Office 2008 File-Compatibility Trouble

Scott Rose — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:14:00 -0600

You can modify your Word 2008 preferences so that your documents are always saved in the older format.

I just installed Microsoft Office 2008, but now when I create Word and Excel files on my computer, none of my colleagues can open up these files on their computers. Please help!

Microsoft changed the format of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in Office 2008 for Mac (and Office 2007 for Windows), and this new format can’t be natively read by older versions of Microsoft Office. You can tell if a file is in the new format because its file extension ends in the letter x—the new extensions are .docx for Word files, .xlsx for Excel files, and .pptx for PowerPoint files.

However, the people that you’re sharing your files with don’t need to run out and buy the new version of Microsoft Office just to read your newer files. When you save a document in Office 2008, the Save dialog box gives you an option to save your files in 97-2004 format, which should ensure the greatest compatibility for your files because it’s the same file format that has been used on Mac and Windows for the last 11 years, producing DOC, XLS, and PPT files.

If you find yourself changing your Save dialog options a lot, you can set the 97-2004 format as the default. In Word or PowerPoint, this option is located in the Save panel of the program’s preferences, and in Excel, it’s in the Compatibility panel of the preferences.

Alternatively, anybody using Office 2004 can open up Office 2008 files by installing the Open XML File Format Converter (free, www
.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx). And Apple’s TextEdit (free, included with Mac OS X) can read and write DOCX files, while Apple’s iWork ($79, www.apple.com) can recognize DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files. So your colleagues may already have a solution preinstalled on their computers.

MS Word For Mac: 10 Amazingly Crafty Tricks

John Brandon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:56:00 -0600

It’s the word processing how-to you’ve all been waiting for!

Yeah, yeah. We know: Text docs aren’t exactly sexy. But once we show you what you can really do with Word, your opinion of Microsoft’s cubical-geek office app will change forever.

Let’s just be honest with ourselves for a moment: Despite all the amazing, visually rich projects our Macs can help us create, many of us use them primarily for word processing. Turn on, enjoy startup chime, launch Word. That’s the daily sequence we know and (sort of) love. And if we continue down this road of full disclosure, we’ll also admit that the way we use Word is a lot like the way most of us use our cars to get from point A to point B: steering wheel, gas, brake—we know the basics, but what about the seat-position memory feature available on a lot of late-model cars, where you just push a button and your seat automatically shifts into the right position? Never used it. And, what about programming your in-car GPS so it finds routes based on traffic patterns? Er, nope. Most of us tend to use productivity software like Word in the same way, sticking to what we know. That’s why we’re here, to share a tried-and-tested collection of can’t-process-words-without-them tips.

For starters, we want to radically alter your Word computing habits. Now, since Microsoft recently—finally!—released Word 2008 for Mac ($199.99, www.microsoft.com), we opted to focus on that version instead of Word 2004, which came out back when gas cost $2 a gallon. We also include tips for using alternative word processors like OpenOffice Write and WriteRoom, in case you want to try working Word-free. Of course, once you apply our tips for getting more out of Word—who knows? Maybe you’ll start changing your own oil, learn how to adjust the contrast setting on your HDTV, or fillet a walleye for dinner.

Microsoft pulled out all of the stops for Word 2008 for Mac—it is newly designed and favorably improved. (Meanwhile, Word 2007 for Windows also has a new design, but some Windows users have complained that it’s a step backward in terms of usability.) For those who want to go beyond typing black letters on a white sheet, there’s a wealth of new and underused features waiting to help you go all Wordtastic.

Secure Your Doc

You can secure a Word doc so only those who know the password can open or edit it.

There are many ways to protect a document in Word 2008—the most common method is to go to the Word menu, select Preferences, click Security, and type in a password for someone to use when opening or modifying the doc. You can also make the document secure by clicking the option to remove personal information, which strips your name and the other details you typed in when you installed Office 2008. Here’s another way to protect a document, borrowed from Office 2007 for Windows: You can insert a digital signature into your file, and then let the recipient know that if the signature is present, the document really belongs to you. Office 2007 automates this concept, but you can just sign your name on a blank sheet, scan it, save it as a picture file, and then insert that file into the document.

