djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) (01/06/91)
I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried
to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT
didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of
funny characters where formatting should have been.
So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents
between the two programs ... how ?
My versions: Word for Windows 1.0 (c) 1989
Word for Mac 4.0 April 10, 1989
(If you post a reply, please e-mail me too, thanks)
--
David McKellar {dciem,contact,freddy,geac}!dmntor!djmsolomon@chaos.utexas.edu (Thomas Solomon) (01/07/91)
In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes: >I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried >to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT >didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of >funny characters where formatting should have been. > >So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents >between the two programs ... how ? David, I had the same problem when I tried going between W4W and Word for Mac (WFM). First of all, I found that things work fine if you go in the other direction (i.e., save a WFM file normally on the Mac and load it on the PC). There seems to be a bug in the way W4W handles the PC-to-Mac conversion, though. As a simple test, I tried writing a file in Mac format from W4W. I then read the _same_ file back, converting from MacIntosh Word format. It didn't work. I have found an alternative way to get files from the PC (W4W) to the Mac (W4M). (Remember, there is no problem going from the Mac to the PC.) I have found that if I save the file (on the PC) in Rich Text Format (RTF), and then read this file into the Mac, that all of the formatting is done correctly. There is one problem with this fix, though. If you use any "fields" in W4W, these fields will _not_ be converted correctly via RTF (apparently, there is no RTF counterpart for the fields). This is not a problem for most uses, but was a pain-in-the-neck for me, since I use formatted equations extensively in my documents. With a fair amount of haggling, I have found a way of fixing even this problem (with the fields). W4W and W4M both use the same type of formatting for equations. For example, the integral between 0 and 1 of xdx would be written as \I(0,1,dx) in W4M and as {eq \I(0,1,dx)} in W4W. I've discovered that if you can get rid of the curly brackets and the "eq" in the W4W document, then the equations will transfer correctly via the RTF route. In practice getting rid of the curly brackets and the "eq" is a pain-in- the-neck, but is manageable. I have written a macro that will go through a W4W document and convert every field to a format without the {eq }. (By the way, the macro facilities in W4W are _fantastic_.) After running the macro, I then save the file in RTF format and transfer this to the Mac. This scheme seems to work (i.e., I haven't run into any problems yet). If you want, I can email you a copy of the macro. I hope this helps. Eventually, Microsoft will have to write a new version of W4W that does the conversion properly without these workarounds. Tom Solomon solomon@chaos.utexas.edu
yev_g@athena.mit.edu (Yevgeny Gurevich) (01/07/91)
In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes: >I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried >to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT >didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of >funny characters where formatting should have been. > >So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents >between the two programs ... how ? > >My versions: Word for Windows 1.0 (c) 1989 > Word for Mac 4.0 April 10, 1989 > >(If you post a reply, please e-mail me too, thanks) >-- >David McKellar {dciem,contact,freddy,geac}!dmntor!djm I have been tranferring Word files from a Mac Word 4.0 to Word for Windows 1.1 for quite some time. Going from Mac to PC is quite easy: 1) Save As the mac file in Word for DOS format. 2) Go to Apple File Exchange and transfer the file to an IBM floppy using binary transfer. 3) Open the document from Word for Windows. It will alert you to the fact that the file is not a WfW file. A window will pop up to choose filters. Select the Word for DOS filter and you are done! To go the other way, the process is just as simple. What you have to remember is that you MUST save the files in Word for DOS format. Mac Word 4.0 came out BEFORE Word for Windows so it cannot save or read in the WfW format. Future upgrades may rectify this. Hope this helps. [============================================================================] [ Yevgeny Gurevich \.\...]...........// ] [ 500 Memorial Drive \.\..]..........// ] [ Cambridge, Mass. 02139 \.\.].........// ] [ ======================== \.\]__......// ] [ "Tech is Hell!" |.]__\..../| ] [===========================================================|.]...\../.|=====] |_]____\/__|
mireley@horus.cem.msu.EDU (John Mireley) (01/07/91)
From article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP>, by djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks): > I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried > to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT > didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of > funny characters where formatting should have been. > > So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents > between the two programs ... how ? > > My versions: Word for Windows 1.0 (c) 1989 > Word for Mac 4.0 April 10, 1989 > > (If you post a reply, please e-mail me too, thanks) > -- > David McKellar {dciem,contact,freddy,geac}!dmntor!djm Assuming that you have saved the WfW file in MAC format and you have transfered, ftp'ed binary or whatever, the binary file to the MAC, use the MAC program resedit to modify the file's magic numbers so MAC word will recognize it as a MAC Word file. The rft/dca route will work for some stuff but it will not do formulas. John Mireley
rsargent@alias.UUCP (Richard Sargent) (01/08/91)
In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes: >I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried >to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT >didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of >funny characters where formatting should have been. > >So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents >between the two programs ... how ? > I believe that somewhere, buried in the MS Word for Windows documentation, there is a statement to the effect that you can only exchange files between a Mac and Windows if you put it in RTF format first (RTF = Rich Text Format). See "Save As...". Good luck.
