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Seriously what is with Word 08

daneoni

daneoni

macrumors G5
Original poster
Mar 24, 2006
12,041
1,959
I'd like to thank Office 2008...especially word for almost screwing up my entire essay.

I started writing the essay on my BlackBook which runs 08 and then decided i wanted to switch to my iMac running Office 04 for comfort of a bigger screen, proper keyboard & mouse.

So i tried to save my work and make it 04 compatible and thats where it all goes horribly wrong.

First office 08 tells me there's a compatibility issue, word 6.0/95 options are set. (Pic )

I think no big i'll just change the preferences to 2000-2004 & X as suggested so i do that...(Pic 3)

I then tried to save again but...No dice...back to square one(Pic 4)

So i had to save the files as is just so i dont lose everything. Obviously the doc didnt render correctly on my iMac (Pic 5) displaying big red Xs instead of Letters (Pic 6)

So i had to boot into windows and use office 03 to copy/paste over important sections, redraw my diagram from scratch (not easy), resave before it worked on the iMac.

I tried to re-install Office 08 from scratch to see if it would help but no dice. I've boycotted Office 08 since then. Useless POS.

Just wanted to rant cos i could've been seriously SOL with my essay.
 

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That's Microsoft for you. Their inter-version compatibility (even Windows to Windows) isn't perfect.

I had a PowerPoint file that was originally converted from Keynote. Opened fine in Office 2004. Wouldn't open in Office 2008 or Win Office 2007. Had to open it in Win Office 2003 then re-save it just to open it in Office 2008. PITA!

Don't use Word 6/95 settings. Use Word 2000-2004 settings instead.
 
Microsoft love to change their standards every few years so that all other office compatible programs have to blunder around and make their software compatible, by which time they've changed it again.
 
Here's the problem... you are TOO DARNED SMART!

Ouch, what is that stuff, like nuclear medicine or somethin? Makes my "Class of '79 OSU BS Journalism" head hurt! :)

If you're gonna do stuff that smart, better use iWork. Or WordPerfect. Or WordStar. Or Ashton-Tate's FullWrite Professional. Or...

Seriously though, that sucks. Glad you were able to save it. I would be p*ssed beyond belief. :mad:
 
xraydoc said:
That's Microsoft for you. Their inter-version compatibility (even Windows to Windows) isn't perfect.

I had a PowerPoint file that was originally converted from Keynote. Opened fine in Office 2004. Wouldn't open in Office 2008 or Win Office 2007. Had to open it in Win Office 2003 then re-save it just to open it in Office 2008. PITA!

Don't use Word 6/95 settings. Use Word 2000-2004 settings instead.
Click to expand...

Thats just it i've never used word 6/95 ....its always been 2000-2004 & X as can be seen in the second picture but word for some reason seems to think i use word 6/95 settings and even if i change it to 2000-2004 & X it (remains) stubborn/adamant

nick9191 said:
Microsoft love to change their standards every few years so that all other office compatible programs have to blunder around and make their software compatible, by which time they've changed it again.
Click to expand...

Amen

Jasper2k said:
Here's the problem... you are TOO DARNED SMART!

Ouch, what is that stuff, like nuclear medicine or somethin? Makes my "Class of '79 OSU BS Journalism" head hurt! :)

If you're gonna do stuff that smart, better use iWork. Or WordPerfect. Or WordStar. Or Ashton-Tate's FullWrite Professional. Or...

Seriously though, that sucks. Glad you were able to save it. I would be p*ssed beyond belief. :mad:
Click to expand...

Lol. Its not that complicated...simple Genetics & Math. I was really happy i was able to save. This was such an important essay i dunno what i would've done if i lost it.

I've posted up my problem on the MSBU site but none of them seem to have a clue. Sigh...seems i've wasted good money on MS yet again
 
I tried our site version of Office 2008 on my MBP and quickly decided that given the marginal speed gains and numerous compatibility problems I will stick with 2004.

In just two days I encountered numerous bugs and new things to annoy me. I've had two total system crashes too. I am astounded how bad this product is.

I'm sure in time they'll be less buggy, but I can't see them ever being useful for anyone who needs to access a large archive of Office documents. Obviously such people are probably the minority AND are better served by iWork anyway. Which begs the question, who is Office 2008 for?
 
