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(16.17.0) / September 9, 2018; 3 months ago ( 2018-09-09) Website Microsoft Word (or simply Word) is a developed. It was first released on October 25, 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including running (1983), running the (1985), (1985), (1988), (1989), (1989), (1994), and (formerly OS X; 2001). Commercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a component of, or the discontinued. And are editions of Word with limited features. Main article: Origins In 1981, Microsoft hired, the primary developer of, the first, which was developed at. Simonyi started work on a word processor called Multi-Tool Word and soon hired, a former Xerox intern, who became the primary software engineer.
Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word for and MS-DOS in 1983. Its name was soon simplified to Microsoft Word. Free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with the November 1983 issue of, making it the first to be distributed on-disk with a. That year Microsoft demonstrated Word running on.
Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, Microsoft Word was designed to be used with a mouse. Advertisements depicted the, and described Word as a, windowed word processor with the ability to and display bold, italic, and underlined text, although it could not render. It was not initially popular, since its user interface was different from the leading word processor at the time,.
However, Microsoft steadily improved the product, releasing versions 2.0 through 5.0 over the next six years. In 1985, Microsoft Word to the (known as Macintosh System Software at the time). This was made easier by Word for DOS having been designed for use with high-resolution displays and laser printers, even though none were yet available to the general public. Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Mac OS added true WYSIWYG features. It fulfilled a need for a word processor that was more capable than.
After its release, Word for Mac OS's sales were higher than its MS-DOS counterpart for at least four years. The second release of Word for Mac OS, shipped in 1987, was named Word 3.0 to synchronize its version number with Word for DOS; this was Microsoft's first attempt to synchronize version numbers across platforms.
Word 3.0 included numerous internal enhancements and new features, including the first implementation of the (RTF) specification, but was plagued with bugs. Within a few months, Word 3.0 was superseded by a more stable Word 3.01, which was mailed free to all registered users of 3.0.
After MacWrite Pro was discontinued in the mid-1990s, Word for Mac OS never had any serious rivals. Word 5.1 for Mac OS, released in 1992, was a very popular word processor owing to its elegance, relative ease of use and feature set.
Many users say it is the best version of Word for Mac OS ever created. In 1986, an agreement between and Microsoft brought Word to the under the name Microsoft Write. The Atari ST version was a port of Word 1.05 for the Mac OS and was never updated. The first version of Word for Windows was released in 1989.
With the release of the following year, sales began to pick up and Microsoft soon became the market leader for word processors for IBM PC-compatible computers. In 1991, Microsoft capitalized on Word for Windows' increasing popularity by releasing a version of Word for DOS, version 5.5, that replaced its unique user interface with an interface similar to a Windows application. When Microsoft became aware of the, it made Microsoft Word 5.5 for DOS available for download free. As of July 2018, it is still available for download from Microsoft's web site. In 1991, Microsoft embarked on a project code-named Pyramid to completely rewrite Microsoft Word from the ground up. Both the Windows and Mac OS versions would start from the same code base. It was abandoned when it was determined that it would take the development team too long to rewrite and then catch up with all the new capabilities that could have been added in the same time without a rewrite.
Instead, the next versions of Word for Windows and Mac OS, dubbed version 6.0, both started from the code base of Word for Windows 2.0. With the release of Word 6.0 in 1993, Microsoft again attempted to synchronize the version numbers and coordinate product naming across platforms, this time across DOS, Mac OS, and Windows (this was the last version of Word for DOS). It introduced AutoCorrect, which automatically fixed certain typing errors, and AutoFormat, which could reformat many parts of a document at once. While the Windows version received favorable reviews (e.g., from InfoWorld ), the Mac OS version was widely derided. Many accused it of being slow, clumsy and memory intensive, and its user interface differed significantly from Word 5.1. In response to user requests, Microsoft offered Word 5 again, after it had been discontinued.
Subsequent versions of Word for macOS are no longer direct ports of Word for Windows, instead featuring a mixture of ported code and native code. Word for Windows. Microsoft Word 2007 Word for Windows is available stand-alone or as part of the Microsoft Office suite. Word contains rudimentary desktop publishing capabilities and is the most widely used word processing program on the market.
