[Gage2k5]

I want to purchase the 2004 Microsoft Office for Mac program for my son and his wife, and the question I have is: can data from 2004 MS Office for PC be exported to the Mac program? What about MS Office 2008 for Mac? Or will they have to have an emulation program and run the PC version?

Thanks Again

PS Sill can't find the "search button"! I know this has been asked and answered before.

[mdawson]

You seem to be confusing quite a few things, but you basic inquiry is simple enough. Documents are completely portable between the Mac and Windows versions of Microsoft Office otherwise there would be little point to having a cross-platform product (although we are talking Microsoft here ;) ). Anything created in Office 2003 (Windows) can be opened in Office 2004 (Mac); there is no Office 2004 for Windows. So there is no need for you to run Microsoft Office in virtualization. That stated, there are a number of snafus that you need to be aware of as Office is in transition on both OS X and Windows.

Microsoft dropped VBA support from Office 2008, so you cannot use any macro-enabled documents in Office 2008. Within days of Office 2008?s release the Mac community made it abundantly clear to Microsoft that they were going to lose revenue for making such a boneheaded move; VBA support has been retained in Office 2007 for Windows. So, unless you are 100% confident that you will never have to use a macro-enabled document, Office 2008 is not an option.

Office 2007 and Office 2008 use a new file format and that does create a compatibility issue. Both Office 2007 and Office 2008 employ Microsoft?s new OOXML file format as well as retaining backward compatibility with older Office documents. The problem is that Office 2004 cannot open OOXML documents. Microsoft does have compatibility extensions available for both Office 2003 and Office 2004, but converting OOXML files to Office binary files for compatibility with older versions of Office can have mixed results.

So you ultimately are going to have to weight your options particularly as Office 2008 has been available for just over a year now, so copies of Office 2004 are probably becoming harder to come by.

[Gage2k5]

I thought documents would have been portable between platforms, but she said she could not import the data from Windows Excel to her Mac's Excel,

Yes, I was wrong about the years, so it must have been Windows Office 2003 data that my daughter-in-law tried to import to her Mac with Microsoft Office 2004. She ended up using my wife's PC to get her work done. At this point, with her being a long time Window's user that I convinced to purchase the Intel Imac, she is a little disappointed.

Thanks for the help and clarification!

[shades]

In addition to the lack of VBA in 2008, there are other short comings on the Mac versions of Office.

1. Even Office 2004, while it has VBA, it is based on VB 5 (same as Office 97), whereas Office 2000/2002/2003 use VBA based on VB 6.

2. ActiveX is not supported on the Mac side. Thus, any kind of dialog box or entry method using ActiveX is out. For instance, UserForms cannot be used, and any that are developed as an alternative have to use the Forms toolbar, not the main one. This is even more significant than the loss of VBA in some cases.

3. Placement within boxes made using the Forms toolbar do not line up identically, which can cause problems with display.

[Gage2k5]

OK, Thanks for the info.

[mdawson]

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Gage2k5 wrote:

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I thought documents would have been portable between platforms, but she said she could not import the data from Windows Excel to her Mac's Excel?so it must have been Windows Office 2003 data that my daughter-in-law tried to import to her Mac with Microsoft Office 2004.

That is interesting. I went between Office 2004 on my Mac and Office XP (2002) and 2003 in school with no issues. In fact, I have been able to transfer files between the Mac and Windows versions of Office since at least as far back as Office 97/98. The only area where I have had issues is with complex VBA programs written on the back end of Excel often times breaking in Excel on the Mac.

I do not have any major issues going between Office 2004 at home and Office 2007 at my current job either. I do have to make sure that I save documents composed in Office 2007 as Office 97-2003 versions if they contain equations because Office 2007 has a completely new equation editor. Beyond that, the conversion plug-in seems to work fine for opening Office 2007 documents in Office 2004 for me; I have not had anyone give me any Office 2008 files, but they are the same file format as their Office 2007 counterparts.

Ironically, Apple?s iWork suite apparently handles Office 2007/2008 files with aplomb. iWork only costs $79 and your wife?s iMac?no such thing as an ?Imac? ;) ?should have come with a 30-day trial version that she can try out. Obviously, at less than $100, iWork applications are not as feature-rich as Microsoft Office, but unless you are a power user, write VBA code or author collaborative papers, iWork has pretty much all the functionality that the average person running a productivity suite needs. (And yes, iWork apps can save files in Office formats.)

Just another option to consider.

[Gage2k5]

Yes, you are right, it is "iMac". I was under the weather and not thinking very clearly when I made my original post, including posting in the "Mac Software" thread instead of in the "Windows for Mac" thread. Also, as an owner of 5 iMac's since 2000 (all of which are functional today), I really should know the correct spelling.

Back to the topic, I use MS Word quite often, but very rarely Excel. My daughter-in-law was trying to import her business' tax records from a PC using Excel to her new iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, but could not make it work. At the time, I suggested that she become a Macworld forum member, and ask for help. I assured her there are many very bright and knowledgeable members that would love to assist a FORMER PeeCee owner with any question she may have. They have sure been lots of help to me over the years.

I will forward this thread so that she can read the answers.

Thanks Again!

[dougeddy70]

I bought Office 08 for Mac. What a waste of money. They have proved that no matter the time or place, they can create a program designed to tell YOU how you want to do things. I finally trashed it and went to Apple's iWork. Pages handles all the imports I need, and regularly receive documents from winders world - and send the same using iWork's save as function. I also use Open Office from time to time - why give another cent to Microsoft.

Especially irritating is Word's Theme's, which are nearly impossible to remove. I have tried the directions from everyone, including the one's at their own Mac site. I still end up with imported text being changed to THEIR font - not so nice when many parts of the text imported is in Greek or Hebrew. Thanks, Microsoft. Been nice knowing you. And the loss of macros was another big factor for leaving it.

BTW, MacLink Plus is still out there for document translation and it does a really nice job.

I hope this is of some value to you.