Word and Safari are driving me nuts!

[newguy]

So here's the deal,

I'm a recent switcher, and have been very happy so far. I did run into a problem a few weeks back that really upset me. It involves creating a Word document on Mac, and having it come up different when going to a PC. If I drag a picture directly from Safari into a Word document, all looks fine and dandy until I try to open it on a Windows machine, at which point it gives me a weird message about needing to download Quicktime on the machine, and that there is no support for TIFF files. Needless to say, the machine has the latest version of quicktime and Word. I can fix this problem if I drag to the desktop on the mac, and then into the document, this way it is in there as a JPEG as opposed to a funky Quicktime format. What really upset me was that this didn't come up in the compatability report, and I had no idea until I opened it on a Windows machine. I've seen the same exact thing happen with powerpoint. This is not a problem when using Firefox or IE.

So my question is, is there anyway to get Safari or OSX to stop this funky dragging business. Also, why didn't it show up in the compatablility report, I mean, that really sucks. And finally, any other compatability issues that may show up that I may not know about.

Thanks!

 

[mad jew]

I know this sucks - I found out the hard way when I sent an assignment to one of the grumpier lecturers at uni. A get-around is to drag the picture to the desktop and then into the Word file. It's annoying, but it works.

 

[MisterMe]

So here's the deal,

I'm a recent switcher, and have been very happy so far. I did run into a problem a few weeks back that really upset me. It involves creating a Word document on Mac, and having it come up different when going to a PC. If I drag a picture directly from Safari into a Word document, all looks fine and dandy until I try to open it on a Windows machine, at which point it gives me a weird message about needing to download Quicktime on the machine, and that there is no support for TIFF files. Needless to say, the machine has the latest version of quicktime and Word. I can fix this problem if I drag to the desktop on the mac, and then into the document, this way it is in there as a JPEG as opposed to a funky Quicktime format. What really upset me was that this didn't come up in the compatability report, and I had no idea until I opened it on a Windows machine. I've seen the same exact thing happen with powerpoint. This is not a problem when using Firefox or IE.

So my question is, is there anyway to get Safari or OSX to stop this funky dragging business. Also, why didn't it show up in the compatablility report, I mean, that really sucks. And finally, any other compatability issues that may show up that I may not know about.

Thanks!

The unsupported format not for come "funky Quicktime format." It is most likely TIFF or some other industry standard format. The problem is that Microsoft wants to support only Microsoft formats like BMP. As for compatibility, anyone who has ever moved a Word file between two computers--even two Windows computers--knows that the Microsoft word processor is fraught with compatibility issues. The same issues are affect PowerPoint. Unless your documents are extremely simple, you can expect to have to fiddle with formats when you move Microsoft documents from one computer to another. This is not an Apple problem, it is a Microsoft problem. If you use Microsoft products, it is also your problem.

 

[mad jew]

As for compatibility, anyone who has ever moved a Word file between two computers--even two Windows computers--knows that the Microsoft word processor is fraught with compatibility issues.

I can vouch for this! It sucks but even similar versions of Word (XP and 2003 for example) have issues. I do a lot of report editing and I'm always being sent things in Word and more times than not, it doesn't transfer seamlessly. It means I've gotta run a master copy on a single OS/Office version number (OSX and Office v.X in my case) to make sure the final product ends up looking like it's supposed to. It's really annoying!

 

[caveman_uk]

I know this sucks - I found out the hard way when I sent an assignment to one of the grumpier lecturers at uni. A get-around is to drag the picture to the desktop and then into the Word file. It's annoying, but it works.

I guess one way to ensure the file looks the same to everyone and the way you meant it to be is to send it as a pdf. If your working on a mac it's really easy to create one from the print dialog.

Of course this isn't an option if the recipient needs to be able to edit it or it HAS to be in .doc format (In which case why?)

 

[mad jew]

I guess one way to ensure the file looks the same to everyone and the way you meant it to be is to send it as a pdf. If your working on a mac it's really easy to create one from the print dialog.

Of course this isn't an option if the recipient needs to be able to edit it or it HAS to be in .doc format (In which case why?)

Yeah, only just found the PDF function in OSX. That's a pretty cool idea but some of my archaic lecturers won't have a bar of it. They demand .doc files ONLY! How bad is that!