Make Paste More Special

When you select Paste Special under the Edit menu, whatever you have selected—a picture or formatted text—can be pasted using that formatting.

Did you know that copy-and-paste is the fourth most-used feature in Word? Yep—right behind saving, printing, and changing fonts. Pasting isn’t glamorous, but you can extend its power. When you copy, you can control how text is pasted into a document. Instead of pressing Command-V, go to the Edit menu and click Paste Special. You’ll see myriad ways to paste text: as a picture, as an inserted PDF file, raw text, or fully formatted. If you copy a website as a URL, you can use Paste Special to paste the text as a hypertext link that users can click on to visit the site. After copying text (Command-C or Edit > Copy), paste special by choosing Edit > Paste Special, then choose how you want it to be pasted.

Make Autocorrect Work Your Way

AutoCorrect is either a blessing or a curse. Fortunately, you can customize it (to, for example, fix commonly misspelled words but not add bullets automatically) or disable it entirely.

When Word waves its magic wand and tries to guess what you want its auto-correct feature to do, the results are usually positive. You’re cranking out a TPS report and then, wham, Word automatically adds a bullet where you don’t want one or auto-accents a word like protégé. Those are pretty easily fixed. But in some cases, this magical editing is more of a pain than a gain. You can disable auto-formatting with one click. Go to the Word menu and click Preferences. Click the AutoCorrect option, and notice the checkbox for automatically correcting all spelling and grammar errors. This is the all-purpose enable/disable option for all auto-correction—click it to disable.

You can also configure Word to automatically expand abbreviations. In the same Preferences window, click AutoCorrect. Type in any abbreviations you normally use, such as sig. (for signature) or add. (for address), in the Replace field. Then, type in the correct word in the With field. This replaces your abbreviations automatically with the spelled-out word.

Make Elements An Elemental Part of Your Workflow

The Elements toolbar in Word 2008 allows you to add fully formatted table of contents, bibliographies, charts, and cover pages.

Word 2008 added a nifty new feature called Elements, which is a toolbar with page- and document-formatting options. Microsoft sent the whole template gallery concept into deep space, so Elements is where you can adjust general page attributes in one fell swoop—adding things like cover pages, tables of contents, preformatted tables, charts, and graphics. It’s as if Microsoft took all the pieces of a template and put them into neat and tidy categories (aka, Elements). By default, Word 2008 hides the Elements toolbar, but you can make it available in every new doc. Just go to Word > Preferences, then click Gallery. Click on the option to “Open Elements Gallery when application opens,” and click OK. Now, Elements will always appear.

By the way, you might wonder why Microsoft ditched the template gallery. In its user testing, Microsoft noticed how most of us just cancel out of the old template gallery and start typing in Word, then format as we go. Apparently we are template averse—and, really, it’s better to build up than to tear down, right?

Keep Formating Intact When You Copy

Word 2008 allows you to keep the formatting of copied text and use it in another app, if you’re so inclined.

One major annoyance in Word is that, the minute you copy text to the clipboard, your formatting tends to flatline—no Baskerville Bold, no 65-point type, just raw text. That’s OK if you’re copying everything into an email or using the text in another app like Photoshop, but it’s not so cool if you’re trying to make a school brochure with multiple pages and lots of fancy fonts. This is a fixable problem. Go to Word > Preferences, click General, then check Include Formatted Text In Clipboard. Now, all of the formatting will travel with your copy-paste between docs and pages, even when you paste into other apps.

Get More From Notebook View

The Notebook view is now more customizable. You can make your spiral notebook look like a metallic binder, for example.

High school and college students, rejoice! The new Notebook feature is just for you. It means you can type notes during a lecture or even record the audio. (And, of course, business users can take advantage of this view as well.) You can customize the notebook and switch from the dorky legal pad to a shiny metallic note-taking view that matches the design of the MacBook Pro—just click the Customize button in the status bar at the bottom of the screen and select Aluminum. Click the Appearance button at the top of the screen to use a different notepad look. Now, go ahead: Type away like a caffeinated banshee. You can use the Quick Search box to find that one obscure reference to Albert Camus in Philosophy 101—Word marks notebook tabs that contain the word or phrase in blue and the search term itself in blue.