Word files are commonly used as the format for sending text documents via e-mail because almost every user with a computer can read a Word document by using the Word application, a Word viewer or a word processor that imports the Word format (see ). Word 6 for Windows NT was the first 32-bit version of the product, released with Microsoft Office for Windows NT around the same time as. It was a straightforward port of Word 6.0. Starting with Word 95, releases of Word were named after the year of its release, instead of its version number. Word 2010 allows more customization of the Ribbon, adds a Backstage view for file management, has improved document navigation, allows creation and embedding of screenshots, and integrates with. Word for Mac. Microsoft Word 2011 running on OS X In 1997, Microsoft formed the as an independent group within Microsoft focused on writing software for.
Its first version of Word, Word 98, was released with Office 98 Macintosh Edition. Document compatibility reached parity with Word 97, and it included features from Word 97 for Windows, including spell and grammar checking with squiggles. Users could choose the menus and keyboard shortcuts to be similar to either Word 97 for Windows or Word 5 for Mac OS.
Word 2001, released in 2000, added a few new features, including the, which allowed users to copy and paste multiple items. It was the last version to run on and, on, it could only run within the. Word X, released in 2001, was the first version to run natively on, and required, Mac OS X, and introduced non-contiguous text selection. Word 2004 was released in May 2004. It included a new Notebook Layout view for taking notes either by typing or by voice. Other features, such as tracking changes, were made more similar with Office for Windows.
Word 2008, released on January 15, 2008, included a Ribbon-like feature, called the Elements Gallery, that can be used to select page layouts and insert custom diagrams and images. It also included a new view focused on publishing layout, integrated bibliography management, and native support for the new Office Open XML format.
It was the first version to run natively on Intel-based Macs. Word 2011, released in October 2010, replaced the Elements Gallery in favor of a Ribbon user interface that is much more similar to Office for Windows, and includes a full-screen mode that allows users to focus on reading and writing documents, and support for. File formats Native file formats. Icons for.doc (left) and.docx (right) files DOC Legacy Word document DOT Legacy Word templates WBK Legacy Word document backup DOCX XML Word document DOCM XML Word macro-enabled document DOTX XML Word template DOTM XML Word macro-enabled template DOCB XML Word binary document File extensions Microsoft Word's native file formats are denoted either by a.doc or.docx. Although the extension has been used in many different versions of Word, it actually encompasses four distinct file formats:.
Word for DOS. Word for Windows 1 and 2; Word 3 and 4 for Mac OS. Word 6 and Word 95 for Windows; Word 6 for Mac OS. Word 97 and later for Windows; Word 98 and later for Mac OS The newer.docx extension signifies the for Office documents and is used by Word 2007 and later for Windows, Word 2008 and later for macOS, as well as by a growing number of applications from other vendors, including, an word processing program. Binary formats (Word 97–2007) During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the default Word document format became a standard of for Microsoft Office users. There are different versions of 'Word Document Format' used by default in Word 97–2007.
Each binary word file is an , a hierarchical within a file. According to, Word Binary File Format is extremely complex mainly because its developers had to accommodate an overwhelming number of features and prioritize performance over anything else.
As with all OLE Compound Files, Word Binary Format consists of 'storages', which are analogous to, and 'streams', which are similar to. Each storage may contain streams or other storages. Each Word Binary File must contain a stream called 'WordDocument' stream and this stream must start with a File Information Block (FIB). FIB serves as the first point of reference for locating everything else, such as where the text in a Word document starts, ends, what version of Word created the document and other attributes.
Word 2007 and later continue to support the DOC file format, although it is no longer the default. XML Document (Word 2003). This section needs expansion. You can help. ( December 2013) The XML format introduced in Word 2003 was a simple, -based format called WordprocessingML. Cross-version compatibility Opening a Word Document file in a version of Word other than the one with which it was created can cause incorrect display of the document. The document formats of the various versions change in subtle and not so subtle ways (such as changing the font, or the handling of more complex tasks like footnotes).
