??? Good cross Intel-PPC Office/ word processor???

[Cox Orange]

Hello,

I need something that I can work with on both PPC and Intel and the formats etc. don't get scrambled during exchange. Also it has to be able to cope with like 80 or more pages. Preferably for 10.4.11 on PowerPC.

It seems most people recommend Open Office or LibreOffice. While I read somewhere that NeoOffice is more optimized for Mac OS X.

I need it for a scientific work. It doesn't have to be shared (because the finished one will be a pdf), it is just for me to be able to both work on my PPC- and Intel-Mac with the same document. If this is a problem, I will just stick with using one platform (I planned to use my ibook for mobile use, but I can also just copy the workfile to the ibook and only make notes to the file and at home transfer the notes into the master-file on the Intel-Mac).

Thanks!

 

[MatthewLTL]

Hello,

I need something that I can work with on both PPC and Intel and the formats etc. don't get scrambled during exchange. Also it has to be able to cope with like 80 or more pages. Preferably for 10.4.11 on PowerPC.

It seems most people recommend Open Office or LibreOffice. While I read somewhere that NeoOffice is more optimized for Mac OS X.

I need it for a scientific work. It doesn't have to be shared (because the finished one will be a pdf), it is just for me to be able to both work on my PPC- and Intel-Mac with the same document. If this is a problem, I will just stick with using one platform (I planned to use my ibook for mobile use, but I can also just copy the workfile to the ibook and only make notes to the file and at home transfer the notes into the master-file on the Intel-Mac).

Thanks!

Microsoft Office 2008 is the last version for PowerPC it works on Intel too
OpenOffice and LibreOffice have stopped supporting PowerPC.

 

[roadbloc]

I recommend Office. Regretfully, the only one that supported universal binaries was Office 2008 which is probably the worst Office version for OS X.

If it interests you, Office 2004 (PowerPC) with the Open-XML plugin is fully compatible with Office 2011 (Intel). So if compatibility is what you're after, you don't need to run the same version of software when it comes to Office.

 

[Cox Orange]

Microsoft Office 2008 is the last version for PowerPC it works on Intel too
OpenOffice and LibreOffice have stopped supporting PowerPC.

I was thinking I could maybe use LibreOffice's/OpenOffice's last version for PPC and the recent version for Intel together without problems maybe... Not possible?

I recommend Office. Regretfully, the only one that supported universal binaries was Office 2008 which is probably the worst Office version for OS X.

If it interests you, Office 2004 (PowerPC) with the Open-XML plugin is fully compatible with Office 2011 (Intel). So if compatibility is what you're after, you don't need to run the same version of software when it comes to Office.

Yes, that is interesting. I guess I have Office v.X (2001). It says "Version: 10.6.11" (but I found that is only the security update, right?).

OK, do I understand you right, that .docx, if saved as .doc in Office 2011 will not be able to be opened in Office 2001, because of the missing Open-XML- plugin and .doc will not be opened without issues in 2011?

 

[Ulenspiegel]

You will need to have Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. This converter is free from Microsoft.

 

[roadbloc]

Yes, that is interesting. I guess I have Office v.X (2001). It says "Version: 10.6.11" (but I found that is only the security update, right?).

OK, do I understand you right, that .docx, if saved as .doc in Office 2011 will not be able to be opened in Office 2001, because of the missing Open-XML- plugin and .doc will not be opened without issues in 2011?

You're in luck. Office X is supported too.

Important To open converted documents, you must have Office 2004 11.4.0 or later, or Office v. X 10.1.9 or later installed on your computer. For the best experience, we recommend that you install the Office 2004 11.5.0 Update or a later update for Office 2004 for Mac.

Failing that, I don't foresee you running into much trouble if you stick to the .doc format as long as you're not planning on new Office features.

 

[Cox Orange]

You will need to have Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. This converter is free from Microsoft.

Oh, ok. Easy as that. Thanks for the tip.

You're in luck. Office X is supported too.

Failing that, I don't foresee you running into much trouble if you stick to the .doc format as long as you're not planning on new Office features.

Ah, ok, then 10.6.11 is not the security update version number, but the Office version, too. That's good to know. Now I need to only get a new MS-office for the Intel Mac.

 

[MysticCow]

For PowerPC, there's only one version of Office I'd ever recommend and that's Office 2004. It's the snappiest you're going to get on PPC and there's a translator that works on 2004 that will allow you to read and edit .docx files. Plus, you can get Scribble the Cat if you search for him and I LOVE SCRIBBLE THE CAT.

Office X, while a good release just isn't as polished. Office 2008 is just plain awful on anything less than the last generation of G4's and G5's from my experience.

 

[bunnspecial]

I know a lot of people love to hate Office 2008, but I have it installed on a LOT of PPC computers and use it pretty much on a daily basis on PPC computers. I have it on everything from a 350mhz G3 tower to a dual core 2.0 ghz G5. I use it pretty much daily(or at least several times over the course of a week) on my Dual 1ghz Quicksilver, Dual Core G5, and DLSD Powerbook. When I boot up my G5 at the start of the work week, I generally open Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Lately, all have been getting used throughout the workday-often at the same time. I have my reasons for using it, but one of the big ones is that I need 100% seamless use of XML documents(for collaboration purposes) and haven't found a solution I'm happy with in Office 2004.

Yes, it is draggy on older hardware-especially G3 based-but it works and isn't that bad.

It also doesn't have the annoying bug that seems to happen frequently in Office 2011 when doing something like copying a chart from Excel to Powerpoint and both programs get stuck in an infinite loop waiting for the other to do something.

The only somewhat annoying thing is a known bug between Office 2008 and Chemdraw-a program which I also lately have been using pretty much daily. Basically, when you copy a structure out of Chemdraw into an Office document(both Office and Powerpoint) it's not possible to then paste them back into Chemdraw. This is possible with Office 2001, X, 2004, and 2011. This bug is actually something documented enough that it made the Wikipedia page for Office 2008, although I've tested it and can confirm. To get around this, I just save my Chemdraw documents in Chemdraw, and if I need to edit a structure I re-open the original Chemdraw document, make my change, and then delete and repaste it in my document(or presentation).