Thats why I decided to just stick with office 04, that and excel has lots of features missing from the 08 version.
 
And that's why I send out documents as PDFs to people instead as specific app documents. Someone wants a copy of my slides from a "Powerpoint" a gave (which almost certainly was actually Keynote), I make a PDF. Text document? PDF. Print out of a web page? PDF.

Plus, using a PDF has the added benefit in that it makes it harder for someone to copy one of my images, diagrams, etc., if I set proper permissions in the PDF file (i.e., allow to print, allow to copy and such). Yes, I know there are ways around such permissions, but at least something is better than nothing.

Fortunately, I'm in a position where most people wont dictate to me that I must submit something in a specific format (i.e., Word file only). When that does happen, I'll usually send it as an RFT. On Windows with MS Office installed, RTF files share the same icon as DOC files, so 99% of the time no one notices.
 
Compatability issues

Has anyone figured out how to correct this?

I MUST turn in my final assignment research paper (today of course) in word format, and my professor has been unable to open any of my word documents so far this year...I have been turning them in as PDF files, but that will not do for this paper.

HELP!?
 
masonga said:
Has anyone figured out how to correct this?

I MUST turn in my final assignment research paper (today of course) in word format, and my professor has been unable to open any of my word documents so far this year...I have been turning them in as PDF files, but that will not do for this paper.

HELP!?
Click to expand...
Try using NeoOffice or OpenOffice and saving as a Word .doc file.
 
miles01110 said:
Haha, I nearly just spit out my coffee. Because Pages is the champion of compatibility :-\

Just use TextEdit and write your essays as .txt files in UTF-8. Virtually guaranteed compatibility.
Click to expand...

I think you can't blame Pages for not displaying correctly in Word. Last I checked Microsoft wasn't focused on cross-program compatibility. However, what is really unforgivable is intra-platform compatibility issues. I mean the OP is trying to use a more advanced version to save in a more basic version and the Microsoft software even screws that up!

I have used openoffice, msoffice, and iwork and at the end of the day, I have found that iwork is the best balance between ease of use, speed, cost, and good looks. To each their own, however.
 
sounds like you could have just done it on the smaller screen and saved a lot of time (and dealt with less stress) for your essay
 
daneoni said:
I'd like to thank Office 2008...especially word for almost screwing up my entire essay.

I started writing the essay on my BlackBook which runs 08 and then decided i wanted to switch to my iMac running Office 04 for comfort of a bigger screen, proper keyboard & mouse.

So i tried to save my work and make it 04 compatible and thats where it all goes horribly wrong.

First office 08 tells me there's a compatibility issue, word 6.0/95 options are set. (Pic )

I think no big i'll just change the preferences to 2000-2004 & X as suggested so i do that...(Pic 3)

I then tried to save again but...No dice...back to square one(Pic 4)

So i had to save the files as is just so i dont lose everything. Obviously the doc didnt render correctly on my iMac (Pic 5) displaying big red Xs instead of Letters (Pic 6)

So i had to boot into windows and use office 03 to copy/paste over important sections, redraw my diagram from scratch (not easy), resave before it worked on the iMac.

I tried to re-install Office 08 from scratch to see if it would help but no dice. I've boycotted Office 08 since then. Useless POS.

Just wanted to rant cos i could've been seriously SOL with my essay.
Click to expand...

Ok, I admit that the smaller screen is a pain, hence why I am typing my final research paper on my MacPro tower, but opened the document that is saved on my MacBook. (shared folder over the network.) Anyway, my point was the following:

All MS Office License are good for TWO computers. That means you can install office 2008 on both devices PROVIDED you are not using both simultaneously.

Just an FYI for the future!

MS OFFice 2008 does suck that is for sure - oh, well
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
Yeah, because you can insert diagrams and format .txt documents. Oh wait...

Read the thread and you'll see what the issue is and why a plain text document wouldn't work.
Click to expand...

Then use LaTeX and output to postscript. The point is that the terms "Microsoft Word" and "compatibility" are laughable, and if you really want to take steps to ensure compatibility then it takes minimal effort to find a solution instead of complaining about it.
 
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