Office 2004 to Office 2003 (Mac to PC)

[Frisco]

My friend sent me his resume today from his Mac using Office 2004. I tried opening it at work. No go. It wasn't recognized as a Word doc. So I simply added the extension .doc and it opened fine.

He is using Office 2004 Mac and Tiger. At work I use Office 2003 and Win XP.

Here's the strange thing. When I get home the same file opens (is recognized as .doc). At home I have the same XP and Office 2003 setup?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[chscag]

Possibly because your Office 2003 setup at home has conversion filters installed for Office Mac whereas the machine at work does not?

Regards.

 

[Avenger23]

I would have to agree with chscag on the converters, and maybe that it was not sent as a Windows friendly attachment using his email client from the Mac.

 

[Frisco]

You two maybe right, but if you need Mac conversion filters installed damn that really sucks. The real world doesn't care about conversion filters. That said, I am a long time Mac user and have never heard of a Mac conversion filter installed on a pc.

One difference I can think of between my home PC-Office 2003 setup and work PC-Office 2003 setup is that at home I am running XP Service Pack 3 and at work Service Pack 2.Don't know if that would make a difference or not?

 

[Sun Baked]

As a Mac user you are used to simply not adding extensions.

Likely he isn't using show extensions on the machine, and anyone that has trouble opening a file without externsions ... and they know the file format, shame on you.

Of course the number of people who get a Mac file and whine it doesn't work on my PC is huge, and resending the same file with the extension added is simple and usually solves the problem.

What I find is odd, is even though the 2nd e-mail works. Telling them to add the extension, usually gets a "It's not working" response.

 

[Frisco]

As a Mac user you are used to simply not adding extensions.

Likely he isn't using show extensions on the machine, and anyone that has trouble opening a file without externsions ... and they know the file format, shame on you.

Of course the number of people who get a Mac file and whine it doesn't work on my PC is huge, and resending the same file with the extension added is simple and usually solves the problem.

What I find is odd, is even though the 2nd e-mail works. Telling them to add the extension, usually gets a "It's not working" response.

Okay you make a good point. My friend is not an experienced Mac user like I am. But when you save a Word file from Mac or PC the default is Word (.doc). What is the problem with that. Believe me I place no blame on Apple. I hate Microsoft to death, but I just don't get a simple save on Mac Office 2004 isn't recognized as a .Doc. Like I said already it opened fine on my home PC so hopefully it is a fluke, but when you are e-mailing your resume out for work you need to be sure.

ps: As a PC user I am also aware of not adding extensions.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Okay you make a good point. My friend is not an experienced Mac user like I am. But when you save a Word file from Mac or PC the default is Word (.doc). What is the problem with that. Believe me I place no blame on Apple. I hate Microsoft to death, but I just don't get a simple save on Mac Office 2004 isn't recognized as a .Doc. Like I said already it opened fine on my home PC so hopefully it is a fluke, but when you are e-mailing your resume out for work you need to be sure.

Did the version you set to your home PC have a .doc extension?

OS X can recognize a file format it knows even if it doesn't have an extension. It will recognize that both "test" and "test.doc" are Word documents, and open them in Word, even though the first doesn't have the .doc extension.

As I understand it, Windows doesn't recognize the file if it doesn't have the extension. It sees "test.doc" as a Word document, but it has no idea what to do with a file just called "test." This is hard to notice as a GUI user, though, since I think Windows by default hides the extensions anyway. Thus, a document that appears to be called "test" is actually "test.doc" to the operating system.

There's no actual difference in the files. Windows just didn't know what to do without the extension.

 

[Sun Baked]

The default format for Word on the Mac is still (.doc) unless you change it.

But the Finder/HFS+ combo still operates to default to non-extensions in a some cases.

On the Mac in Office I think you still have to click the always add extensions box.

And the same for showing the extensions in Finder, Finder>Preferences>Advance>show all extensions.

Likely your friend simply isn't checking these boxes...

Especially for the older apps for which the developer might not have reset the default install to add extension, or where old user preferences might override this change even if the developer has changed the default install.

 

[Frisco]

On the Mac in Office I think you still have to click the always add extensions box.

And the same for showing the extensions in Finder, Finder>Preferences>Advance>show all extensions.

Likely your friend simply isn't checking these boxes...

Makes a lot of sense. I'll see if that is the case. Thanks for everyone's help!!