Will Templates/Documents Created In Word XFor Mac Function In Word 08

[VayaconDave]

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

Hello,

I've created templates and a long document in Word X For Mac - Service Release 1 (1983-2001). The templates were created from scratch with no knowledge of what I was doing, but, miraculously, they have all worked flawlessly since 2001. I use them everyday to write home inspection reports. Mainly due to paranoia (possibly well founded), I have never upgraded to any newer Word for Mac versions, since I depend entirely on the templates and document for my business. I want to purchase the newest intel IMac, along with the newest Word for Mac 08, but the huge question is: Will I be able to open and use my old templates and documents by importing them to the new computer and using Word 08? Will I loose any functionality (the templates are fairly simple - a number of tables and the rest just text, not even in a text field)?

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for any help you can provide,

Dave

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Dave:

I would imagine you will be safe enough to upgrade those templates and
documents to Word 2008.

The answer is critically dependent upon what is IN the templates

If you want to wait a little longer, there will be a Test Drive version of
Office 2008 that you can download.

You will then have 30 days to try it out to make sure, before you spend any
money.

Don't upgrade your Operating System if you can avoid it: Word 2008 is
currently very, very sick on OS 10.5.

Cheers

Version: v.X
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

Hello,

I've created templates and a long document in Word X For Mac - Service Release
1 (1983-2001). The templates were created from scratch with no knowledge of
what I was doing, but, miraculously, they have all worked flawlessly since
2001. I use them everyday to write home inspection reports. Mainly due to
paranoia (possibly well founded), I have never upgraded to any newer Word for
Mac versions, since I depend entirely on the templates and document for my
business. I want to purchase the newest intel IMac, along with the newest Word
for Mac 08, but the huge question is: Will I be able to open and use my old
templates and documents by importing them to the new computer and using Word
08? Will I loose any functionality (the templates are fairly simple - a number
of tables and the rest just text, not even in a text field)?

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for any help you can provide,

Dave

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[VayaconDave]

Thanks, John

It sounds as though you think I should be okay with my templates and documents if I upgrade to Word 08 for Mac AND stick with OS 10.4.11, and I should NOT upgrade to Leopard if I do not want to deal with possible disaster. (It has yet to make sense to me to upgrade to OS 5 on this old machine, because many of the very cool features only work with the newer Intel chips.)

Also, it sounds like a bad idea to buy a new Intel Mac, since it will automatically have the latest OS 10.5 and there will be problems with Word 08. (I'm assuming OS 10.5 will NOT(?) run my very old Word X for Mac program.) It is almost depressing to think that buying one of the incredible new IMacs might be unwise in relation to Word and my business. I was hoping someone would advise me too rush to the Apple store and make the purchase, since I'm tired of the 'wind tunnel' sound from the fans, and also intrigued by all of the new features and speed.

Just as a point of interest, my templates are probably really documents, since they were never properly created to be real templates, with styles and all the other great stuff that is still somewhat beyond me. I just use them as templates by making a copy for each new report, and filling things in accordingly. The templates contain no macros, and the only automatic 'fill in' field is the address and date info that I type into the footer. I'm still amazed at what someone (like me) can do with Word even when they have only the most basic knowledge of it. I'm thinking that the newest version of Word must have some very cool new features that I could make use of to automate and speed things up. If you are at all interested (and of course its okay if you are not), you can take a look at my Word created report/template/doc. by clicking on 'Sample Report' at my website, which is www.davekaufmann.com. Its a PDF version with the exact look of the original.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond,

Dave

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Dave -

FWIW, I'm running Office 2008 on an Intel MacBook Pro which came with
Leopard 10.5.0 - I have *not* updated to 10.5.1/10.5.2 & am not experiencing
anything like the volume of atrocities which others appear to be seeing...
that includes the launch time. I have no intention of updating until I see
the results of a 10.5.3 or maybe even 10.5..5 - I also make no attempt to
use Spaces with Office

 

[VayaconDave]

Hi Bob, thanks for the response.

