OT: formatting AKA WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!!$%#@*

[1happygirl]

So I am a Jobs dilettante and using the Works program. I am specifically using the word processing application (pages is the name) part of the program. I have to do a lot of work back and forth between school, work, and home. At work and school, my stuff needs to be in MS Word. I create and bring back home and vice versa.

Question: The formatting is never correct. What can I do? I am considering buying MS Office for Mac. I don't know what else as have reinstalled, troubleshot, etc. There are always errors with conversion, etc.

On a related note, should I also add a font program to increase my fonts? If so, which one?

The main probs with formatting are everything but fonts so that's not what I'm saying here. That was an aside. The problems are margins, paragraphs etc. The documents always require a lot of reworking wherever I pull them up to get them back to looking like they should.

Thanks in advance.

[ultraman6970]

Well... besides the complains what are u trying to do??? There are many types of formatting, are following the usual school one?


What are u trying to do? plis dont say "write a document" ok?

[ultraman6970]

U need to know how to use the ruler at the top, that ruler has markings and each marking handles tabs, and paragraph alignments.

If you want to change the format between one paragraph and the next one u have to move those thingis in the ruler.

Once u handle that thing u'll be all right.

The internet is full with manuals and stuff, i really dont like office but pretty much is the standard, u could try open office but u have a learning curve also, i like that one and the old office 97, for what i do i those two do everything i need.

I miss big time word perfect 5.1

Good luck

[1happygirl]

No, but seriously. Just write even a letter etc. I mean this isn't a 'paper' paper even, just anything-correspondence etc. It works out fine on the Windoze Word but going back and forth between Mac and Windoze is a nightmare. I had a table project due etc for work. Looked great on Mac at home. Saved it as Word, got to work and it was all jacked up..Ughhhhh :crap:

[Jawn P]

You can download free fonts from http://dafont.com and just drag them to your fontbook on a Mac.

Be forewarned, if you are using a non-standard font and send the document to someone that doesn't have that font on their local machine, there can be more formatting errors and stuff, saving as a PDF would be a good solution to this.

[Don49]

You might try NeoOffice on your Mac http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php. I regularly edit documents that were created with MS Office, edit them with NeoOffice, and save them back to MS Office format (.doc) with no formatting problems. NeoOffice pretty much replaces the entire MS Office suite for a Mac.

[jasond]

I have MS Office on my Mac, it works wells and there is no formatting issues between Win and Mac. I had once tried Open Office however my papers were never formatted correctly when I opened them in MS Office.

[chuckred]

When you save the file, do you have the option to save in the format the other program uses? There should be converters to keep formatting between programs?

[1happygirl]

When you save the file, do you have the option to save in the format the other program uses? There should be converters to keep formatting between programs?

Yep in Mac Works (pages is their word processing program analogous to MS word) I save it as MS Word but getting to MS Word on pc at work or skool it is not formatted correctly which requires time, time, time to re-do. Same as I save it as MS Word at work or skool and then it 'converts' in Pages on my Mac and has 'errors' per the converter. This still requires time again to re-do and so it goes. :crap: :( :mad:

[biker72]

It sounds like your school machine and home machine don't have the same fonts installed. What you save at home might get some fonts substituted on your school machine.

Could be just screwy converters. Converting to the wrong edition of Word. (2003, 2007, 2010) I know some people are having problems with Open Office. Supposed be compatible with MS Word, Excel..Etc.... but not always.

Is it possible to save in PDF format??
Works fine between Mac and PC.

[Peter B]

You might try NeoOffice on your Mac http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php. I regularly edit documents that were created with MS Office, edit them with NeoOffice, and save them back to MS Office format (.doc) with no formatting problems. NeoOffice pretty much replaces the entire MS Office suite for a Mac.


+1 on NeoOffice. I've had better luck with file conversions using it than Apple's Pages/Keynote/Numbers.

[1happygirl]

Thanks Guys!!
Was trying to get around getting/installing another program, but I kinda thought that might be the ticket. I was hoping not.

B72 good idea on the pdf, have done that before on stuff that I felt was set in stone. I usually end up thinking of extra stuff on my way to work/skool and wanna change stuff when I get there.

Thanks again everyone and the SF (SerottaForum)!

[rounder]

I can't tell you how to do it but we have selected default settings in Word for our reports. You can set them for whatever you like. We use Times New Roman 12 pt for our font. We double space at the end of every sentence. Single space between lines and double space between paragraphs and use full justification for text. It looks pretty professional. That is what we do...but if you are into more casual writing for friends, you can still set default settings that you like in Word.