Problems with some documents of iMac

[Evil Rick]

My grandfather had always worked with iMac computers, in the last 8 years he had worked with a Macintosh (this model)



Last week he finally decided to get a new computer, he bough the newest Leopard model (this one)



Now, he had copied all his documents from the previous mac into an USB, the documents are in Word Mac, simply written documents, but the problem is that hios new computer doesn't read the old documents, when we put the USB and try to open the old documents, they appear as terminals that open a small window filled with characters like "####" or "////" and related.

We though that the USB could be damaged but we tried with 3 diferents USBs and it was all the same, I tried to open the documents with Open Office and it didn't worked either, my Grandfatehr has worked on these docs for years, they're really important for him. Anyone could help us here?

[sa547]

What type documents were they? And the office suite?

I think those files need to be converted into a new format, or had to be opened for a specific type.

[chikorita157]

OpenOffice fare poorly in document compatibility, especially with Office 2008 documents. You can try repairing the USB volume by going to Disk Utility and selecting the USB Drive and click on "Repair Volume."

Also, iWork and Office 2008 will have better compatibility with Microsoft Word docs, especially the older ones. If you can obtain a copy of Office 2004 for Mac, it will be better since it still have VBA compatibility.

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by sa547

What type documents were they? And the office suite?

I think those files need to be converted into a new format, or had to be opened for a specific type.

Well, I don't know much about iMac but the documents say (v5.0) and other say (TT)

Originally Posted by chikorita157

OpenOffice fare poorly in document compatibility, especially with Office 2008 documents. You can try repairing the USB volume by going to Disk Utility and selecting the USB Drive and click on "Repair Volume."

But we tried with 3 diferent USBs and the result was the same.

Also, iWork and Office 2008 will have better compatibility with Microsoft Word docs, especially the older ones. If you can obtain a copy of Office 2004 for Mac, it will be better since it still have VBA compatibility.

I tried to open the documents on my PC also with microsoft word and with Word Pad (which acording to this can be read on a iMac) but I couldn't read them either.

You mean an Open Office 2004 or the system of Mac Word 2004?

[chikorita157]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

Well, I don't know much about iMac but the documents say (v5.0) and other say (TT)



But we tried with 3 diferent USBs and the result was the same.



I tried to open the documents on my PC also with microsoft word and with Word Pad (which acording to this can be read on a iMac) but I couldn't read them either.

You mean an Open Office 2004 or the system of Mac Word 2004?

No, Microsoft Office 2004 or 2008 for Mac. The Mac version of Office should have a better chance in opening a Microsoft Word document made with a older version of Office for Mac. The problem you are having is that some older versions of Office used a different format when saved in the Mac and your grandfather didn't use PC compatibility option when saving. The recent versions of Office for Mac doesn't have this issue since it saves to the .doc format which is used by Windows version of Office.

If you still have the old iMac, try saving all the documents to a RTF format, so they become readable or if you have some compression program like Stuffit on the old iMac, try compressing to a zip file and copy it to a USB drive and decompress it, but you are SOL if you don't use Microsoft Office for Mac.

[-KarumA-]

D: it is most likely because of the version difference between the two macs
with PC you have this as well but hen with new vs. old: if I have a document made with office 2007 I can't open it in an older version it will show pages and pages of codes
what text program was your grandpa using on the old one and what version number is it?

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by chikorita157

No, Microsoft Office 2004 or 2008 for Mac. The Mac version of Office should have a better chance in opening a Microsoft Word document made with a older version of Office for Mac. The problem you are having is that some older versions of Office used a different format when saved in the Mac and your grandfather didn't use PC compatibility option when saving. The recent versions of Office for Mac doesn't have this issue since it saves to the .doc format which is used by Windows version of Office.

If you still have the old iMac, try saving all the documents to a RTF format, so they become readable or if you have some compression program like Stuffit on the old iMac, try compressing to a zip file and copy it to a USB drive and decompress it.

Well, we took the documents to a tequnician of iMac, I asked them if Open Office could be the problem and he said that no, that open office should be reading the documents, he tried to open them with the most recent version of Mac word and couldn't open them either.

Maybe saving them as you say would work to open them on my PC and then conver them but you see... they're more than 450 documents.

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by chikorita157

If you still have the old iMac, try saving all the documents to a RTF format, so they become readable or if you have some compression program like Stuffit on the old iMac, try compressing to a zip file and copy it to a USB drive and decompress it, but you are SOL if you don't use Microsoft Office for Mac.

Thanks, it worked. You have thankls from me and my grandfather.

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