Re: Word Cross-Platform Issues
- From: John McGhie <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:00:26 +1000
Hi Nirado:
Well, I suggest that there is far more "miss-information" than "information"
on this topic.
Generally, the answer is that Word on a modern Mac and a modern copy of Word
on Windows render almost exactly the same.
However: Word achieves its document metrics from the printer driver defined
as the "default" printer (on both platforms). If these are different, then
the document will indeed render differently.
Word also substitutes the "Closest similar" font if it does not have the
actual font in use. This can produce a dramatic difference.
That's why we recommend using the fonts Microsoft supplies, on both sides of
the fence. Microsoft carefully engineered the fonts it supplies with Office
2008 to match the fonts it supplies with Office 2007 as closely as possible.
The difference will be within a point or two per page, if both machines are
connected to the same printer via the correct driver.
However, Word is a "Text Flow" application. It is designed to re-flow its
text each time the document is opened. All word-processors do that, and
there's no way to stop it. The skill lies in designing your documents so
that WHEN the text reflows, the associated bits remain together.
Judicious use of styles and their properties "Keep with next", "Keep lines
together" and "Widow/Orphan control" will result in documents that
automatically paginate perfectly 95 per cent of the time, on either
platform, even if you do use fonts the other side hasn't got.
The trick is to avoid hard page breaks: the more of them you use, and the
bigger the document, the worse the resulting mess :-)
And "yes", if you're talking about a thousand documents in a document
management system, maybe you are being too picky :-) When these documents
get "used", chances are the end-users will simply chop bits out of them to
paste into the documents that they are making. So you might have difficulty
generating a convincing business case for expending the time and money
required to format them at all :-)
Hope this helps
On 30/07/09 2:35 PM, in article C6976021.B444%nirado222@xxxxxxxxx, "Nirado
Griffin" <nirado222@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for this helpful info.
However, I am having similar issues with the upcoming reformatting of 1000 +
docs to suit a new internal Document Management system.
I have created a template in Word 2008 (.dotx) on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and want
to send that to someone using Windows 2007. We haven't had the issue as you
describe yet, but am concerned that the basic font management of Windows and
Mac is so different. E.g. When I set up a document in a single page, nicely
formatted on the Mac, when shipped to the PC, it takes more than a page and
take time to fiddle and reformat it back into 1 page.
I hear that the basics are so different between the 2 systems (kerning, line
spacing etc) that this is inevitable. Is that true? I am from a Graphic
Design background and also hate the look of the Windows documents, but maybe
I am being too picky. However, with over 1000 docs to re-work into the new
system, I don't want to take that time, or pay the person at the other end
to do it and am considering loaning them an old Mac in which to do it for a
quicker, better looking result.
Any information or suggestions about how we can achieve a standard look
efficiently would be welcomed.
Thank you,
On 25/07/09 3:00 PM, in article C690CE91.197D%john@xxxxxxxxxxx, "John
McGhie" <john@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Susan:
Let me try to give you a "sensible" answer to this :-)
1) In general, Yes, Word 2008 is not sufficiently functional to be used for
commercial work.
Install Parallels and a copy of whichever Windows you can get cheaply, plus
a copy of Office 2007 (just the basic version is fine). Ideally, get hold
of a copy of Windows 7. Windows XP is cheap and has a low memory footprint,
but you need to be fairly technical to maintain it in Parallels. Windows 7
is faster and less power-hungry than Windows XP, and very "automatic" :-)
Word 2008 is fine for reading the occasional document you may be emailed,
but it's just not sufficiently capable for commercial work. This will
change with Word 2010 for the Mac.
2) There is no such thing as a "Gallery" in Windows Word. There is a thing
called a "Clipart Gallery", but if he's trying to save it in there, Word
won't let him, which is what he just found :-)
3) A Word "Template" has a different internal file structure to a document.
Unless your file has this structure, Word will try to prevent you saving it
amongst its templates. If the document does have a template structure, Word
should prevent you saving it anywhere else.
4) To make a template you need to save a document as either a .dot or a
.dotx or a .dotm.
The .dot is the old binary file format that should not be used going forward
because it will give you compatibility and security problems.
The .dotx is what you should be using, assuming that you have no active
content in it (you can't create active content in Word 2008, so it's a safe
assumption!). Word describes it as a "Word Template (.dotx)".
When you get to create active content (macros, ribbon customisations...) you
will have to send the file as a .dotm (Macro-enabled template).
5) The majority of the problems belong at the customer's end in this case.
He needs to hire an IT Administrator of some kind that can walk him through
the setup he needs to do and the decisions he needs to make.
If this is simply a sole-trader wanting a letter-head, send him a .dotx
file.
Instruct him NOT to attempt to open it within his email: if he does that,
his security system will take over and cause the problem he is complaining
about. Once that happens, there's no way out of it.
Tell him to save the file to his hard disk (anywhere, doesn't matter...)
Then tell him to open it in Word using File>Open... (In Word 2007 that's
"Office Button>Open"). If he double-clicks the file to open it, again, his
security system will take over and nothing will work from there.
When the file opens, tell him to use "Save As" from within Word BEFORE he
does anything else. This time, we WANT Word to take over, and put the file
in the correct location for him :-) Otherwise you have to send instructions
on how to find the Template directories, which one to use, and how to get a
file in there. Not easy if you don't know how to do it either :-)
THEN he will be able to see it in what he refers to as "The Gallery", and
you will be able to deal with the compatibility problems that will result
:-)
Hints: In your designs, DON'T use any non-Microsoft fonts. Use the fonts
that Microsoft supplied with Office 2008, and ONLY those fonts. The ones
Microsoft provides are carefully engineered to render almost exactly the
same on the PC as they do on the Mac, and Windows versions of Word all have
the exact-same-named fonts supplied, so you know the customer has the fonts
concerned.
When specifying colours, use RGB colours, at no greater than 24-bit. Forget
"Adobe RGB" most Windows devices don't have sufficient gamut for it.
Windows can't do CMYK (not in Office applications) and Pantone does not
exist outside specialist graphics applications.
Word is a "Flowed Text" application. The text will always flow, you cannot
stop it. Word cannot do absolute positioning (although it can waste a large
part of your day pretending to try...). So design your document so that the
text flows in the correct places, and that the design looks great regardless
of how the text flows.
Word has paragraph and section break properties that can control how text
flows: keep coming back here and we'll teach you how to use them (they are
quite complex, but they are the way graphics professionals control Word).
Best of luck :-)
On 25/07/09 1:04 AM, in article 59b78c6c.-1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
"Susan-2008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <Susan-2008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
I am a graphic designer who primarily uses Adobe products. I have a client
who
wants me to create/design in Word so they can use as templates. I purchased
Word for Mac 2008 and made a couple of documents for my client, one of which
I
customized from a Word 2008 Gallery template. The client has Word 2007 and
was
not able to save the .docx (Gallery) file I sent. After several attempts, he
had to back save to .doc and wants to know why. Can anyone help me with the
answer so I don't have to sound like the Word ignoramus that I am? Also, in
general, is it foolish to even approach a design job in this way?
...designing
a Word doc on my Mac and expecting a PC user to be able to fully use it?
What
are best practices?
Pleadingly,
Susan
This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!
--
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxx
This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!
--
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxx
.
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