On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 15:16, Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gen...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 9:46 AM, Grant Edwards <gra...@visi.com> wrote: >> On 2009-01-27, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> On Tuesday 27 January 2009 06:29:55 Grant Edwards wrote: >>>> On 2009-01-26, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> > These are shared documents. I can't just change what they are >>>> > based on my own preferences. >>>> > >>>> > I need an app that WRITES .docx. If Office 2007 is the only >>>> > one that does it, so be it. But a workaround or another way to >>>> > skin this cat is not what I need here. >>>> >>>> In my experience, finding an app that writes .docx isn't going >>>> to be good enough if the documents are shared. If you're >>>> exporting or importing something just one time, you can get >>>> usually away with it after some minor fixing afterwards. >>>> >>>> But if it's a shared document and needs to be edited multiple >>>> times by multiple people, you just can't get away with using >>>> two different apps -- hell, not even two different versions of >>>> MSWord. If you go back and forth many times, the document will >>>> steadily "deteriorate" with each transition from one app to >>>> another. At least that's my experience. >>> >>> That's pretty much the conclusion I came to as well. Thanks >>> for sharing though :-) >> >> I realize I'm arguing a moot point, but using something like >> .docx for shared documents that need to be maintained by >> multiple people for a long time (more than a month or two) is a >> dead awful choice. >> >> A plain ascii text file is probably the best choice for >> portability and longevity. However, that suggestion's probably >> not going to fly because it severly limits the amount of time >> you can waste picking out eye-shatteringly ugly font >> combinations and f*&king up margins, gutters, leading, and all >> the other things people like to mess up rather than doing real >> work. >> >> My next choice would probably be something like RTF. If you >> get into a jam it's mostly-human-readible. If you limit >> yourself to simple formatting features it's about as portable >> and robust as anything you can find that allows the inclusion >> of graphics. The support for vector graphics (e.g. SVG) is >> pretty slim, but bit-mapped graphics support works pretty well. >> >> HTML would seem to be a good choice as well, but even more than >> RTF you've got to limit what features you use. The only way to >> keep the file from deteriorating into a mess is to avoid any of >> "WYSIWYG" HTML editors. > > Google Apps is great for sharing documents.. You can even have > multiple people editing in real-time and see each other's work. It's > kind of fun, and all you need is a web browser. > > Again, irrelevant to the OP since he can't change his company's > policy... but good to keep in mind for anyone who can :) >
I had this problem a while ago. I'm using CrossOffice with Word 2000 and needed to open and change some docx. Microsoft launched a compatibility pack for Office 2000, it works great, I'm using it, you may find more info and some tips here: http://stuffem.wordpress.com/2007/07/14/quick-tip-reading-office-2007-docx-files/ -- Daniel da Veiga
