file that have change tracking on either.

If you really need transportability then at the Word end go into settings (can't remember where exactly) and set Word to always save in Office97 or 2000 format. Later formats are less compatible with 3rd party software.

Amen-Moses

bonafide said:

Hey guys,

Still in the debating stage.. stupid PC user question time:

1. I know that Microsoft Word works on both Mac and PC, but does the base Mac software and the freeware office look alike programs open, save and read Microsoft Word programs?

?

Click to expand...

The newest version of Pages can open and read and save Word documents, no problem. And Open Office can do the same.

I'm using NeoOffice and it's working great.

Personally, i CANT stand pages, it has a very annoying interface (If someone can give me reasons to like it, im open to it, I just want to know what makes people like it over Word). I like using Microsoft Office, but if you dont have the money to put in for those proprietary programs, NeoOffice is a good choice. If you are used to the Windows version of MS Word, youll feel right at home w/ NeoOffice, just dont forget to save as a .doc, because if not, youll save it as a NeoOffice format.

Le Fumeur said:

The newest version of Pages can open and read and save Word documents, no problem. And Open Office can do the same.

Click to expand...

Excellent.. thank you!