Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!chaos.utexas.edu!solomon
From: solomon@chaos.utexas.edu (Thomas Solomon)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Word for Windows ---> Word for Mac
Message-ID: <42177@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 6 Jan 91 19:15:39 GMT
References: <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP>
Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp
Reply-To: solomon@chaos.utexas.edu (Thomas Solomon)
Organization: University of Texas at Austin, Center for Nonlinear Dynamics
Lines: 57

In article <1991Jan6.025625.18789@dmntor.UUCP> djm@dmntor.UUCP 
(Dave McKellar @ Digital Media Networks) writes:
>I saved a Word for Windows file "normal" style and then tried
>to open it with Word for the Mac.  Word for Mac opened it BUT
>didn't GET that it was a document - ie there were tons of
>funny characters where formatting should have been.
>
>So what's the trick?  It must be possible to transfer documents
>between the two programs ... how ?

David,

     I had the same problem when I tried going between W4W and
Word for Mac (WFM).  First of all, I found that things work
fine if you go in the other direction (i.e., save a WFM file
normally on the Mac and load it on the PC).  There seems to
be a bug in the way W4W handles the PC-to-Mac conversion, though.
As a simple test, I tried writing a file in Mac format from
W4W.  I then read the _same_ file back, converting from
MacIntosh Word format.  It didn't work.

     I have found an alternative way to get files from
the PC (W4W) to the Mac (W4M).  (Remember, there is no
problem going from the Mac to the PC.)  I have found that
if I save the file (on the PC) in Rich Text Format (RTF),
and then read this file into the Mac, that all of the
formatting is done correctly.  There is one problem with
this fix, though.  If you use any "fields" in W4W, these
fields will _not_ be converted correctly via RTF (apparently,
there is no RTF counterpart for the fields).  This is not
a problem for most uses, but was a pain-in-the-neck for me,
since I use formatted equations extensively in my documents.

     With a fair amount of haggling, I have found a way of
fixing even this problem (with the fields).  W4W and W4M
both use the same type of formatting for equations.  For
example, the integral between 0 and 1 of xdx would be
written as \I(0,1,dx) in W4M and as {eq \I(0,1,dx)} in W4W.  
I've discovered that if you can get rid of the curly brackets
and the "eq"  in the W4W document, then the equations
will transfer correctly via the RTF route.  In practice
getting rid of the curly brackets and the "eq" is a pain-in-
the-neck, but is manageable.  I have written a macro that
will go through a W4W document and convert every field to
a format without the {eq   }.  (By the way, the macro facilities
in W4W are _fantastic_.)  After running the macro, I then
save the file in RTF format and transfer this to the Mac.
This scheme seems to work (i.e., I haven't run into any
problems yet).  If you want, I can email you a copy of
the macro.

     I hope this helps.  Eventually, Microsoft will have
to write a new version of W4W that does the conversion
properly without these workarounds.

                            Tom Solomon
                            solomon@chaos.utexas.edu