Formatting created in newer versions does not always survive when viewed in older versions of the program, nearly always because that capability does not exist in the previous version. (RTF), an early effort to create a format for interchanging formatted text between applications, is an optional format for Word that retains most formatting and all content of the original document. Third-party formats permitting the Windows versions of Word to read and write formats it does not natively support, such as format (ODF) (ISO/IEC ), are available.
Up until the release of (SP2) for Office 2007, Word did not natively support reading or writing ODF documents without a plugin, namely the or the. With SP2 installed, ODF format 1.1 documents can be read and saved like any other supported format in addition to those already available in Word 2007. The implementation faces, and the and others have claimed that the third-party plugins provide better support. Microsoft later declared that the ODF support has some limitations. In October 2005, one year before the Microsoft Office 2007 suite was released, Microsoft declared that there was insufficient demand from Microsoft customers for the international standard OpenDocument format support, and that therefore it would not be included in Microsoft Office 2007.
This statement was repeated in the following months. As an answer, on October 20, 2005 an online petition was created to demand ODF support from Microsoft.
In May 2006, the ODF plugin for Microsoft Office was released by the OpenDocument Foundation. Microsoft declared that it had no relationship with the developers of the plugin. In July 2006, Microsoft announced the creation of the Open XML Translator project – tools to build a technical bridge between the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the OpenDocument Format (ODF). This work was started in response to government requests for interoperability with ODF. The goal of project was not to add ODF support to Microsoft Office, but only to create a plugin and an external toolset. In February 2007, this project released a first version of the ODF plugin for Microsoft Word. In February 2007, Sun released an initial version of its ODF plugin for Microsoft Office.
Version 1.0 was released in July 2007. Microsoft Word 2007 (Service Pack 1) supports (for output only) and formats, but only after manual installation of the Microsoft 'Save as PDF or XPS' add-on.
On later releases, this was offered by default. Image formats Word can import and display images in common bitmap formats such as. It can also be used to create and display simple line-art. No version of Microsoft Word has support for the common vector image format. Features and flaws.
This section needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2010) Among its features, Word includes a built-in spell checker, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and utilities for manipulating and editing text. The following are some aspects of its feature set. Templates Several later versions of Word include the ability for users to create their own formatting templates, allowing them to define a file in which the title, heading, paragraph, and other element designs that are unique from the standard Word templates. Users can find how to do this under the Help section located near the top right corner (Word 2013 on Windows 8). For example, Normal.dot is the master from which all Word documents are created.
It determines the defaults as well as the layout of the text and font defaults. Although normal.dot is already set with certain defaults, the user can change normal.dot to new defaults. This will change other documents which were created using the template, usually in unexpected ways. An example image created with WordArt WordArt enables drawing text in a Microsoft Word document such as a title, watermark, or other text, with graphical effects such as skewing, shadowing, rotating, stretching in a variety of shapes and colors and even including three-dimensional effects. Users can apply formatting effects such as shadow, bevel, glow, and reflection to their document text as easily as applying bold or underline. Users can also spell-check text that uses visual effects, and add text effects to paragraph styles.
Macros A Macro is a rule of pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to an output sequence according to defined process. Frequently used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated. Like other documents, Word files can include advanced and even embedded programs. The language was originally, but changed to as of Word 97.
This extensive functionality can also be used to run and propagate in documents. The tendency for people to exchange Word documents via email, and made this an especially attractive vector in 1999. A prominent example was the, but countless others have existed. These macro viruses were the only known cross-platform threats between Windows and Macintosh computers and they were the only infection vectors to affect any system up until the advent of in 2007. Microsoft released patches for Word X and Word 2004 that effectively eliminated the macro problem on the Mac by 2006. Word's macro security setting, which regulates when macros may execute, can be adjusted by the user, but in the most recent versions of Word, is set to HIGH by default, generally reducing the risk from macro-based viruses, which have become uncommon.
Layout issues Before Word 2010 (Word 14) for Windows, the program was unable to correctly handle defined in fonts. Those ligature glyphs with codepoints may be inserted manually, but are not recognized by Word for what they are, breaking spell checking, while custom ligatures present in the font are not accessible at all. Since Word 2010, the program now has advanced features which can be enabled: ligatures,. Other layout deficiencies of Word include the inability to set crop marks or thin spaces.
