# PC Office Users Cannot Open Word for Mac .DOC's



## agcereniv

Good morning!

My company is using Mac Book Pros running Leopard. As many of our clients utilize MS Office, we bought Office for Mac for all of our machines.

Lately, we have had reports from some of our PC clients that they cannot open the MS Word files we send them.

Has anyone ever heard of this before? Is there something we can do? The compatibility reports do not show any issues.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. If I need to do more research, let me know what it is and we'll get it done.

Thanks!


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## shuuhen

Never had a problem myself. What version of MS Word are the MacBook Pros running? 

Microsoft does sometimes change inner workings of file formats for new versions of MS Office. If you're running MS Office 2007 and the clients run earlier versions (most probably would), you will need to make sure you save the documents as a version compatible with the older version of MS Office. My recommendation would be to specifically save documents to be compatible with MS Office 2000/2003 (in the Save As dialog; it probably will be worded differently).

You could consider RTF as an alternative for DOC. I try to use RTF more than DOC. Only time I can't is when people specifically request DOC and do not want to try the other format.


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## agcereniv

Wow! Thanks for the info.

We are using Office:Mac 2004 version 11.3.8. I am unsure what versions of office the PC clients have. I don't know if they are running 2007 if it would make a difference.

This info may or may not change the answer you gave, but I did want to get that over to you.

Thanks!


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## scathe30

agcereniv said:


> Wow! Thanks for the info.
> 
> We are using Office:Mac 2004 version 11.3.8. I am unsure what versions of office the PC clients have. I don't know if they are running 2007 if it would make a difference.
> 
> This info may or may not change the answer you gave, but I did want to get that over to you.
> 
> Thanks!


Did the advice help you? I'm interested in it, because I'm also thinking of buying Office for Mac and don't want to encounter the same problems


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## sinclair_tm

Wait to buy Office until Microsoft releases the latest version this year sometime.


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## scathe30

Anyway I'm not going to buy it now, maybe in the course of the year.
It is just interesting to have some alternatives aside from Parallels + latest MS Office, though it works well for me.


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## sinclair_tm

NeoOffice. That's what I use. And best of all, it's free.


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## scathe30

sinclair_tm said:


> NeoOffice. That's what I use. And best of all, it's free.





> NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.


That's really interesting, I think I'll give it a try as soon as I have some time.
Anyway it will be difficult to get used to a new Office software, while I've been using Microsoft products, both on PC and in Parallels, for a long time already


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## ShosMeister

I'll second the vote on NeoOffice. In fact, you could also encourage some of the people you send the files to look into OpenOffice which is the PC version  

There are a few minor differences in functionality of the programs, but, for the average user, they won't see them. Just need to remember to save the files in DOC format ... unless of course MS got smart and started offering ODT format in the latest version of office?


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## blackcivic

agcereniv said:


> Wow! Thanks for the info.
> 
> We are using Office:Mac 2004 version 11.3.8. I am unsure what versions of office the PC clients have. I don't know if they are running 2007 if it would make a difference.
> 
> This info may or may not change the answer you gave, but I did want to get that over to you.
> 
> Thanks!


when you are saving the file in question, run the compatibility wizard and verify there are no issues with the file. There are options to verify any issues with office 2003 and i think 2007, but i'm not entirely sure on 2007


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## scathe30

ShosMeister said:


> I'll second the vote on NeoOffice. In fact, you could also encourage some of the people you send the files to look into OpenOffice which is the PC version


This sounds sensible, but sometimes this is impossible on corporate level, when all the people whom I exchange files with traditionally use Microsoft Office.
At home I already use Open Office and it looks pretty cool. But at work I have to keep both MS Office and Open Office on my Mac just for the case.


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## sward007

I have exchanged office docs between Macs and PCs for years, with only the occasional (and readily fixed) hiccup. However, I too CANNOT open Office docs created using Office 8 for the Mac when using a PC running Windows 7 and Office 2003. 

I suspect the issue is with Windows 7, since I CAN open the mac-created docs using Office 2003 on a PC with either Vista or XP OS.

I still can't find a fix though - hoping someone else can offer one.


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## sinclair_tm

That is weird. The only thing I can think of is Windows 7 came out after Microsoft got in trouble for the file format they were using, and the new OS may block Office from reading it. Try saving the files as Office 97.


