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Subject:Re: Wanted: resource for Word 97 problems From:"Bergen, Jane" <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 8 Apr 1998 09:53:59 -0500
Randy,
A good book you might want to look at is "Word 97 Annoyances" by Woody
Leonhard, T.J. Lee, and Lee Hudspeth. It's widely available.
As for converting Word 95 to Word 97, I've not experienced or heard of
any problems at all. It's going the other way (making a Word 97 doc
readable by Word 95 users) that is the problem (understatement, more
like nightmare). A filter is available from Microsoft, but it is only
successful about 75-80 % of the time in my experience.
On Tuesday, April 07, 1998 5:10 PM, Randy Paske [SMTP:randyp -at- LDSINC -dot- COM]
wrote:
> I'm looking for a good summary of problems with Word 97. I'd
> specifically like to know of any difficulties converting documents
> from Word for Windows 95 (version 7.0a). I've checked this list's
> archives, the web, and DejaNews, but though I've seen problems
> galore, I've not found any real summaries. Perhaps I'm just not
> entering the right search terms.
>
> We need to use Office 97 to run a new application, but I'm afraid
> of converting our old Word docs to Word 97. We've also been
> considering switching to FrameMaker (last I knew) and I wonder
> about any compatibility issues there. And then there's RoboHelp,
> as well.
As for FrameMaker, forget about compatibility with ANYTHING. I, and
every other user I have spoken with, have had FrameMaker completely
crash and burn (the whole system hangs and I have to reboot) just
attempting to save a document as an .rtf file or .doc (Word 6./7..no
Word 97 filters available yet). And as you know, RoboHelp requires one
or the other of these formats. Unless you are a real FrameMaker
evangelist, I would recommend not going this route at all. I will say,
however, that 5.5.2 is slightly better though I haven't really had a
chance to test it much yet since I just got it last week.
> I'm not really asking for individual stories, though I'd welcome
> them. Mostly I'd like to know if anyone can point me to a focused
> resource about conversion issues among Word 97, other versions
> of Word, and other programs.
There is a Word list but it doesn't focus on very technical issues. It's
mostly just users wanting to know how to use this or that feature. Word
97 is quite different than Word 95....trust me!
Hope this helps. I think your conversion issues with going from Word 95
to Word 97 are basically moot. If you want to share documents between
both W95 and W97 users, forget it. If you want to use FrameMaker with
RoboHelp and/or Word, forget it.
Good luck,
Jane
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer,
AnswerSoft, Inc. Richardson, TX
(972) 997-8355
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com
