Can't read Word

R

rlbg

Registered
Hi--

I bought this lovely G5 last year thinking my HS daughter would learn to use all the bells & whistles & then teach me. Hasn't happened. I'm now taking an off-site class at a regional state university, they told me it was possible to use the Mac, but I'm floundering. The documents on their eCompanion learning site are all in Word.

Apparently I got something called a Microsoft Office 2004 test drive when I bought the G5, it has now expired, & of course they want me to buy... The university tech people sent me a link to download something called Wordviewer, which is supposed to allow me view/print the documents from the professor (syllabus, course notes, etc.).

I went to the site, clicked on download, and now get the following message when I try to use the Wordviewer: There is no default application specified to open the document "wdviewer.exe." with the options to cancel or choose application.

I feel rather like Alice down the rabbit hole...can anyoane help me find my way out? Is it possible to read Word documents/etc. without buying Word, or must I capitulate to the Evil Empire?

Thanks so much.
 
.exe files are windows-only programs, and can't be used on a mac, i'm afraid.

you can use TextEdit (a rudimentary text editor, which you can find in your applications folder) to view basic word documents. hold 'ctrl' and click on the word document you want to view and point to 'open with...', and then click on 'TextEdit'.

here's a useful site for you also:

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

it gives you all the basics you may ever need.
 
Lt. Major Burns--

Thank you...thank you...thank you & merci beaucoups, too. My daughter is thrilled, too, because she can now get busy on those senior scholarship applications.

andychrist--

Thanks to you, also. I'll explore the plug-in when I get this week's homework done.
 
TextEdit is great, and although it does support most basic word documents, it starts to trip up with anything more complex, it's only really meant as a stand-by. TextEdit is great for what it does though. it's very powerful in its own ways. for example, the dictionary it uses is the mac os x dictionary, and it's often amazing. also, any text can be spoken. ctrl+click on any selected text to see how much you can do with it.

another resource you may be interested in is a book you can buy off amazon, or from most book stores, Mac OS X Tiger - The Missing Manual. it comes highly reccomended.
 
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