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## agcereniv

Wow. I originally posted this thread two years ago and have not been having this problem for nearly a year and a half.

This new development is very interesting, though I've not yet run into this problem as I've only recently upgraded my desktop to Win 7 and nearly none of my professional contacts are using it. I'll keep an eye open for it, though, in case I do run into it.

Thanks.


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## davidcoxell

Could this be something to do with the .docx file extension as opposed to .doc?

I've had a client say they cannot open .docx files on a PC.


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## agcereniv

That I have had - but it is largely an issue of compatibility between 2007-8 versions of Office and 2003. There is a patch that Office '03 users can download that will allow them to open x extensions.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/ha100444731033.aspx


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## sinclair_tm

.docx is the format Microsoft is in trouble for. Save it in a format other then .docx and they should be okay.


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## Thinkerbelle

Hi all - my first time here. I'm a prof. artist and writer, not a techie, so please, go slow.
I use Mac OS X Version 10.4.11. (Don't pee yourself laughing, but I bought Leopard software to update yet don't use it b/c I don't know how to make it work using all my previous data.)

Problem is: When I submit my novel pages to agents, the formatting is lost, esp. the headers. I've tried exporting documents into rtf, and Word (no one wants a pdf) but it never works. I've tried typing ".doc" at end of documents but that doesn't work, either.

Should I: 1. try to install Leopard, since it's newer; 2. buy some conversion program for Mac to PC; 3. buy Microsoft Office?


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## agcereniv

For your situation, an operating system upgrade (Leopard) really wouldn't do anything. But this is actually a good thing.

What you may want to do is either get a version of Word for Mac (yes, it is out there - I have it myself) that's compatible with 10.4. You may have to buy the entire Office suite, but you may need the other stuff at some point, too, so it would be a pretty good buy.

After installing Word, you'd want to open your document in it - it would go through a conversion process - then you'd likely need to do some tweaking, which may include up to re-adding some elements that are lost or changed (headers, etc). Then always work with the new file within Word, saving it as .doc or .docx if the version of Word supports it.

Pages as a program is nice, but mostly meant for the graphical side of writing - layout, design, etc - which are mostly functions your editor/publisher would do anyway. So unless you are doing that on top of your writing and citing, it is best to use Word anyway (In My Humble Opinion). Even if you are doing those functions, better still to get the writing out, then do the design work later.

Just my input!


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## ShosMeister

What are you using to create/save the documents? Are you using any special/strange formatting or features of the software? Have you tried using Open Office? I've never had any issues with any documents I've created using that suite being opened in MS Office - plus it's free


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## sinclair_tm

Thinkerbelle, you should of started your own thread. THe first important question that needs an answer is what ShosMeister asked, what program are you using? Without that information, we really can advise you. But for notes on your three solutions, 1) It won't help, 2) I didn't even think that there are any of those kinds of programs anymore, 3) That's up to you if you want to front the money for Office. I've used Macs for years, and have never bought, or used, Office for Mac, as there are so many other programs that cost less, give you the same functionality, and are compatible.

I've used OpenOffice for a number of years now, and have had no problems going between it and MS Office. I now have Apple's iWork, as I was able to get it at a really good price as a student, and I needed Keynote. Now that I have Pages, I've been using it, and it's a great word processor, and has had no issues with opening MS Word docs my professors send, and no one has had any issues with the documents I send.


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## Thinkerbelle

I generally use Pages and save the document when I just do work for myself that doesn't need exported. The formatting problem arises because I need to create headers with a title and page number in it for submission to agents and publishers. When I export the document, regardless of what I export it in (word, rtf), the headers are lost. I do not have Microsoft Office; it sounds like that's what my next step should be. Will my current operating system support the 2008 version, or must I get 2004? I hear there'll be another new version in 2011....


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## Thinkerbelle

Sinclair, is OpenOffice a part of iwork, or are they two completely separate things?


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## ShosMeister

They are two separate applications. OpenOffice has nearly all the same features as MS Office and a few additional. I've not had any issues saving as .doc files and then sending them to PC users. Just search for OpenOffice and you'll find the link to download - it's free from Sun.


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## Thinkerbelle

I just downloaded OpenOffice and think that will do the trick. Many thanks to everyone who responded and if you have anything to add, I will check back.


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