criminal practices

[fpb]

They probably haven't waited for me to say this, but the fact that Microsoft has made the most recent version of Word incompatible from earlier ones (as I understand it) is really criminal. Moving a document from one computer to another risks wrecking it, and adding hours of dreary work and proofreading to what you had expected to have to do. And all to force us to buy the most recent version. Creeps!

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Whaaaaaaat?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I started a document in someone else's office computer, featuring Word2007. I transfered it to my own computer, featuring Word2002 (I think). It blew all the formatting and came out in the wrong typeface. Hours of extra work just to make it readable - as I said.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I loathe Word 2007 with a vengeance. My office has a plug-in written in that at least gives the commands the old look. We also save by default as Word 2002. (.doc not .docx) That being said, if you update your Word 2002 or 2000 (I have both, one on my laptop and one on my desktop), it will instal a fix that'll enable it to read .docx documents.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

We also save by default as Word 2002

Which I understand you did not do? Instead of Ctr + S or "Save", you just need to do "Save as" and pick your old format.

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

I too have my bone to pick with Word 2007. Just recently I had to deal with a Very Important Document that was sent to me in World 2007. My version of Word cannot even cope with it at all -- if I use All Files and force it to open, I get nothing but garbage characters.

However, I've found a site called Zamzar, http://www.zamzar.com/ which does file conversions, including docx to doc. Since the words were the important part of the document I needed to get opened (it was a sample file I was to emulate in writing my own material), I cannot vouch for Zamzar's ability to carry all formatting across accurately, particularly the more sophisticated stuff that approaches typesetting.

[filialucis]

Word being incompatible with itself is actually nothing new. Back when Word 6 was the current version, I saw at least one document that had been written (in English) in an Italian-language copy of Word and that came out with all the accents mangled if you opened it in a German or English copy.

As somebody said, you aren't obliged to save files in .docx format on Word 2007 or 2010, you can select the old .doc format in the dropdown list or even save as .rtf, but you can also download and install (for free) the Compatibility Pack in your version of Office to be able to open .docx in Word 2002.

Alternatively -- assuming you don't absolutely have to use certain macros or plugins that won't run in anything except Word -- you might consider using Open Office. Easy to install, free, compatible (it'll open .docx without batting an eye, I just checked), and you can even download Latin spellcheck tools from their add-ins site, whereas MS Office doesn't even know that Latin exists as a language. I need VBA for my work so I'm stuck using Microsoft Word, but I'm transitioning all my private stuff and my spreadsheets to Open Office because I like the interface much better than the new MS Office layout.

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

I agree completely with the recommendation of Open Office, which opens any Word file and will save as any Word file to boot.

Also, Word 2007 is the devil.

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

I use Open Office also. I can transfer the same document between my Windows, Linux, and Mac machines, and edit it on all of them. It handles most Word files. The only thing I use Word for is professional documents that I have to send to other Word users, and only when they require forms and templates and fancy macros.