Use Noteflags In Notebook View

A Noteflag in Word 2008 for Mac is like a reminder—or at least an easy way to find a note (“remember to order books online”) related to what you’re typing.

Once you start using the Notebook layout view, you’ll likely uncover all sorts of useful accoutrements. For example, you can add Noteflags, which are like comments you add to a regular Word document. First, bring up the Formatting palette by clicking Electing > Formatting Palette. Look for the Noteflags section. Click the pop-up and select the flag you want, say, a green checkbox. Type in your note, such as “remember to check with professor about the quiz.” If you use the Noteflag like a task, you can click the flag when it’s done. Otherwise, they disappear off the page but can be found easily when you look through your notes later. Instead of a Noteflag, you can also insert an Entourage task into your notebook (if you use Entourage for email and calendaring). Just click the Create Entourage Task button in the formatting palette and type in the details. Now, it will appear in Entourage along with all your other tasks. Another nifty trick: Use the QuickSearch field to find any text in your notebook view. All the tabs will highlight notes that contain the word, and the word itself will be highlighted.

Microsoft told us that they will likely make Noteflags more searchable in the next release of Word for Mac, so you can drop the flags in documents and then search for them later, when you need to study for a test or find a business reminder.

Save Recorded Audio Clips for Use on an iPod

Audio clips are automatically collected for each notebook into one MP3 file you can save and listen to later on your iPod.

It’s primarily a word processor, but Word also lets you record audio clips and save them directly to your iPod. First, connect the iPod. Use the Notebook view and click the red Start Recording button. It’s useful during a school lecture or business presentation, but you can use it to record personal notes to yourself. Once recorded, you can save all audio notes (they are bundled automatically with each notebook) to an iPod. Under Tools, select Audio Notes > Export Audio. Name the audio file and click Save. Drag and drop the audio file into iTunes, then sync with your iPod. If you want to separate your audio notes, just create a new notebook and click record for each new audio notes file, then export the audio for that notebook.

Print Multiple Pages Per Sheet

Scriptwriters will love the “multiple sheets” option, which allows you to print documents as though they are a storyboard with multiple pages per sheet.

You can save a few trees and make your life easier at the same time by printing multiple pages per sheet (also see “5 Ways to go Greener”). It’s like one of those movie storyboards that you can use for reviewing a document or getting a handle on the structure of a document. Go to File, then Print and select the Layout from the pop-up menu (where it says Copies & Pages). In the Pages per Sheet pop-up, select the number of sheets to print.

Change The Default Font

You can easily change the default font used for every new Word document, whether you like Courier New or the incredibly overused Comic Sans (shame on you).

World Alternatives
Many Mac users rely on Word as much as Windows users do, but there are alternatives to Microsoft’s pricey word processor, including OpenOffice (with a new version 3 that should be available by press time) and a stripped-down writer’s tool called WriteRoom, whose claim to fame is an uncluttered full-screen view.

OpenOffice Write

OpenOffice is the most popular alternative to Microsoft Word, plus it’s totally free.

OpenOffice Write (free, www.openoffice.org) uses the X11 Unix windowing environment on a Mac, but don’t hold that against it—it still works quite well. You can also use a very similar suite called NeoOffice (free, www.neooffice.org) that does not use X11, but is perhaps not as well supported as the OpenOffice apps. Also, OpenOffice integrates well with the Linux and Windows versions, which can swap files in the proprietary odt format as easily as Microsoft Word users share doc files. We should mention one of the most common “gotchas” with OpenOffice: When you save a file as ODT, Word users will not be able to open it. However, you can fix that problem. Just select the File menu, then Save As, and select the Word 97/2000/XP format. Now, Word users will be able to open the file.

