[P1] Word formatting in Mac, PC & mixed marriages

[e.mkeene]

> Well, that settles that...my switcher won't be nearly so interested in
> switching with that info.  Her Word docs are booklets that she prints
> to go with her products and will be a problem, that being the case.
> Glad to know this in advance!

Not so fast, Pat. My guess is that she creates her first draft in plain 
text and then formats it. If so, there is a very simple solution, I 
think.

Opt.1. plain text in word on pc. Format ono Mac using AW and save as 
pdf. Print out on mac using the custom page up options where you can 
print in different size formats that you design. The drawing module in 
AW can do some pretty fancy layouts at a much cheaper price than a full 
page layout app. You MUST use the drawing module so that you can select 
mixed graphic and text boxes and sizes.

OPT 2. I believe the pc version of Word also includes an option to save 
as PDF. Have her save the pc format as pdf and see if this does not 
freeze the layout. If so, she could then print the pdf version on any 
computer or platform and maintain the formatting.

  If she plans to use the Mac exclusively and opt 2 solves the problem, 
nothing further should be required. She would simply get the Mac 
version of Word or Office and save all print docs as pdfs to preserve 
the formatting.

If opt 2 fails to preserve the formatting, she would only have to make 
formatting changes one time when converting from the PC to Mac and then 
save as pdf to preserve formatting.

You could have her send you the Word pdf version of a couple of pages 
and try printing the pages from the finder to see what happens. If that 
works, her problems are solved. Furthermore, she would not necessarily 
even need to buy the MS stuff for the Mac. She could create all new 
docs in AW using the Draw module and then save as pdfs for printing.


  If it doesn't work, come back and we will try other options.