Origin of an Office doc?

M

mala

Registered
Hi,

work on a Wintel PC at work (sad to say...) and have recieved a .docx document. Can I see if this doc is actually created on a Mac with Office 2008 or if it's created on a PC and just saved with a .docx extension of some reason?

/Mans
 
docx is the suffix for Office 2007 PC documents, you can download a compatibility package to open it with older versions of word from Microsoft. I think this is it.
 
Ok, I thought the .docx was the file extension for Office docs created on Office 2008 for Mac.....?

/Mans
 
It might also be that but it is certainly the PC office 2007 and beyond format. It caused lots of issues at the company I worked for when office 2007 came out as the older machines with office 2003 couldn't read the files and we weren't able to install the compatibility package for ages.
 
.docx does not indicate what platform it came from. It is simply Microsoft's new XML-based Word document format, which can be read and written by Office 2008 on Mac, and Office 2007 on Windows (or read by prior versions of Office on Windows with the compatibility pack that ora mentioned).
 
mala said:
... Can I see if this doc is actually created on a Mac with Office 2008 or if it's created on a PC and just saved with a .docx extension of some reason? ...
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ElDiabloConCaca is correct. Just saving with the .docx will not cut the mustard. This is the extension automatically used for Word's XML-based document format. This extension is used by both Word 2007 and Word 2008. It is also the default for Word 2003 with the Word 2007 compatibility converter installed.

Not that the origin of the document is particularly important, but you may learn all there is to know about it by looking at File > Properties... menu item. If the document were created on a Windows machine, there may be some telltale hints of this fact.
 
For what it's worth (I own MS Office 2008) I save all my documents as '.doc' to ensure that they are compatible with older versions of word. I do not know for sure whether this is necessary or wise.
 
I do the same, Rhisiart -- I changed the preferences of both Word and Excel to save to .doc and .xls respectively, instead of .docx and .xlsx, on both my Windows machines and my Macs.
 
Rhisiart said:
For what it's worth (I own MS Office 2008) I save all my documents as '.doc' to ensure that they are compatible with older versions of word. I do not know for sure whether this is necessary or wise.
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None of my friends with whom I correspond have Office 2007, and they cannot read "docx."

Some have accused me of being "funny" with the tag.

--J.D.
 
It's been bad practice to send around .doc files instead of interoperable formats like .rtf or .pdf for years before .docx came about. It was wrong then, it's wrong now, and to actually have the nerve to send around Microsoft's _new_ formats just adds insult to injury.

If you plan on sending a file in such a format (be it .doc or .docx), make sure the recipient can (at least) read the file before actually sending it.
 
Doctor X said:
Depends on the recipient.
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True. A lot of my clients still struggle with the concept of a CSV (comma-separated values) file. It takes a lot of teaching...

Sometimes all they know is "Is it an Office document?" without knowing the difference between a Word doc, Excel doc, or an Access database. If they can't open it in Office by double-clicking, they think that you screwed something up.

Unfortunately, not everyone who owns a computer is savvy enough to really figure things out on their own. If I had a bat, I could (and would) fix that straight-away... but until they change the manslaughter laws, putting up with those people is infinitely more enjoyable than sitting in jail. :/

However, it really is all about me. . . .
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And to think -- all this time, I thought it was about me!
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
True. A lot of my clients still struggle with the concept of a CSV (comma-separated values) file. It takes a lot of teaching...

Sometimes all they know is "Is it an Office document?" without knowing the difference between a Word doc, Excel doc, or an Access database. If they can't open it in Office by double-clicking, they think that you screwed something up.
Click to expand...

Exactly, and two of them are PC users who laugh at me for using Mac. I am hardly a "Guru" of computers, but if I sent them an "rtf" they would probably accuse me of sending them a virus or something. They got a PC, got Office . . . that is there world.

Unfortunately, not everyone who owns a computer is savvy enough to really figure things out on their own. If I had a bat, I could (and would) fix that straight-away... but until they change the manslaughter laws, putting up with those people is infinitely more enjoyable than sitting in jail. :/
Click to expand...

Probably time to start another "Worse Questions to Tech Support" thread. When on with TS for Apple years ago--forgot to include the driver for a printer--as the nice lady took my information I asked her what the "Worst" question was. Long story short, it was a guy wondering why his computer would not boot while his apartment was on fire . . . as he stood in water coming from the fire hoses!

And to think -- all this time, I thought it was about me!
Click to expand...

See? You learn so many things from this site! :)

--J.D.
 
Doctor X said:
Exactly, and two of them are PC users who laugh at me for using Mac. ...
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Um-m-m, no. For 99.99% of Windows users who use Word, Word is the default application for .rtf files. I have more than of decade of experience sharing documents with Windows-using colleagues. Most of that time, I emailed them .rtf versions of my Word documents. They never knew the difference. In fact, one extremely important colleague once praised me for the fact that we used the same application. He never knew that I was not using Windows.
 
Doctor X said:
.... Perhaps they prove the exception to the rule, ...
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Perhaps, they do not.

For fun and valuable prizes, any member of this forum may email an .rtf file of his/her choice to a select number of friends and colleagues. The winner is the person who [truthfully] reports the largest number of Windows users who cannot open the document.
 
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