One perk with OpenOffice is that it goes well beyond the basic auto-correct options in Word 2008. For example, you can automatically delete extra spaces at the beginning and end of both paragraphs and sentences. Go to the Tools menu, then AutoCorrect. Enable the options to “Delete spaces…” before and after sentences and paragraphs. The M and T columns can be a little confusing. The M means autocorrect will only work when you “modify” existing text. The T means AutoCorrect will work anytime you type, for both new text and modifying existing text. In addition to the AutoCorrect options, OpenOffice lets you add tables and charts, insert pictures, and even has its own auto-format paintbrush (select the text that uses the formatting you want to copy, click the paintbrush, then select the text you want to format).

So what’s missing from OpenOffice Write? For starters, you won’t find the Word 2008 toolbars for formatting text, changing page elements, and Word’s bevy of chart- and table-formatting options. You also only get two basic views: one for print and one for the Web. And there’s no nifty Notebook view.

WriteRoom

WriteRoom is for those who just want the “room to write” without any distracting palettes, dialog boxes, menus, formatting options—or even a status bar.

As writers, we occasionally like to declutter and focus on the words we’re composing and not the plethora of rich document-formatting options in Word 2008. WriteRoom, from Hog Bay Software (free, www.hogbaysoftware.com) is like a long yoga session on the beach: It’s just a brilliant, distraction-free app. Granted, you won’t be using it to format a garage-sale sign, make an advertising brochure, or even type a novel and track your changes. WriteRoom is essentially a full-screen view that removes all toolbars, palettes, and the status bar. The closest you can get to this state of nothingness in Word 2008 is to work in the Draft layout view, hide all formatting options, and remove the status bar. However, there is no way to hide the menus or run in a full-screen mode where the Dock and the Mac desktop are just a click away, although Microsoft told us it plans to add a full-screen layout view in the next release of Word for Mac.

Five Ways to Go Greener

Creating and sharing text documents necessitates printing on paper—most of the time. Here are five ways you can be a little kinder to our friends of the forest and still easily view, distribute, and access your text docs.

1. Ditch Paper Notes and Use Evernote

If the goal of word processing is to organize your thoughts, Evernote (free, www.evernote.com) goes a step further—it organizes your life. Instead of typing up documents, printing them out, and taking them with you when you get mobile, you can use Evernote to capture all the pieces of your digital existence (digital photos, clip art, text notes, reminders) and then access them from your laptop or iPhone. The program works automatically: If you drag and drop a Word file into the Evernote, for example, you can then access the document file from your iPhone, as long as you have an account (register at evernote.com).

2. Print to PDF

Mac users know that the Print To PDF feature is available from just about every application, including Word 2008. Once you print to PDF, you can email the document or save it to a USB key drive, and then take that text with you anywhere you go and skip printing. In Word, just go to File, then Print, click the PDF button, and choose Save To PDF. Now, copy the PDF to where you will need it.

3. Make An Online Doc

In Word 2008, you can create a Web document just by going to the File menu and selecting Save As Web Page. Name the file, and save the results (which includes images and formatting) in a folder. Now, use an FTP tool such as FileZilla (free, filezilla-project.org) to upload the file to your FTP site to skip printing.

4. Use Fully Recycled Paper

Some paper is only partially recycled (10% or more, it says on the packaging), but you can buy 100% recycled paper at online shops such as ThePaperMillstore.com that is certified as 100% recycled. Yes, it costs three times as much, but think of how you’re benefitting the environment.

5. Print Double-Sided Sheets

One quick way to be more environmentally conscious about your word processing is to always print on both sides of the sheet. Not many printers support this option automatically, but we used an HP Photosmart 7760 printer to do it manually. When you select Print, under Pages, type in the odd numbers of the pages you want to print. For example, with six sheets, print only pages 1, 3, and 5. Click Print. Then take those sheets and load them like you normally would with the printed side facing down or up (depending on the printer you use), and print the even numbers of the document (2, 4, and 6). This may take some getting used to, but eventually it will become second nature.

Mac|Life Word 2008 RSS Feed

Office 2008 File-Compatibility Trouble

MS Word For Mac: 10 Amazingly Crafty Tricks