In many companies, it’s fairly common to find several different
word processing and spreadsheet programs. It’s also highly
likely your firm is running at least two, possibly three or more,
versions of Microsoft Office programs. Unlike Microsoft’s upgrade
from Microsoft Office 95 to Microsoft Office 97, which introduced
major changes to the underlying document file formats, the upgrades
to Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Office XP bring much
more subtle, conservative changes.
Standardizing File Formats and Avoiding the Purchase of
Unnecessary Version Upgrades
As a result, you do not need to upgrade all of
your PCs to the same version of Microsoft Office applications to
standardize on a single set of file formats. An across-the-board
upgrade would be an expensive proposition. Usually, version upgrades
can be phased in gradually as new PCs that include bundled versions
of Microsoft Office are purchased.
To get the compatibility benefits, you merely
need to standardize the file format selections in use. This becomes
a cinch as Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Office XP offer
integrated support for Microsoft Office 97 file formats. For all
applications except Microsoft Access, there is basically full
backward compatibility with Microsoft Office 97.
Before making any changes to the underlying
file formats you use, or upgrade your Microsoft Office applications,
you always should make sure you have at least one verified and
tested full system backup. For more cost-saving tips on data backup,
see Chapter 6.
Microsoft Word .doc Files
For example, if you have four PCs with
Microsoft Word 2000 and eight PCs running Microsoft Word 97, you can
make the documents compatible with one another by toggling a simple
dialog box choice.
To do so, in Microsoft Word 2000 go to Tools,
choose the Options command, then click on the Save tab (Figure 3-6).
Don’t run up big support bills because of
incompatible file formats across different versions of Microsoft
Word. Make the configurations compatible by changing two simple
settings in the Microsoft Word 2000 Tools, Options, Save dialog box.
In the middle of that dialog box, you’ll see
a drop-down list called “Save Word files as:”
From there, change the default selection of
Word Document (*.doc) to Word 97-2000 & 6.0/95 – RTF (*.doc).
Finally, enable the check box immediately below
to “Disable features not supported by Word 97.”
When you’re finished, simply click OK.
If you want employees to be able to create
documents compatible with earlier versions of Microsoft Word, set
this configuration choice on each PC.
Microsoft Excel .xls Files
Microsoft Excel 2000 and Microsoft Excel 2002
have similar features that make workbooks backward-compatible with
earlier versions of Microsoft Excel.
Just as with Microsoft Word, start at the Tools
menu and choose the Options command.
Click on the Transition tab as seen in Figure
3-7. Toward the top of that dialog box, you’ll see a drop-down
list labeled “Save Excel files as:”
Now change the default Microsoft Excel Workbook
selection to Microsoft Excel 97-2000 & 5.0/95 Workbook. Then
click OK.
Prevent expensive Microsoft Excel workbook
compatibility problems by configuring backward file format
compatibility on each PC running Microsoft Excel 2000 or Microsoft
Excel 2002.
Just as with Microsoft Word 2000, this
configuration choice can take your files all the way back to 16-bit
versions of Microsoft Excel (circa 1994).
Learn once -- apply many places
The more you use Microsoft Office
applications, the more you’ll realize the undeniable
benefits of learn once, apply many places. Here we see huge
similarities when changing default file format settings in
both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
With tremendous consistencies
across applications, you can learn one skill set and be able
to apply that skill set to many other applications.
Ultimately, once you’ve developed proficiency in one
Microsoft Office application, you’ll be able to learn the
next program much more quickly.
Your trip up the learning curve is
dramatically accelerated, courtesy of several important and
universal features, such as common Toolbar buttons,
pull-down menus and dialog boxes.
Microsoft Publisher .pub and Microsoft PowerPoint .ppt Files
Microsoft Publisher 2000 can back save to
Microsoft Publisher 98 files directly from the Save As dialogue box,
“Save as Type” drop-down list.
Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 provides similar
backward file format compatibility options under its Tools menu,
Options command, Save tab.
Microsoft Access .mdb Files
Microsoft Access 2000 and Microsoft Access 2002
are bigger challenges. When Microsoft Corporation upgraded Microsoft
Access 97 to Microsoft Access 2000, it changed the underlying
database engine. If you have several employees who use an important
Microsoft Access database, you’ll likely need to standardize on
one version of Microsoft Access, as opposed to relying on file
format configuration settings.
Microsoft Access 2000 cannot share a common
file format with Microsoft Access 97, but Microsoft Access 2000 can
save a database in Microsoft Access 97 format.
Applying Standardized File Formats ....
Sharing files when Microsoft Office isn’t available
Sharing Microsoft Office files with Apple
Mac OS users once was difficult. However, recent versions of
Microsoft Office for Macintosh and transferring files easily
through e-mailed file attachments have made this a distant
memory.
However, there still may be times when end
users you support need to exchange files regularly with
vendors or clients who don’t have Microsoft Office.
Fortunately, Microsoft Office offers one more built-in option:
HTML.
The language of Web pages, HTML (hypertext
markup language) is fully supported in Microsoft Office
applications and is a powerful and flexible addition.
For starters, if your employees are
creating Microsoft Office 2000 or Microsoft Office XP
documents destined for internal or external Web servers,
there’s no need to spend time converting documents back and
forth between native Microsoft Office file formats and HTML.
Second, once a document is saved in HTML
format, anyone with a modern Web browser or HTML-enabled
e-mail program can view the document, just as if that person
had Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel installed on his or
her PC. This basically has made the concept of free
Microsoft Office viewers obsolete.
File Formats Action Items
Are there different versions of Microsoft
Office applications in use at your company?
Are the different Microsoft Office file
formats causing compatibility problems and preventing staff members
from working more effectively with each other?
Are any of these compatibility problems
with Microsoft Access database applications? If so, is anyone
running Microsoft Access 97, or are all Microsoft Access users
running Microsoft Access 2000 or Microsoft Access 2002?
Are any of your employees having a problem
sharing Microsoft Office files with customers or vendors? Have you
tried using HTML file formats to remedy these external compatibility
problems?
Do any of your employees work with
Microsoft Office documents that go back and forth between your file
and Web servers? Have you explored using HTML file formats, in lieu
of native Microsoft Office file formats?
Do you know how to toggle the backward compatibility settings in
Microsoft Office applications?
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