Can't Shake Rtf: Word For Osx

agentj

Registered
A couple of weeks ago I sent my CV to someone who asked that I send him a Rich Text version. I opened up my CV, created in Word for OSX, saved it as a Rich Text file and sent it to him. Ever since then, whenever I create a document on my machine, people I send it to tell me that I can not open it. The extension is clearly *.doc, but when I tried to upload it to Monster.co.uk, I was told that it was in Rich Text Format. When I upload it as an attachment, it says it is text/richtext. When I initially saved the document as RTF, it gave me some warning, which I ignored. I have since tried resaving it as a *.doc and I get the same problem. It is as though there is no change. Uploading the same document to my PC, which is running Office 2003, allows me to open the file immediately. I save the document, it doesn't say anything about saving changes, and then send it off. If it has been sent from my PC, then it everyone can open it.
I have tried checking all the settings in Word for OSX. I have made sure that the default is to save as a Word document. I have tried fixing the document on the PC, sending it back to the Mac and once I send it from the mac I get the same response. In summation, after changing a document to *.rtf on my mac, all documents seem to be in *.rtf even if the extesion is *.doc. The exact same document is immediately fixed by opening it on my PC. This is obviously a step I don't want to take.
 
Hmmm... it'd be nice to know what that warning said, or perhaps what is was vaguely about -- remember anything about it?
 
Yes. I seem to recall it reminding me of any number of benign threats that usually occur when you change something to RTF. You know, the ones which say, "Stop you'll lose some of your formatting!" If it said anything else, unfortunately, I am completely unaware. So, no. I didn't really look at it before I clicked "ok".
 
Well, that warning doesn't (shouldn't) have the effects you're writing about. I'd trash all Word's preferences etc., reinstall Word and try again...
 
I reinstalled word once before. How does the trashing preferences procedure go? (I realize I should probably know already.)
 
agentj said:
Yes. I seem to recall it reminding me of any number of benign threats that usually occur when you change something to RTF. You know, the ones which say, "Stop you'll lose some of your formatting!" If it said anything else, unfortunately, I am completely unaware. So, no. I didn't really look at it before I clicked "ok".
You are correct. Word gives a warning about losing formatting when you save a file as .rtf. Although I suppose that there are some formatting features that don't survive the .doc to .rtf conversion, I have yet to find one in the normal course of my work. In and of itself, changing the file extension from .doc to .rtf or vice-versa will not change the formatting of the document. If you send an .rtf or .doc file to a Windows user, he is likely never to suspect the difference.
 
fryke said:
Well, that warning doesn't (shouldn't) have the effects you're writing about. I'd trash all Word's preferences etc., reinstall Word and try again...

This is completely counterintuitive to me though. The only other message I can think of, which I got, was also somewhat standard. I think I simply changed the name and thus the extension at some point, either from *.rtf to *.doc or vice versa. I got a message similar to "Are you sure you want to do this, if you do a different program may open the file from now on." I can't see why this would have changed every subsequent document, old and new, to *rtf however.
 
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