Various third-party workaround utilities have been developed. In Word 2004 for Mac OS X, support of was inferior even to Word 97, and Word 2004 does not support features like ligatures or glyph variants. Bullets and numbering Microsoft Word supports.
It also features a numbering system that helps add correct numbers to pages, chapters, headers, footnotes, and entries of tables of content; these numbers automatically change to correct ones as new items are added or existing items are deleted. Bullets and numbering can be applied directly to paragraphs and convert them to lists. Word 97 through 2003, however, had problems adding correct numbers to numbered lists. In particular, a second irrelevant numbered list might have not started with number one, but instead resumed numbering after the last numbered list. Although Word 97 supported a hidden marker that said the list numbering must restart afterwards, the command to insert this marker (Restart Numbering command) was only added in Word 2003.
However, if one as another item, e.g. Fifth, the restart marker would have moved with it and the list would have restarted in the middle instead of at the top. Users can also create tables in Word. Depending on the version, Word can perform simple calculations. Formulae are supported as well.
AutoSummarize AutoSummarize highlights passages or phrases that it considers valuable. The amount of text to be retained can be specified by the user as a percentage of the current amount of text.
According to Ron Fein of the Word 97 team, AutoSummarize cuts wordy copy to the bone by counting words and ranking sentences. First, AutoSummarize identifies the most common words in the document (barring 'a' and 'the' and the like) and assigns a 'score' to each word – the more frequently a word is used, the higher the score. Then, it 'averages' each sentence by adding the scores of its words and dividing the sum by the number of words in the sentence – the higher the average, the higher the rank of the sentence. 'It's like the ratio of wheat to chaff,' explains Fein.
AutoSummarize was removed from Microsoft Word for Mac OS X 2011, although it was present in Word for Mac 2008. AutoSummarize was removed from the Office 2010 release version (14) as well. Password protection. Main article: There are three password types that can be set in Microsoft Word:. Password to open a document.
Password to modify a document. Password restricting formatting and editing The second and the third type of passwords were developed by Microsoft for convenient shared use of documents rather than for their protection. There is no of documents that are protected by such passwords, and Microsoft Office protection system saves a of a password in a document's header where it can be easily accessed and removed by the specialized software. Password to open a document offers much tougher protection that had been steadily enhanced in the subsequent editions of Microsoft Office. Word 95 and all the preceding editions had the weakest protection that utilized a conversion of a password to a 16-bit.
In Word 97 and 2000 was strengthened up to 40 bit. However, modern cracking software allows removing such a password very quickly – a persistent cracking process takes one week at most. Use of reduces password removal time to several seconds. Some software can not only remove a password, but also find an actual password that was used by a user to encrypt the document using approach.
Statistically, the possibility of recovering the password depends on the. Word's 2003/XP version default protection remained the same but an option that allowed advanced users choosing a was added. If a strong CSP is chosen, guaranteed document decryption becomes unavailable, and therefore a password can't be removed from the document. Nonetheless, a password can be fairly quickly picked with brute-force attack, because its speed is still high regardless of the CSP selected. Moreover, since the CSPs are not active by the default, their use is limited to advanced users only. Word 2007 offers a significantly more secure document protection which utilizes the modern (AES) that converts a password to a 128-bit key using a hash function 50000 times. It makes password removal impossible (as of today, no computer that can pick the key in reasonable amount of time exists), and drastically slows the brute-force attack speed down to several hundreds of passwords per second.
Word's 2010 protection algorithm was not changed apart from increasing number of SHA-1 conversions up to 100000 times, and consequently, the brute-force attack speed decreased two times more. Reception. This section needs expansion. You can help. ( April 2016) in 1984 criticized the documentation for Word 1.1 and 2.0 for DOS, calling it 'a complete farce'. It called the software 'clever, put together well, and performs some extraordinary feats', but concluded that 'especially when operated with the mouse, has many more limitations than benefits. Extremely frustrating to learn and operate efficiently'.
