Microsoft Office

[iolair]

Will MS Office for the Mac read Powerpoint files created on a PC? What about Publisher and Word?

Thanks.

Iolair MacWalter
Director of IT

 

[jpadie]

yes, no, yes.

Office for Mac has no publisher component. but Word makes a decent fist of doing similar things.

on publisher: it _may_ be possible to open them with MS Word but i'm pretty certain they cannot. i've not tested it.

likewise, there is no version of visio for mac. this is annoying.

 

[Foamcow]

You may also wish to forgo MS Office on the Mac in favour of OpenOffice or NeoOffice.

They will also read MS Office file formats (as well as many others).

No Publisher though. To be honest just forget all about Publisher. The only thing that will read it is Publisher and that was only a Windows thing.

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Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
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[jpadie]

i have not managed to persuade myself to forego MS Office. it's too central to my working life and Entourage is still the only thing that integrates properly with Exchange. and actually Entourage is pretty damned good client. i'm not a fan of Mail. I can't remember expressly why, but every time i try to use it I hit a road block on something important and go back to Entourage within a couple of days.

hey ho.

 

[twiSSt]

A few alternatives to Publisher are InDesign or possibly Pages from Apple. Pages is rather inexpensive ($79.00), check it out here:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB624Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjE0NTM2OA

I cannot speak from personal experience about it, but have had users tell me they are very happy with it.

InDesign would be a step up from Pages and both would be giant steps ahead of Publisher.


Twist

===========================================
Everything will be OK in the end.
If it's not OK, then it's not the end

 

[jpadie]

twiSSt: does either application that you recommend open Publisher files?

 

[jmgalvin]

I echo everyone else. Stay away from Publisher like the plague. There's a reason that MS dropped it as a standalone product - it stinks.

Other than that you should be okay. The one problem you can run into is when a word or ppt doc uses a font you don't have, but that can happen anytime a document goes from one computer, on any platform, to another.

Using OSX 10.3.9 & 10.4.11 on a G4, G5 & Intel Macbook

 

[twiSSt]

The only thing that opens Publisher files is Publisher as far as I know. I guess that could be an issue if you are creating something from a template producing a monthly newsletter or something of that sort.

The upside of that is you will be able to create a far better document from what I know about InDesign and the little bit of research I've done on Pages.

I'm thinking you could save the Publisher files as html and maybe pull them into Pages or InDesign.

Twist

===========================================
Everything will be OK in the end.
If it's not OK, then it's not the end

 

[spamjim]

http://www.markzware.com/pub2id/

Publisher is not entirely evil. I was unimpressed with the first releases years ago but the current versions can be used by a competent individual to produce press-worthy work. The problem is that the average office suite user is not 'competent' in regard to professional printing so that is why so many get a bad vibe from Publisher. GIGO.

It would help to understand why this question is being asked. If you are concerned about others sending you PUB files, you can either convert them to ID using Markzare's converter for InDesign or you can ask the Publisher user to supply you a press-ready PDF or PostScript file, which Publisher nicely does.

 

[iolair]

Mostly I'm looking to be able to read PowerPoint and Word files. I do have a few older Publisher files, and I wouldn't mind converting them to something else - Word would be fine. I am aware of OpenOffice, but the other users on this machine would prefer not to learn a new program, even though I find OpenOffice easier to use than Microsoft's Office programs. Thanks for all the input.

Iolair MacWalter
Director of IT

 

[jmgalvin]

One thing to keep in mind when using Office on Mac. When you save, you'll see a little check box in the save window for "hide extension". Make sure that you DON"T hide the extension - ,doc, .xl, .ppt. Otherwise they won't open if sent to a Windows machine.

The box will stay checked or unchecked after you do the first save.

Using OSX 10.3.9 & 10.4.11 on a G4, G5 & Intel Macbook

 

[Foamcow]

Are you sure about that? I thought the extension was still there, just not shown in the dialog.

If you get info on the file the full name should be visible.

It is true, however, that the files must have extensions to be recognised by a Windows system... or they can just add the extension on themselves.

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Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[jpadie]

@Foamcow
i think that the resource fork stores the metadata necessary for a mac to identify that it is a doc file. Personally I always check the box to keep the extension.

 

[Foamcow]

i think that the resource fork stores the metadata necessary for a mac to identify that it is a doc file. Personally I always check the box to keep the extension.

Yes that is correct. I also keep the extension.
My post was more about the 'hide extension' checkbox. I don't think it removes the extension, just hides it.

Ergo, when sending the file to a Windows user, the file extension should still be intact anyway. Although, I can imagine circumstances where attaching a file to a mail message will strip the extension.

If you hide a file extension and get info on that file, the "Name and extension" field will still contain the extension.

We're off topic now though



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<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[jpadie]

ah. i see. I thought it saves the document without the extension, relying on the resource fork to provide the metadata. i'll investigate.