I appreciate your encouragement that Word 08 is working fine for you on your new MacBook Pro. It is actually inconceivable to me that it wouldn't. I find it hard to fathom that Microsoft would put out something that would not work close to flawlessly on the OS system they say it will work with, or that Apple would be associated with the program in any way if it did not work close to flawlessly. Word has got to be one of the best all time software programs, and Apple one of the best companies, so you would think they'd get it close to dead on right when they put it out there for us to use (For me, Word X For Mac, from 2001(!) *is* dead on right - but man, is it old!). I'm depending on both companies, and will continue to do so, but at this point I'm in a stalemate on my purchases (newest Mac and newest Word), simply because any type of significant malfunction with either is not an option (in terms of financial survival).

Thanks again for responding,

Dave

(BTW: I'm still trying to get the 'no Spaces with Office' comment at the bottom of your response - I may be too much of a novice too pick-up on it...)

 

[VayaconDave]

Hello John - I may have responded to your response without hitting 'reply to this message'. I'm new to blog posting, so please bare with me.
Dave (Please see my response in the thread if you haven't already.)

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Dave:

I believe you will be OK in Word 2008 with those templates, assuming that
they do not contain any VBA.

Office 2008 was designed and tested in OS 10.4. Obviously, they did their
best to allow for what they *thought* would be in OS 10.5. But they did not
have time to test it significantly. And they got some very nasty surprises.

Consequently, Office 2008 is currently a disaster area in OS 10.5.2. Not
just buggy, for some users, it's almost unusable. But it runs OK in OS 10.4


Microsoft is working hard to fix it. But they haven't done so yet. Bob's
advice is very pertinent: he hasn't gone above the base level of OS 10.5,
and that was the last version available to Microsoft when they did Office
2008 development and testing. As you can imagine, Bob is getting better
results than the people who blindly updated to OS 10.5.2 in a gigantic leap
of misplaced faith in computer companies

I think your templates will be OK. I think you're safe enough to go up to
Office 2008, and it will run well enough for simple stuff.

If you do not take the OS above 10.4 it will run quite well (it does
here...).

But take it up to OS 10.5.2 before Service Pack 12.1 is released, and the
wheels will fall off with a hell of a bang.

I have no idea how close Service Pack 12.1 is: my guess is June/July.

Hope this helps

Hello John - I may have responded to your response without hitting 'reply to
this message'. I'm new to blog posting, so please bare with me.
Dave (Please see my response in the thread if you haven't already.)

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[VayaconDave]

Thanks, again, John

Your info combined with Bob's has certainly made things crystal clear! Please allow me to say I'm somewhat astounded how easy it is to get help in the world of Word. Between this site and the associated MVP site, I feel like a guy who wanted to learn how to hit out of a sand trap, and could casually find out how to do it with a few online questions that would be answered by Tiger and his other golf peers (if he has any!).

I'll either buy that new Mac and wait for the MS Service Pack 12.1 as you suggested, or buy the new Mac and keep using my current computer for job/Word purposes until most bugs and fixes are in place (to be confirmed from these websites!). I'm not sure going to O8 for Mac would even give me any major new feature benefits (? - subtly sneaking in a new Q. w/o a new post ;-), so I may just cruise along with version X until I make the dynamic leap into the future.

Thanks again for everything, and hope to see you on my next posting,

Dave Kaufmann

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Dave:

Sorry, Tiger is a little preoccupied hunting that elusive fifth green jacket
this weekend. You will have to make do with us.

But yes, the MVPs in this group are indeed at "world standard" in their
software of expertise Except me, of course. I'm just a grumpy old
fart!!

The only major new feature in Office 2008 is the new XML-based file encoding
format. That is about a quarter the size of the old .doc format, and it is
much, much more rugged.

Because the file format is much more rugged, you can push Word harder and
closer to its limits. Master Documents, for example, are useable at last.

However, the major change in Word 2008 is that a large number of the
features power users rely on are now missing entirely. The new features
that are there are not, in my opinion, useful. Good for entertaining the
easily-impressed, but otherwise a waste of developer resources

A lot depends on what you want to do: but given that in a corporate or
work-related setting Office 2008 won't do as much as Office X, and it is
also very unstable, I would be inclined to sit and wait for the next
version. The Office Compatibility Pack is a free download that will enable
you to read and write the new formats in Office X or 2004. So you can
afford to just wait

Cheers

Thanks, again, John

Your info combined with Bob's has certainly made things crystal clear! Please
allow me to say I'm somewhat astounded how easy it is to get help in the world
of Word. Between this site and the associated MVP site, I feel like a guy who
wanted to learn how to hit out of a sand trap, and could casually find out how
to do it with a few online questions that would be answered by Tiger and his
other golf peers (if he has any!).