's review was very mixed, stating 'I've run into weird word processors before, but this is the first time one's nearly knocked me down for the count' but acknowledging that Word's innovations were the first that caused the reviewer to consider abandoning WordStar. While the review cited an excellent display, sophisticated print formatting, windows, and footnoting as merits, it criticized many small flaws, very slow performance, and 'documentation apparently produced by Madame Sadie's Pain Palace'. It concluded that Word was 'two releases away from potential greatness'. S Apple Applications in 1987 stated that 'despite a certain awkwardness', Word 3.01 'will likely become the major Macintosh word processor' with 'far too many features to list here'. While criticizing the lack of true WYSIWYG, the magazine concluded that ' Word is marvelous. It's like a or, whose occasional gaucherie we excuse because of his great gifts'.
In 1989 stated that Word 5.0's integration of text and graphics made it 'a solid engine for basic desktop publishing'. The magazine approved of improvements to text mode, described the $75 price for upgrading from an earlier version as 'the deal of the decade', and concluded that 'as a high-octane word processor, Word is definitely worth a look'. During the first quarter of 1996, Microsoft Word accounted for 80% of the worldwide word processing market. Release history Legend: Old version Older version, still supported Current stable version Latest preview version Future release. Microsoft Word 2010 running on Windows 7 Microsoft Word for Windows release history Year Released Name Version Comments 1989 Word for Windows 1.0 Old version, no longer supported: 1.0 Code-named Opus 1990 Word for Windows 1.1 Old version, no longer supported: 1.1 For. Code-named 1990 Word for Windows 1.1a Old version, no longer supported: 1.1a On March 25, 2014 Microsoft made the to Word for Windows 1.1a to the public via the.
1991 Word for Windows 2.0 Old version, no longer supported: 2.0 Code-named. 1993 Word for Windows 6.0 Old version, no longer supported: 6.0 Code-named T3 (renumbered 6 to bring Windows version numbering in line with that of DOS version, Mac OS version and also, the main competing word processor at the time; also a 32-bit version for only). Included in Office 4.0, 4.2, and 4.3. 1995 Word for Windows 95 Old version, no longer supported: 7.0 Included in 1997 Word 97 Old version, no longer supported: 8.0 Included in 1998 Word 98 Old version, no longer supported: 8.5 Included in Powered By Word 98, which was only available in Japan and Korea.
1999 Word 2000 Old version, no longer supported: 9.0 Included in 2001 Word 2002 Old version, no longer supported: 10.0 Included in 2003 Microsoft Word 2003 Old version, no longer supported: 11.0 Included in 2006 Microsoft Word 2007 Old version, no longer supported: 12.0 Included in; released to businesses on November 30, 2006, released worldwide to consumers on January 30, 2007. Extended support until October 10, 2017. 2010 Word 2010 Older version, yet still supported: 14.0 Included in 2013 Word 2013 Older version, yet still supported: 15.0 Included in 2016 Word 2016 Older version, yet still supported: 16.0 Included in 2019 Word 2019 Current stable version: 16.0 Included in. Note: Version number 13 was skipped due to. Retrieved October 1, 2018. December 4, 2012.
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How to Use General Microsoft Office Downloads with Office:Mac Article contributed by Most templates offered on the Microsoft Office for PC download site can be used with Microsoft Office for Macintosh. However, on the Mac, we have to install them manually. This article tells you how.
(The website installs them automatically on a PC running PC Office). This article has been updated to work around a bug in Stuffit running on Intel Macs. Obviously the best place to start is Mactopia Lene Fredborg, 11-Feb-2018: Removed outdated link to The templates offered there are the most popular Microsoft Office templates, re-engineered to work with no issues on your Mac. However, if the template you want is not among them, look on the general. Almost every imaginable template that you can obtain without payment is there. Right: Let’s cover a few ground rules before we get started:. The templates Microsoft offers are the best you can get for no charge.
Templates customised to exactly solve your business problem can be a fairly large investment. I just quoted a customer $27,000 for one set.
