The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #103624 Message #2114402
Posted By: JohnInKansas
29-Jul-07 - 10:42 PM
Thread Name: Tech: vista compatability ?
Subject: RE: Tech: vista compatability ?
After 26 hours of downloads, installations, patches, uninstalls, reinstalls, etc., I am able to "import" the .docx format used by Word 2007 into my Word 2002.
The 63 MB (62,785 KB in Win Explorer) .docx that purports to tell "everything about Vista versions" converts to a Word 2002 .doc at about the same filesize (63,848 KB). It's 332 pages in Word 2002. I've scanned through about a third of it, and it appears to actually contain some useful information although it's buried in a lot of salesmanship that has neither believability or content. You have to dig deep for anything useful.
Having no way to look at the original .docx, I can't make a direct comparison; but it appears that some "format" features may have been lost. Since Microsoft pulled all their publishing operations in-house a couple of years ago, much of what looks like conversion errors may just reflect "abcess absence of publishing skills" but some of it looks like conversion errors to me.
The problems probably are related mostly to "new features" that Word 2007 can use that aren't available - or arent' done the same way - in earlier versions. A user of an earlier version forced temporarily onto Vista/Word 2007 would be unlikely(?) to use most of the problematic "features" - maybe.
The original attempt to download and read from the smaller (23 MB) .xps document remains completely unsuccessful. Since the link told me I needed to install the "reader" I went directly to that separate link, downloaded the 50 MB installation package, and installed it. I did get, apparently, the "Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0" update, which is also required for the .docx converter described above, but no ".xps reader."
With the download installed, clicking to download the .xps sent me to an auto-install of the same 50 MB package I had already installed - 3 times at approximately 3 hours per pass. (Attempting to abort the autoinstall inserted a 3-hour CheckDisk at the next reboot, probably due to mangling of massive temp files?) The .xps document was NOT DOWNLOADED until the third try, at which time it simply "opened in IE" from which I thought I could save it to disk. Saved to disk it can't be reopened by anything on my computer.
The best that I can collect as to document compatibility in Vista is that the "standard" Word 2007 can "Save As" either the default .docx or as a .doc readable by Word 2000 and later. It can also export the .xps format which presumedly is a "web file" that should normally open in IE. (NO INFORMATION on whether other browsers may be able to open this format.)
Word versions from Word 2000 and later, on Windows 2000 and later, can probably be patched with the new "File conversion package" to allow them to open Word 2007 .docx files and convert them to the appropriate earlier version. The conversion may be better than it looks (if Microsoft publishing is even less competent than expected) but what I've seen thus far indicates "less than perfect file interchange." Word 2007 can, of course, import any earlier versions of Word .doc files - I think.
The installation of the "FileFormatConverters.exe" (27.5 MB download nominally) to allow earlier Word versions to import .docx files apparently requires the prior installation of the "Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0" package (50 MB download approximately). Depending on your starting point and configuration, notes at the download sites indicate a possible "maximum download" size of around 380 MB, but I'd expect the smaller(?) sizes to be pretty typical.
THERE IS NO INFORMATION (that I've found) available on what file format is used by the toy word processor contained in the "Works" set that most manufacturers are including on new machines.
A brief "feedback comment" has been sent to Microsoft. I sincerely hope they are NOT HAPPY with my evaluation. (They have not replied, but Joe O says hotmail is down again, at least in his area, so perhaps they're waiting for the repair team.)
John