Dear Microsoft Office for Windows users:
Dec. 9th, 2009 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tzikehIn Office 2007 Microsoft introduced a new file format called the Microsoft Open Office XML Format (.docx). This format is not compatible with older versions of Microsoft Word or with alternative operating systems like Linux or Mac OS X. Nor is it compatible with other word processing applications likeIn other words, and no one except Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows users can open those files, and that includes Windows users who are using an earlier edition of Office. Please take this into consideration when saving your files--it's easy to save them as plain old .doc files.OpenOffice(apparently OO can handle them now), Lotus 123, or NeoOffice.
For the rest of us, since clearly we can't either a) tell everyone in the world about this, or b) make anyone do anything, a few people have suggested this website: Docx Converter. You upload the docx file, type in your email, and it sends you a link to the converted file.
I have no experience with them, but a lot of people I trust do, and they say it's the place to go.
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Date: 2009-12-09 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 04:42 pm (UTC)Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 04:47 pm (UTC)Re: Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 04:56 pm (UTC)Re: Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 04:58 pm (UTC)Re: Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 04:58 pm (UTC)Re: Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 04:59 pm (UTC)Re: Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 05:24 pm (UTC)I've got a password table that I built in Word...03? Brought it into Word 07 and Can. Not. Open it in OpenOffice. All I get is the "doc" with a gray screen in place of the table. I've tried saving it out as every format I can and still cannot open it in OO.
I truly look forward to totally inputing the whole table. Really.
Re: Um, no.
Date: 2009-12-09 05:45 pm (UTC)I have no .docx files saved from a Windows computer that I can use to check to see how well OO opens them, but it can presumably save a file that can be opened in Office 2007.
Stupid damned proprietary formats.
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Date: 2009-12-09 04:34 pm (UTC)At first I was prickly about the new format, but as it happens the new version of Office (Excel primarily) being able to handle XML makes my own job about one katrillion times easier, since the log files that our tutoring software spits out are in XML. Without Excel 07, I had to cut and paste the bits we needed out of the log files into a spreadsheet, by hand, one at a time. With Excel 07, I create one XML map, push a button, and it goes through all the log files and imports the relevant data and sticks it into the right places in the spreadsheet. It's awesome.
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Date: 2009-12-09 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 04:36 pm (UTC)A patron came to the library needing to open a .docx file because she couldn't open it at home. She pronounced it "docs." A "docs file." I finally figured out what she was talking about.
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Date: 2009-12-09 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 04:57 pm (UTC)Personally, I prefer the Adobe method, which when they quit making PageMaker was to offer people a transitional interface plug-in so they could get used to InDesign versus being chucked in at the deep end.
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Date: 2009-12-13 06:06 pm (UTC)Do I understand that, if a person is stuck with 2007, and she goes to save a Word file, she can click the arrow in "Save as type" and select "Doc" without an extension?
I ask because one of the people I beta just got a new computer with 2007. I still use 2000, and will until it no longer works for me. *whimpers at the likelihood of that in a few years* I was able to convert, but other friends may not know how. If I can tell her how to save for more general use, it would be a great help. (But, since I have 2000 on my computer, I can't check it for myself.)
.
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Date: 2009-12-09 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 04:54 pm (UTC)Aside from the issue of general code architecture, there are many features in Office 2007 as a whole that do not exist in the earlier versions of Office which will often result in problems if you start hopping back and forth between versions.
I cannot in good conscience recommend that Mac users, if they have Office, upgrade from 2004 to 2008, because Office 2008 is an umitigated disaster, but for Windows users, well... Office 2010 is in beta. They really shouldn't expect the world to accommodate them being two versions behind.
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Date: 2009-12-09 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 05:14 pm (UTC)However, if you do the recommended Windoze updates on your version of Office, it can actually read docx. I use Office 2000 and it's happy to open those.
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Date: 2009-12-09 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-10 02:08 am (UTC)*has been pondering switching to Mac since Vista...*
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Date: 2009-12-10 05:24 am (UTC)If you have any questions, I'm your gal. I've owned Macs since 1987, and most office jobs I've had have been Windows. There is SIMPLY NO COMPARISON.
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Date: 2009-12-09 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 06:09 pm (UTC)I'm about to upgrade (er,"upgrade") to Word 2008, but my job does everything in RTF anyway.
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Date: 2009-12-10 05:48 am (UTC)Do you use any macros at all? You can't in Word 2008.
Do you have limited screen real estate? There's a huge bar at the top of each document window in 2008, and you can't turn it off.
Also, I personally happen to think it's ugly, and slower than 2004.
The macros, at least, are supposedly going to be fixed in the next release of Office for Mac. If you can, I would highly suggest waiting.
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Date: 2009-12-10 02:52 pm (UTC)I have kludged all the macros I use with clever combinations of Applescript, Typinator, and Butler. And I've had no trouble opening a window with no toolbar or ribbon; in fact, that's how a default document opens on my test installation on my laptop. I do dislike the way toolbars are tied to document windows, though; I normally work with a customized Reviewing toolbar open at all times, and it's a lot longer than I want my windows to be wide. Sigh.
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Date: 2009-12-10 05:38 pm (UTC)You're lucky on the macros! I meant VBA macros, the ones internal to Office; they took the VBA backbone out of 08, which is one of the banes of my existence at work. :P Yeah, AppleScript is good. :)
What about the "gallery" thing at the top of each window? I tried an early release, and found it incredibly annoying, because it took up so much space, especially on a laptop (that, combined with it FUBARing my macros, made me uninstall it almost immediately). Have they gotten rid of it now? That would be wonderful!
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Date: 2009-12-10 06:33 pm (UTC)I haven't seen the gallery, so I presume it's gone! Or at least opt-in. There is a Project Gallery thingie, but it's a separate thing.
And there's a huge difference between 04 and X if you're using Track Changes, which I am immersed in.
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Date: 2009-12-09 05:23 pm (UTC)they usually respond with 'buzuh?' because they have no idea what I'm talking about.
Makes me OUT OF MY FUCKING MIND! These people are 'information professionals' and they do not know how to change the settings in Word.
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Date: 2009-12-09 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 08:55 pm (UTC)Microsoft provides a converter for earlier versions of Word on the Mac, as well as the Windows one linked above.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx
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Date: 2009-12-10 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-10 05:58 am (UTC)