I have one that automatically makes up multiple-choice examinations: a copy will cost you $499.00. If I were you, I would try very hard to make the nice templates Microsoft offers for free fit your need!. The templates designed for PC Office are not all going to work on the Mac. Most (almost all) of them will work, but some just won’t. We can’t tell you which is which: you will just have to try them. As a rule of thumb, any template offered for PC Office 2000 or earlier “should” work unchanged on the Mac.
Later versions may contain active content that “may not” work well on the Mac. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are totally without value: in many cases you can use the content just fine, disregard the broken automation, and type into them yourself! Anything offered for Office 2007 or later is going to be a problem. If you have the Office File Format converter from Microsoft Mactopia Lene Fredborg, 11-Feb-2018: Removed outdated link to installed, some of them may be useful. Without the converter, they will not open at all in Mac Office versions earlier than 2008.
You’re not on your own! If you download a template and it doesn’t quite work, we’re here to help! For help, to access the Mac Word newsgroup: Just a word to the wise: If you’re going to ask for help, be detailed, and be nice. It doesn’t work” tells us exactly nothing about your problem, your computer, or the programs you are using. And when you come in, remember we’re in the bar having a quiet one with our friends after work (yeah, 24 hours a day: this is a world-wide operation – it’s always 5:00 p.m. If you come barging in shouting that we should leap up and serve you instantly for no charge, you’ll get treated much like you would be in a bar.
We do not work for Microsoft! We're just other Word users, like you, but with some accumulated knowledge and experience that we're happy to share. Use the latest browser. The MS Download site is a complex active server site, and early versions of Safari will struggle with it. Make sure you have the most up-to-date, free Stuffit Expander installed; the older versions won't do the job.
You are going to need to decompress content that OS X’s built-in Zip utility can’t handle. First, Catch Your Rabbit No, didn’t say it in her celebrated recipe for rabbit stew, but I will.
Spend some time looking around before choosing. The Office site is huge. Stick to templates produced for the programs you own, and you will have a much higher chance of success: anything written for Word, Excel or PowerPoint is very likely to work. Anything written for Access, OneNote, InfoPath, Project, Publisher or Visio just won’t. In Word, be careful of anything that promises a “booklet”. Word 2003 has a booklet function we do not have on the Mac.
Also, for non-US users, remember that most templates are in US Letter. When you change page size to A4, some template features will be thrown off (such as the perforation lines for business card templates), so be prepared to make adjustments. Download it When you find one you think might be suitable, click the Download Now button. If all goes well, you will see the Your operating system does not meet system requirements error page. That’s a good result!
That page was placed there specifically at the request of us Mac Addicts, to explain what to do next. The rest of this article gives you the same explanation with a little more detail. Click the Download Now button on that page.
Opening the CAB You will download a file whose name consists entirely of a number and which has the extension.cab. A.cab is a Microsoft “cabinet” file: essentially it’s a Zipped folder structure with the ability to store longer file names. Depending on your version of Mac OS, the built-in Zip utility may not be able to open it, but there are programs that can.
If you are on a Power PC-version Mac (A G3 or a G4 or a G5.) then Stuffit Expander will do the trick. If you have an Intel-processor Mac, Stuffit has a bug that may prevent it. Only one way to find out. If your browser is correctly set up, it will leave the file in your Downloads folder with a subfolder above it containing the unpacked content. If you can’t find it, start Stuffit and drag the.cab onto it. Stuffit will either issue an error message, or it will leave a folder containing the template in the same folder as the.cab file.
If you get an 'Error 17540' from Stuffit, that means 'Can't understand the format' and the extracted template file will not be useable. If this happens to you:. Download, install it, and run it. It will open a window onto which you drag the.cab file. File Juicer will then show you the folder structure inside the.cab. In one of the folders inside (the name varies a little) you will find a name like '123456.dot.doc'. Change the extension simply to.dot, or Word is going to get a little confused.
Manually drag the.dot file to one of your Templates folders. Send an angry email to Stuffit telling them they stuffed it. Send 10 Euros to the nice man at File Juicer. Your template is now available for use in Mac Office. What’s Inside? Usually, the.cab will contain a single file, and often it will be a template for the application you chose.
