Word and Excel Converters and Conversions

Opening documents across different versions and platforms 

Document Contents

• Part I - Microsoft Word
• Part II - Microsoft Excel
• Part III - Free Word and Excel viewers
• Part IV - Terms and other useful info

Part I - Microsoft Word

As a rule, newer versions of Word can open documents created by older versions.

Also, generally speaking, newer versions of Word can save files in a format readable by older versions. (To save in an older file format, choose Save As... from the File menu. The Save As dialog box contains a drop-down box from which you can select the appropriate format.)

However, even if you didn't know when you were saving the Word document that you were going to have to open it in another version, there's still hope. The table below outlines the other options.
 

Special Notes:

* When copying a Word document from a Macintosh to a Windows PC:

• save it on a PC-formatted disk (either a floppy or a zip disk), since Windows generally cannot read Mac-formatted disks
• alternatively, you can transfer it via a network or as an email attachment
• be sure to use only letters, number, and spaces (no punctuation) in the file name
• end the file name with ".doc" so that Windows recognizes the document as a Word document

** Microsoft provides free converters for these applications. Once the converters are installed, the older applications can open documents from the newer ones. These converters are already installed on all computers in ACC's public labs, and they can be downloaded for free either from Microsoft's web site or from ACC's servers.

• The Word 5.x<-->6.x converter for the Macintosh can be copied from the Public Software area of the Academic Computing Server. The file should be placed in Word 5's Word Commands folder.
• The Word 97 to Word 6 converter (for the Macintosh) is available from Microsoft's web site. It has not been tested by ACC, and ACC does not distribute it.
• The Word 97 to Word 95 converter (for Windows 95)  is available from ACC's web site. The converter installer will locate and update Word 95.

*** The best way to make this conversion is to save the file as an earlier version from the Save As dialog box of the newer version of Word, as described above. 

Part II - Microsoft Excel

Just as with Word, you can save Excel documents in older file formats from the Save As dialog box in newer versions of Excel. (There is one exception: Excel 97 lets you save worksheets together in a group, called a workbook. In order to be opened by earlier versions of Excel, which do not support workbooks, worksheets in a workbook must be saved as individual files.)

Also, as with Word, some after-the-fact conversions are possible, as described below:
 

Special Notes:

* When copying an Excel document from a Macintosh to a Windows PC:

• save it on a PC-formatted disk (either a floppy or a zip disk), since Windows generally cannot read Mac-formatted disks
• alternatively, you can transfer it via a network or as an email attachment
• be sure to use only letters, number, and spaces (no punctuation) in the file name
• end the file name with ".xls" so that Windows recognizes the document as a Word document

** The best way to make this conversion is to save the file as an earlier version from the Save As dialog box of the newer version of Excel, as described above.

Part III - Free Word and Excel Viewers

In addition to everything described above, Microsoft also distributes, free of charge, two very useful Windows programs--a Word viewer and an Excel viewer. These programs allow you to view and print (but not edit) any Word or Excel document (respectively) created in any version of the application on either platform (Mac or Windows). You can also copy data (though not formulas in Excel) from these viewers, to be pasted into another Window (allowing users with Excel 97 files and no copy of Excel 97 access to the information contained in the files).

These viewers are installed on all Windows PCs in ACC's public computing labs, and can be downloaded from either ACC's web site or from Microsoft's web site. More information is available at Microsoft's web site.

Part IV - Terms and other Useful Info

Microsoft Office

A suite (group) of productivity applications made by Microsoft. The different flavors of Office include different applications, but Word and Excel are included with all of them. The current version for Windows 95 is Office 97. For the Macintosh, Office 98 is due out in March 1998.

ACC-supported software

Academic computing officially supports Word 5.x, Word 6.x, and Excel 4.0 for the Macintosh; it supports Word 95 and Excel 95 for Windows. (These are the versions found in public computing labs.) Support for Word 5.x may be reduced or eliminated in the future, in anticipation of the release of Word 98 for the Macintosh. While ACC does not support Office 97 for Windows at this time, we anticipate supporting it by Fall 98. (Note: for a complete listing and explanation of ACC's software support policies, see the Haverford Faculty Computing Guide, or contact ACC.)

Word 5 for the Macintosh and version numbers

The original version of Word 5 (5.0) was replaced with Word 5.1, which was a free upgrade. (Word 5.1 offered a number of features not available in 5.0, including a toolbar.) A free patch for 5.1, which upgraded the version to 5.1a, fixed a number of bugs. Finally, a third-party patch (not supported by Microsoft) was released which eliminated a number of problems running Word 5.1 on newer Macs (including the "System memory too low to run Word" error). This bumped up the version number to 5.1A, which is the version installed in ACC's public labs. Word 5.0 and 5.1x files are completely compatible with each other, in both directions (that is, Word 5.0 can open documents created in 5.1x).

Web sites mentioned in this document

Academic Computing's web site (at http://www.haverford.edu/acc) contains more information about obtaining supported software and its support policies for it. Microsoft Corporation also has information on these products, and some software can be obtained from their web site (at http://www.microsoft.com).