Lifetime PC user ready to switch - 1 more question
I have been a PC user all my life and am seriously considering switching camp.
I work with Microsoft Office files (Excel, Powerpoint etc.) a lot and my office is predominantly PC based. I have been told that even with the Mac version of MS Office, files are often "mal-formatted" (if you see what i mean) when opened in Windows, and vice versa. MS Office files are not 100% portable cross-platform???
I would like to ask if people have experienced this and whether this is generally a common issue. This issue will be my final determining factor in deciding whether to switch or not.
Can anyone shed some light on this please?
Many thanks.
I work with Microsoft Office files (Excel, Powerpoint etc.) a lot and my office is predominantly PC based. I have been told that even with the Mac version of MS Office, files are often "mal-formatted" (if you see what i mean) when opened in Windows, and vice versa. MS Office files are not 100% portable cross-platform???
I would like to ask if people have experienced this and whether this is generally a common issue. This issue will be my final determining factor in deciding whether to switch or not.
Can anyone shed some light on this please?
Many thanks.
Comments
Originally posted by jwri004
It is all lies. I use both platforms and swap files between the two regularly. All you have to remember to do is to append the extension to the files so the PC can recognise them.
Wholly agreed.
There is only one exception. Actually, the mac has way more possibilities to create, say, special characters like "?", "?", "?" and such, which get entirely unrecognized by windows. Instead, windows will constantly substitute them with its own "special characters".
If you want 100% the same look than make sure you simply do not use
a lot of "special characters" with the mac.
AND of course - but this should be selfexplaining anyway - use the very same fonts within each document.
best
Originally posted by Paul
no more trouble then going between MS word 2000->XP formats...
This has been my experience as well.
There are about as many format glitches when going between Mac and PC as when going between different versions of Office on the PC.
Heheh, that's like putting a button on the dashboard of a car and labeling the button 'Check Gas Level'.
As a previous user mentioned, Office has a compatibility check as well, so you can make sure your files are compatible with for example earlier versions of Word.
Originally posted by NJ Tom
I ran into problems opening MS Excel files on my Mac so I eventually got MS Office for Mac and have not had a problen since.
What application did you use originally try to use to open the Excel spreadsheet?
Originally posted by sworthy
my only problem is that when I email a document it loses its name and becomes "unnamed.doc" any ideas?
How do you e-mail them? Apple mail lets you make attachments windows friendly. Otherwise it's probably an Entourage bug (not surprised).
Originally posted by sworthy
my only problem is that when I email a document it loses its name and becomes "unnamed.doc" any ideas?
Particularily, to whom do you send that document.doc (assuming it is a word doc)?
Does this person you send the doc is sitting behind a *hot* firewall?
It may be behind a firewall, because the people I email (and when I email myself things) all check their email at the university. I'll have to send something to a non-university person and check.
Originally posted by Robin Hood
You could even try and send an email to yourself. I've never had the problem of attachments changing their names. It really does sound like a *hot* firewall or a firewall that checks incoming emails for viruses, and in the process changes the name.
my believing
I've also had some wierdness using the editing function in Word, but I think it was more likely due to odd settings on my partner's PC-not really sure.
Otherwise, no real problems and I can recommend you go ahead.
Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
I've gone back and forth between windows and Mac Word files quite often with very little problems. I've had the odd instance were a two page document on the Mac, that had to be two pages, suddenly was two pages and a line of text.
Probably just different margin settings on the two computers. I have that problem if I switch between upstairs and downstairs computers.