Documents from PC to Mac & vice versa going funny

[Macaroooon]

When I send or receive for example, text documents in an email the whole layout etc often changes.

I can't afford to buy office for mac, is there a way to stop the format changing when I send things/ receive them?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What file format are they in and in what application do you open them? Are those DOCX files you open in TextEdit or Pages?

 

[Macaroooon]

What file format are they in and in what application do you open them? Are those DOCX files you open in TextEdit or Pages?

I think it's pages

 

[Gregg2]

You could try Libre Office. It's a free download.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I think it's pages

And what about the rest? And to make sure, what application you use, when it is active, look on the top left and look for the bolded name.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

When I send or receive for example, text documents in an email the whole layout etc often changes.

I can't afford to buy office for mac, is there a way to stop the format changing when I send things/ receive them?

It depends why you are sending them.
If its for edit purposes, then as said use the same editor, something like Libre Office, on all machines.
If its just to view, create as a PDF before transferring.

 

[maflynn]

Office is your best option as it will keep the formatting, any other app will do it s best but depending on the complexity, there will be changes.

If budget is a concern, look at LibreOffice, there's also Apple's Pages though this doesn't do as good of a job as maintaining the formatting imo.

 

[mike08b]

If the files you are sending/receiving are Pages files, you will have formatting issues when transferring between Mac and Windows. If you plan to edit these documents, you should save them as Word documents. Word saves in .docx format which is more widely read by Office programs...you can even upload the Word document to Google Drive and edit the document online without worrying about transferring between computers! If you must have a downloaded program, a good free Office program is OpenOffice. It will read Word documents very well.

To save a Pages document as a Word document, open the document in Pages and go to File > Export To... > Word...

If you do not plan on editing the files and are just transferring them for viewing purposes, you should export the Pages document to a PDF document. PDF documents are widely used for viewing documents, can be viewed in a variety of programs, and most always retain the formatting.

To save a Pages document as a PDF, open the document in Pages and go to File > Export To... > PDF...