Re: Newbie questions

On Oct 5, 2005, at 8:11 AM, Alan Horkan wrote:
>
> On Tue, 4 Oct 2005, Michael A. Peters wrote:
>
>> Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:10:43 -0700
>> From: Michael A. Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
>> To: Barry Wong <bwong@stanfordalumni.org>
>> Cc: abiword-user@abisource.com
>> Subject: Re: Newbie questions
>>
>> On Tue, 2005-10-04 at 22:27 -0400, Barry Wong wrote:
>>>
>>> I have read in more than one place that the program will import Word
>>> files (which makes a lot of sense), but I must be doing something
>>> wrong. Can anyone help?
>>
>> I can't help, but I don't think it is something wrong that you are
>> doing.
>
> I cannot help but think the opposite. Believe it or not you may be
> the
> first person to have tested abiword against this specific version and
> configuration of Microsoft Word. I'm interested to read "I must be
> doing
> something wrong" but chances are there is something we could
> improve with
> your help.
>
> It would be a big help if you could create an account for yourself in
> Bugzilla our bug tracking system and attach a sample document so
> that we
> can test and try to isolate the problem. Hopefully we will be able
> to see
> if the files you are having trouble with can be opened using the Linux
> version of Abiword or if the problem happens on all platforms not
> just the
> Mac. With your help there is a good chance we can identify and
> solve the
> problem. http://bugzilla.abisource.com

I'll do that ASAP.

> In the meantime if you still have that old copy of word you might have
> more luck if you save as Rich Text Format (.rtf) and try importing
> those
> documents into Abiword.
>
>> It should *just work* (does on Linux, mostly - some weird word files
>> aren't imported correctly but I really have to try hard to find
>> one now
>> - stuff people send me just tends to work)
>
>> When AbiWord saves to word format, what it actually is doing (unless
>> they have changed it) is creating an rtf file and just putting a .doc
>> extension on it.
>
> Hasn't changed and is unlikely to ever change because it works so
> well.
> RTF has long been the de facto standard for Document interchange
> between
> different word processors and the Abiword developers have always put
> massive amounts of time into making it work as well as possible.

FWIW, I can open RTF files made with Mac Word 2001, and have had some
success opening (what I presume are) Word files made with some
Windows version of Word. No luck, however, opening Word files made
with the most recent version of Word for the Mac (at least not the
'test drive' version that came with my computer). Maybe there's a
pattern here...

Barry Wong, bwong@stanfordalumni.org
International Student Ministry
McGill and Concordia Universities

--
No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived, all that God has  
prepared for those who love Him.              1 Corinthians 2:9
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