How to Test the Compatibility of a Word Document made with Office for a Mac
Most business run a 100% Windows environment. Becoming more and more popular are consultants or off-site employees that really could use almost any flavor of computer they want. The most common second choice (or first choice depending who you talk to) is a Mac running a version of OSX with MS Office for Mac.
With different operating systems keeping document compatibility is key so everyone can share documents back and forth. Using MS Office on a Mac you have a tool to help ensure your documents are compatible.
When saving your document use this method to ensure your word document is compatible with Office for Windows. Note that this will only work for MS Office 97 and up.
The first time you save your document, this also works with any MS Office application, you will see this dialog box. (different versions of Office for Mac may look different).
Click on the Compatibility Report Button, which will automatically run through your document to see if there is any formatting or element of your document which will not translate to other versions of MS Office.
By default the Compatibility Report is set to Word 97 through 2004 (this acts in a similar way for Excel documents). You can change this if you want but I don’t recommend it. This is the most generic setting and safest setting.
Once you have checked your document you will get a pop-up letting you know you can proceed in saving your file or will show you problem issues.
After you have saved your document once you will not see a dialog box when you save your document. You should still check your document though. You can always open the Compatibility Report by clicking on your Toolbox.
This will open up this window. From here you can recheck your document. As well as fix or ignore any issues that may appear.
Bottom line if you stick to basic formatting, meaning no special fonts or elaborate tables your document will most likely always be compatible.
Please let me know if I left anything out and good luck!
