Lifetime PC user ready to switch - 1 more question

kimcheekimchee
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
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.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    jwri004jwri004 Posts: 626member
    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.



  • Reply 2 of 23
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    no more trouble then going between MS word 2000->XP formats...
  • Reply 3 of 23
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    never any problems between mac and pc here either.
  • Reply 4 of 23
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    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
  • Reply 5 of 23
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    They are portable although don't copy and paste images from pdf to Word. A PC without QuickTime won't be able to see them. Learnt that the hard way.
  • Reply 6 of 23
    kimcheekimchee Posts: 2member
    It's nice to hear that. Thank you all for sharing your experience.
  • Reply 7 of 23
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Quote:

    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.
  • Reply 8 of 23
    nguyenhm16nguyenhm16 Posts: 203member
    Plus Office 2004 has the compatibility check option (which lets you check compatibility against Office X/XP/2001/2003/etc.)
  • Reply 9 of 23
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Compatability check?



    Heheh, that's like putting a button on the dashboard of a car and labeling the button 'Check Gas Level'.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    robin hoodrobin hood Posts: 513member
    I use MS Office 2004 on my Mac, and have never had any problems exchanging files with PC users, which I do almost daily.



    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.
  • Reply 11 of 23
    nj tomnj tom Posts: 25member
    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.
  • Reply 12 of 23
    ludwigvanludwigvan Posts: 458member
    Quote:

    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?
  • Reply 13 of 23
    sworthysworthy Posts: 71member
    my only problem is that when I email a document it loses its name and becomes "unnamed.doc" any ideas?
  • Reply 14 of 23
    nguyenhm16nguyenhm16 Posts: 203member
    Quote:

    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).
  • Reply 15 of 23
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    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?
  • Reply 16 of 23
    sworthysworthy Posts: 71member
    I definitely have the box checked that says "send windows friendly attachments".



    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.
  • Reply 17 of 23
    robin hoodrobin hood Posts: 513member
    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.
  • Reply 18 of 23
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    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
  • Reply 19 of 23
    carson o'geniccarson o'genic Posts: 1,279member
    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. It was probably due to fonst substitutions or Vox Barbara's charcter substitutions. No big deal.



    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.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    Quote:

    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.
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