I'll either buy that new Mac and wait for the MS Service Pack 12.1 as you
suggested, or buy the new Mac and keep using my current computer for job/Word
purposes until most bugs and fixes are in place (to be confirmed from these
websites!). I'm not sure going to O8 for Mac would even give me any major new
feature benefits (? - subtly sneaking in a new Q. w/o a new post ;-), so I may
just cruise along with version X until I make the dynamic leap into the
future.

Thanks again for everything, and hope to see you on my next posting,

Dave Kaufmann

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones]

He might not want to sit toooo long. If he has a Intel Mac he might
would be better off using Parallels, and Office2007. (preferably on a
separate hard drive - to prevent all the viri, Trogan, worm and malware
attacks from affecting the Mac Hard Drive.

Several major Mac Publications, and internet news outfits think that
possibly 2008 will be the last Office Product offered for the Mac.

I've tried the various Free version of Office equivalent and none would
be ready for the business scene. Most have the look and feel of MacWrite
Pro which last graced computer probably 10-12 years ago. I used it it
in the days I owned a SE/30 and an apple Imagewriter II printer. At the
time I thought it was greater than sliced bread, but not now.

Hi Dave:

Sorry, Tiger is a little preoccupied hunting that elusive fifth green jacket
this weekend. You will have to make do with us.

But yes, the MVPs in this group are indeed at "world standard" in their
software of expertise Except me, of course. I'm just a grumpy old
fart!!

The only major new feature in Office 2008 is the new XML-based file encoding
format. That is about a quarter the size of the old .doc format, and it is
much, much more rugged.

Because the file format is much more rugged, you can push Word harder and
closer to its limits. Master Documents, for example, are useable at last.

However, the major change in Word 2008 is that a large number of the
features power users rely on are now missing entirely. The new features
that are there are not, in my opinion, useful. Good for entertaining the
easily-impressed, but otherwise a waste of developer resources

A lot depends on what you want to do: but given that in a corporate or
work-related setting Office 2008 won't do as much as Office X, and it is
also very unstable, I would be inclined to sit and wait for the next
version. The Office Compatibility Pack is a free download that will enable
you to read and write the new formats in Office X or 2004. So you can
afford to just wait

Cheers

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

He might not want to sit toooo long. If he has a Intel Mac he might
would be better off using Parallels, and Office2007.

Yes, if he can afford it, that's the best way to go.

(preferably on a
separate hard drive - to prevent all the viri, Trogan, worm and malware
attacks from affecting the Mac Hard Drive.

That would have no effect, one way or the other. A virtual PC (Parallels or
VM ware) can only reach the Mac drive if you map it that way.

PC malware is fairly vicious: if you do not have your protection set up
correctly, it will getcha regardless. Any drive the operating system can
see is potentially a target. If you have a virus scanner and firewall
properly updated and running, you will not get problems regardless of where
Windows and Office are installed.

Several major Mac Publications, and internet news outfits think that
possibly 2008 will be the last Office Product offered for the Mac.

They're wrong. We're working on the next version now. That's what we (the
MVPs) are all doing in Redmond this week.

Cheers


--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones]

Hi Phillip: -------------------------snip-------------------------


They're wrong. We're working on the next version now. That's what we (the
MVPs) are all doing in Redmond this week.

Cheers

I hope so Its not the last . But who knows for sure other than Mr
Gates or his Surragote.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

I hope so Its not the last . But who knows for sure other than Mr
Gates or his Surragote.

Why do you keep swallowing this snake oil?

The product is selling at a profit. The company is working on the next two
versions.

Why do you keep perpetuating these rumours spread by second-rate journalists
desperate to attract eyeballs to their advertising?

Companies don't cancel products that are selling at a profit, Phillip. Not
in America

Cheers

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones]

You can't predict with any certainty what Microsoft will do.

Apple has had such bad experiences with MS in the past. all Mac users
have have be cautious. We we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Hi Phillip:




Why do you keep swallowing this snake oil?

The product is selling at a profit. The company is working on the next two
versions.

Why do you keep perpetuating these rumours spread by second-rate journalists
desperate to attract eyeballs to their advertising?

Companies don't cancel products that are selling at a profit, Phillip. Not
in America

Cheers

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>