Re: Can't open Word 2004 for Mac document in Word 2003 for Windows XP

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Hi Clive:

Quite correct :-) I am assuming the current corporate practice whereby
Track Changes was turned on and hidden when the document was created, then
the document was piled up with graphics, tables, footnotes, endnotes, links
and cross references.

After just a few open/close cycles a document in that condition will indeed
be getting a bit frayed :-)

Cheers


On 22/9/06 12:44 PM, in article
C1398B35.1EE48%REMOVETHISoffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Clive Huggan"
<REMOVETHISoffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John, when making your cross-platform estimate I guess you are taking into
account the fact that the OP's document has graphics in it, and may contain
other electronic flakiness achieved by following "average user" practices.

My experience is that dozens of cross-platform transfers can take place with
a given document without problems, and many hundreds of open-edit-close
cycles. Admittedly this is with documents based on best practice as
espoused in this newsgroup and documented in "Bend Word to Your Will"
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

I make this comment just in case anyone watching generalizes from your
specific instance. People who do a lot of cross-platform work can achieve
near-perfect levels of reliability -- if they avoid (or work around) the
flaky features.

Cheers,
Clive
========

On 21/9/06 8:55 PM, in article C138ACD7.4C46B%john@xxxxxxxxxxx, "John McGhie
[MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]" <john@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This is a standard "document corruption" :-)

You have edited the document too many times. The current Word document file
format won't withstand too many edits, particularly across platforms.

It's hard to put a number on it: I would not depend on a Word document
after more than 100 open/edit/close cycles, and I would not change platform
with it more than five times.


<snip>

Hi... I use windows XP and Office 2003 in my office and a powerbook G4
with Office for Mac 2004 at home. I had created a word document at work
and at times edited it at home and haven't had a problem...so far. I
use iDisk to share the files. After my last edit at home I am now
unable to open the document at work.

<snip>





--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

.

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