So if you chose Word, it will contain a.dot, if you chose Excel it will contain an.xlt and if you chose PowerPoint there will be a.pot. Sometimes, the CAB will contain more than one file. Here’s where you may need a little determination to try things out. Chances are the largest file is the one you want.
If you find a.inf file in there, you can safely ignore that one: it contains instructions for the Windows Installer to install the file. An.msi is more of a problem: that’s a Windows installer file and indicates that the solution may not be complete without Windows.dlls. Carry on anyway: there’s only one way to find out!. If you do not recognise what you got, assume that the file is a template for the application you chose. For example, if you are sent a.wiz file, and you chose a Word solution, chances are the.wiz is actually a Word template.dot (it’s a “Wizard”; the.wiz extension is not used on the Mac; it tells Word it should create a new document from the file then look for and run a startup macro.). Change the extension to the one appropriate to the template file type for the application you want to use.
For example, in Word’s case, change the extension to “.dot”. Now, use your Microsoft Office application to open the file you have. Do NOT double-click it. Use FileOpen from within the application. If you double-click the file, strange results are quite likely.
The file has arrived with the PC file-type and creator code embedded. If you double-click, your Mac OS will attempt to hand the file to the correct application.
You may get lucky. If you do not, both you and the computer are going to get very confused. Don’t assume everything is lost if that happens: Quit whatever started, re-start Word or whichever application you thought it should be starting, and go back and use Open from the File Menu in that application (e.g. Save As to Finish If all went well, the file will open. It may appear to be entirely blank (its only content may be hidden macro code).
Don’t worry about that: simply Save As. Go to the File Menu and choose Save As. Replace the numeric file name with something you recognise. Leave the extension the way your application has set it, and do not change the Format setting. Check the Append File Extension checkbox if it wasn’t checked already, and ignore any “Compatibility Warnings” that you may get. Word will allow you to save the file in only one place: which is just as well, because if you save it anywhere else, you won’t be able to use it.
Click OK, Allow the save to complete, and close the window (on the computer, silly!). Now: Try FileProject Gallery. All going well, the file you just installed will appear in your My Templates folder.
Create a new document from it, and you should get all of the advertised text and functionality. You may see a “This File Contains Macros” warning. If you do, that’s good.
That’s one of the main reasons for using templates: they are the place Office stores macros. Say OK and the macros should work to give you the functionality you wanted. The majority of the templates offered for download don’t have any macros in them, and you won’t get any problems at all. You’re done. Go do your work. The rest of this article is for the unfortunate few!
What if it Didn’t Work? Here’s where you may get problems: When you say OK to the Macros dialog, Word or the other Office application you are using will try to compile the macro the template contains.
That’s when you may find out that the macro is not compatible with the Mac. The other time you may find out is when you try to use the macro. Some errors will occur only when the macro tries to run (e.g. The macro works perfectly, but it’s trying to find a file using a Windows file location). If you get an “Error in Hidden Module” notice, generally, you’re pooched! Sorry about that! Microsoft applies a digital signature to their code so that it will run without warnings on the PC.
Because Mac Office does not support digital code signing, the code is locked: we cannot see or edit it on the Mac. If you have Virtual PC and Word 2003 installed, or you have a MacIntel with Windows and Word installed, you can open the file there and try to remove the digital signature. (If you don’t have these, ask us on the newsgroup: we may find the time to do this for you). If you can get rid of the digital signature, bring the file back to the Mac and cause it to blow up again. This time, you will get an error and the VBA editor will open, with the first error the compiler found highlighted in yellow.
Come to us on the with a very specific question (OS version, version numbers of Word, name of template, text of error message, sample of the code, which statement was highlighted) and we may be able to tell you how to work around it. If your question doesn’t contain enough detail, we can’t answer it (obviously). But others may try to, which may waste a lot of your time chasing down blind alleys. Often you can patch incompatible statements out of the code and the macro will run unchanged.
You can always find a way to code around the problem if you are really determined. We can give you an idea of how long it might take. Whether you consider that expenditure of your time worth the result is a question you can then answer.