Compatible files between PC and Mac

morning

morning

supernew
Hi Again, So I went ahead and bought an ibook. And it is quite a fun little computer. However, I am busy in school right now and this new operating system is daunting.
The programs that came installed in the laptop (plentiful indeed) whether they are art or writing programs all use file extensions that are completely unopenable with my PC. Now I realize that I can get programs like Word for the mac, but I am wondering if this is common to find a whole new set of file types?
I still do a lot of work at my desktop, and I was told that I could move files back and forth seemlessly. What do you guys do about this?
also, can anyone help me, I can't seem to forward delete?
And is there anyway to set my 'finder' to more closely imitate an 'explore' window, whereby you can reveal all of the sub folders etc?
 
What file types are you referring to? Most types are cross-platform, like rtf, png, pdf, zip and mp4. AppleWorks files are not PC-friendly, though, so you should save them as either rtfs (from the Save As dialog) or pdfs (from the Print dialog).

When in list view in the Finder, you can hold down Option while expanding a folder to have it expand all the sub-folders as well.

I don't know how forward delete works on Windows, so I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean that it doesn't work for you in text fields?
 
Mac laptops don't t have a forward Delete key, only the backspace key (which oddly enough is labelled Delete just to confuse things). On a full size keyboard for a desktop Mac or PC, the delete key would delete what ever is ahead of the cursor. To get the same effect on a laptop keyboard, I'm pretty sure you need to hold Shift and press the Delete key.
 
morning said:
Hi Again, So I went ahead and bought an ibook. And it is quite a fun little computer. However, I am busy in school right now and this new operating system is daunting.
The programs that came installed in the laptop (plentiful indeed) whether they are art or writing programs all use file extensions that are completely unopenable with my PC. Now I realize that I can get programs like Word for the mac, but I am wondering if this is common to find a whole new set of file types?
I still do a lot of work at my desktop, and I was told that I could move files back and forth seemlessly. What do you guys do about this?
also, can anyone help me, I can't seem to forward delete?
And is there anyway to set my 'finder' to more closely imitate an 'explore' window, whereby you can reveal all of the sub folders etc?
Click to expand...

As someone else asked, what file types are you talking about? Most should be cross platform, but one problem you may be having is if the file extensions aren't being appended... (ie, you have a text file but there is no .txt at the end). More info would be helpful.

One of the problems you may run into when going back and forth between platforms is that every time you move a file from the Mac to the PC you are stripping out the resource fork of the Mac file. If you bring the file back to the Mac, the Mac may not know what to do with it. For the most part, the Mac will probably know what the file is because of the extension, but in the off chance it doesn't you'll either have to drop the file on the application to open it, or open the file from within the application's open dialog.

In regards to making the Finder more explorer-like, I think you want to turn on list view. You should be able to do this from the Finder's View menu. Once in list view, you'll notice little triangles to the left of directories. Click on the arrow and the directory's contents will be revealed.

Column view is kinda neat as well, but I don't use it too often.
 
I'd go with column view. It's the most useful one and works just like the iPod interface. It's simple – and good.
Forward Delete is Shift-Delete – but not in all applications, sadly. I often just use Shift-RightArrow to select what I want to delete and then hit the delete (a.k.a. backspace) key.
 
To make your life easier put the dot 3 extension (.doc for Word) on your files created on the Mac (on the PC they are the default when saving a file). Go to the Finder and select preferences, then the advanced tab. Here you can surpress (or not) all file extensions. Mac people will tend to not have the file extensions showing (historical reasons since the resource fork of the file stores that information for you) but PC natives might want to see them. Either way always save your files on both machines with the extension - and your life will be easy.

All microsoft office products and file formats are compatible. Nearly all the image file formats can be opened if you have the correct software or a shareware product like GraphicCoverter. Any program not available on the other platform will be an issue, its native file probably not working, but as mentioned you can save in some intermediate format (save Appleworks in rtf which is a microsoft file type) if at all possible. Some software will not even allow you this option.
 
Mikuro said:
AppleWorks files are not PC-friendly, though, so you should save them as either rtfs (from the Save As dialog) or pdfs (from the Print dialog).
Click to expand...
They do work with PCs that have AppleWorks installed - you have to add the extension .cwk for the PC to see it, but very few PCs have AppleWorks installed, so it's still best to use a different format :)
 
kainjow said:
They do work with PCs that have AppleWorks installed - you have to add the extension .cwk for the PC to see it, but very few PCs have AppleWorks installed, so it's still best to use a different format :)
Click to expand...
There must be more than one type of cwk file, then, because I know that the files I create with AW6 on OS X rely on their resource fork, and thus are completely useless on PCs. I can't even email them to another Mac without first archiving them. Bloody pain explaining that to my less tech-savvy family members, let me tell you!

Edit: I just did a quick test, and it seems like this is only the case with some AW files. No idea what the difference is. But I know it's been a problem many times over the years.
 
fryke said:
RTF is always the solution. But mind exceptions. ;)
Click to expand...
Sometimes when I create an RTF in Mac OS X using the default font (Helvetica, I think) and than view it on my PC, the default font there is all pixelly and messed up. So when using RTFs, make sure to pick a font that's available on both platforms, like Arial, Times, etc.
 
Another exception is when saving documents created with AppleWorks. AppleWorks usually does a fine job of saving (and opening) RTFs, but just a couple weeks ago my sister tried to save a document of hers as rtf so she could send it to various family members (one of which has...*sob*...bought a PC!), and she got very weird results. When she tried opening the resulting rtf in AppleWorks, she got a spreadsheet full of formatting markup (!?). Opening it in TextEdit gave something semi-legible, but a far cry from "good".

In the end, she had to save it as PDF. Not easily editable, but very reliable.
 
symphonix said:
Mac laptops don't t have a forward Delete key, only the backspace key (which oddly enough is labelled Delete just to confuse things). On a full size keyboard for a desktop Mac or PC, the delete key would delete what ever is ahead of the cursor. To get the same effect on a laptop keyboard, I'm pretty sure you need to hold Shift and press the Delete key.
Click to expand...

On laptops, Fn+Delete behaves as forward delete. I'm not sure if there's any corresponding behaviour on desktops.
 
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