kblackne@king.mcs.drexel.edu (Ken Blackney) (01/08/91)
>In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes: >>I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried >to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT >didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of >funny characters where formatting should have been. > >So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents >between the two programs ... how ? > >My versions: Word for Windows 1.0 (c) 1989 > Word for Mac 4.0 April 10, 1989 > >(If you post a reply, please e-mail me too, thanks) >-- >David McKellar {dciem,contact,freddy,geac}!dmntor!djm I move files from MacWord to WinWord all the time. If you are using WinWord 1.0 you will need to save the file in DosWord or RTF formats. WinWord 1.0 does not read MacWord 4.0 normal files. The better thing to do is to upgrade to WinWord 1.1 (My upgrade cost $7.50 plus $2.50 S&H.) WinWord 1.1 reads MacWord 4.0 files. I do have some problems with font names so I wrote a macro that converts from Adobe PostScript fonts to BitStream FaceLife fonts and one for the reverse action. If you want it, e-mail me. All of the things you have ready about fields not converting are, unfortunatly, true. All we can hope is that MacWord 5.0 (when?) will come up to speed with WinWord 1.1. Ken ______________________________________________________________________________ Ken Blackney Computing Resource Group Drexel University
mireley@horus.cem.msu.EDU (John Mireley) (01/09/91)
From article <1991Jan7.211307.7267@alias.uucp>, by rsargent@alias.UUCP (Richard Sargent): > In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes: >>I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried >>to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT >>didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of >>funny characters where formatting should have been. >> >>So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents >>between the two programs ... how ? >> > > I believe that somewhere, buried in the MS Word for Windows > documentation, there is a statement to the effect that you > can only exchange files between a Mac and Windows if you put > it in RTF format first (RTF = Rich Text Format). See "Save As...". > > Good luck. WfW 1.1 will "Save As" MAC word files. The files must be transfered to the MAC in binary format. Once on the MAC you need to use the utility resedit "resource editor" to set the filetype = WDBN (word binary) and set creator = MSWD (microsoft word). You can then open the file with Word on the MAC. After saving it from Word the file will have the Word icon and you can just click it to open it. I have moved the formula document that comes with Word from the MAC to Windows with only one or two symbol translations screwed up. Moving it from WfW to the MAC screwed up quite a few more. I have read that there is a Word 4.0b for the MAC that will read and write WfW files. I haven't been able to get it out of our computer stores yet. As anyone seen this or obtained it from MS? John Mireley
glamdrng@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Rocky Lhotka) (01/10/91)
rsargent@alias.UUCP (Richard Sargent) writes: >In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP (Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes: >>I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried >>to open it with Word for the Mac. Word for Mac opened it BUT >>didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of >>funny characters where formatting should have been. >> >>So what's the trick? It must be possible to transfer documents >>between the two programs ... how ? >> > >I believe that somewhere, buried in the MS Word for Windows >documentation, there is a statement to the effect that you >can only exchange files between a Mac and Windows if you put >it in RTF format first (RTF = Rich Text Format). See "Save As...". > >Good luck. We recently completed converting around 3000 documents from the Mac to W4W with some success. We found that the best approach was to use RTF format in between the two machines (save RTF on the Mac and convert from it on the PC). There is a Mac conversion option under W4W, but it made more errors than RTF... Yes, I said *more* errors. We had LOTS of problems with the conversion - in particular fonts don't always come across, nor do page margins and especially special characters (SYMBOL font or ALT-xxx characters). We created a lengthy and complex macro to do many of the repairs on our documents but it still took us several man-weeks to manually go through and repair each docuemnt... I should point out that our documents used headers and also had lots of symbol font characters as well as having many different ruler settings for various paragraphs... Formulas and tables also get lost on the way by the way... Glamdring, Sword of Mithradir UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!glamdrng ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!glamdrng@nosc.mil INET: glamdrng@pnet51.orb.mn.org