OFF2000: Compatibility Issues with Office 98 Macintosh Edition (234300)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Developer
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Professional
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Standard
This article was previously published under Q234300

SUMMARY

Office 2000 has been designed to work well with earlier versions of Microsoft Office, including Office 98 Macintosh Edition. Together, Office 2000 and Office 98 provide an effective dual-platform solution that enables you to easily create and share word-processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

If your organization is deploying Office 2000 in an environment with Office 98 Macintosh Edition users, you probably have some specific questions about exactly how these versions of Office work with each other. This article has been prepared to address these questions.

MORE INFORMATION

File Format Compatibilities

The Office 2000 binary file format is the same as the binary file format used in Office 98. For example, an Excel 98 user can open, read, and edit a workbook saved as an Excel 2000 file, and vice versa, without any conversions.

Although advanced features and formatting specific to Office 2000 files are not visible when the files are opened in the Office 98 application, the underlying data is still available when the file is opened again in Office 2000.

HTML As a Companion File Format

Office 98 Macintosh Edition users are accustomed to the convenience of saving their files in HTML format, which allows them to publish a snapshot of the file and post it on a Web site. In Office 2000, HTML is a companion file format to the binary format. This gives you another way to work with HTML documents--documents that can be viewed on a Macintosh with Internet Explorer 4.x.

Some Office 2000 Features Are Not Supported in Office 98

Although Office 98 programs can open any Office 2000 file without a converter, certain formatting options available in Office 2000 are not available in Office 98, because Office 98 does not recognize these features.

The following tables describe the Office 2000 features that are not supported in Office 98 and what happens when a file is opened in Office 98.
  • Word 2000 Features Not Supported in Word 98
    Word 2000 Feature    Description                 Word 98 Result
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nested tables        Tables within table cells   Converted to tabbed text
                                                 in the "parent" cell

Floating tables      Text wraps around a table   Placed in a frame

Table AutoFit        Autofitting of table cells  Column widths at save time
                     when graphics are included  preserved

Table cell spacing   White space and border      Lost except left and right
and cell padding     settings                   padding, generally
                                                 preserved as cell "gap"

Text around graphics Text can be wrapped around  Graphics inside cells with
in table cells       images inside table cells   text wrapping turned on                                                    move above the table

Page breaks in table A page break can be         Page breaks made within
cells                inserted within a cell of   table cells do not
                     a table                     appear in Word 98

Image Properties     New image options,          Settings not supported in
                     including vertical from     Word 98 are lost
                     line, horizontal settings,
                     overlap disallowed, and
                     absolute vertical
                     positioning.

Text wrapping break  Text automatically breaks   Becomes a line break
                     to accommodate inline
                     graphics

Border and shading   New 3-D border styles       3-D border styles appear
                                                 as single-line borders

Underline            New decorative and color    Decorative underline
                     underline options           becomes single underline,
                                                 and underline color
                                                 becomes the color of the 
                                                 text

Pixels and           The units of measurement    Measurement at save time
percentage of page   for HTML are supported      are preserved
as measurements for  by Word 2000 where
images and tables    appropriate

24-bit color         To fully support HTML       Closed match; applies to
                     editing, Word 2000 allows   font, border, and shading
                     users to use 24-bit
                     colors in graphics

WordArt as an        WordArt objects are         Remains inline and still
inline object        inserted inline by          editable to an extent, 
                     default, enabling them to   though much functionality
                     be used for buttons and     is disabled
                     banners

Inline horizontal    Word 2000 natively supports Remain inline and still
lines                horizontal lines with full  editable to an extent,
                     HTML functionality          though much functionality
                                                 is disabled

Frameset             Powerful new tools enable   Frame properties lost but
                     users to create and view    individual documents are
                     WYSIWYG frames pages        saved

FE font formats      Includes document grid,     Close match (for example,
                     emphasis marks, and         colored underlines become
                     colored underlines          the same color as the
                                                 font; enclosed characters
                                                 are preserved) except
                                                 grid, which is lost

BIDI formats         Right-to-left paragraphs    Just as when opening a 
                                                 Word 98 BIDI document, 
                                                 unsupported properties
                                                 like right-to-left text
                                                 are lost, and the
                                                 text becomes left-to-right
Word 2000 provides you the option of turning off unsupported features by selecting the Disable features not supported by Word 97 check box. (Click the Save tab in the Options dialog box on the Tools menu in Word 2000.)

NOTE: Although the check box says "Word 97", it applies to Word 98 as well.

By selecting Disable features not supported by Word 97, Office 2000 users can automatically ensure full compatibility with Word 98 users.

These items are also turned off (dimmed on screen) when the Word 2000 user saves a document in the older format or if the default Save format is the older format. These features are shown in the table below. 


Feature                       Accessed Through
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Nested tables                 Table menu

Frames (Web-style)            Format menu

New Decorative Border         Borders and Shading dialog box
styles

New Character Underline       Format Font dialog box
styles

Underline color               Format Font dialog box

Text Wrapping Break           Insert Break dialog box

Horizontal in Vertical        "Tatenakayoko," from the Format menu when
                              FE UI is turned on

Two Lines in One              "Warichu," from the Format menu when FE UI
                              is turned on

  • Excel 2000 Features Not Supported in Excel 98
    Excel 2000 Feature   Description                Excel 98 Result
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

External data        Data ranges extracted      Auto-refresh, column
ranges               from external data sources formatting, filtering, and
                     can be automatically       sorting do not work
                     refreshed, formatted,
                     filtered, and sorted

Indented format      Allows you to create       If edited, reports change
PivotTable reports   professional-looking       to non-indented layout but
                     database-style reports     maintain character and cell
                     with various levels of     formatting
                     indentation

OLAP PivotTable and  Enables you to create      Appear as read-only
PivotChart reports   PivotTable views against
                     any OLE DB for OLAP
                     provider

PivotChart reports   Charts can be linked to    Appear as regular charts,
                     data views in a Pivot-     multiple level category
                     Table                      labels are modified, and
                                                value axis display units
                                                convert to literal values
  • PowerPoint 2000 Features Not Supported in PowerPoint 98
    PowerPoint 2000      
Feature              Description                PowerPoint 98 Result
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Animated GIF         Animated GIFs can be       Appear as static images
pictures             inserted and displayed in  without animation
                     a slide show and in the
                     browser

Automatically        Provides numbered bullets  Appear as bulleted lists,
numbered lists       that automatically adjust  not numbered lists
                     their order in a logical
                     sequence

Graphic or picture   PowerPoint 2000 supports   Appear as regular font-
bullets              the use of graphics in     based bullets
                     place of bullets

Tables               Tables can be created      Appear as a single grouping
                     without using Excel or     of shapes
                     Word

Voice narration      Playback of narration is   Bullet point animations are
                     now synchronized with the  not synchronized to the
                     original presentation,     voice narration; there is a
                     including all slide        long gap in the audio
                     transitions and build      between slides
                     animations

Internet Explorer 4.x Can Be Used to View Office 2000 Documents Saved in HTML Format

Office 2000 includes HTML as a companion file format to the binary format. This allows Office 2000 users to share their work with Macintosh users equipped with Internet Explorer 4.5. However, there are a few situations you should be aware of:
  • Margins are sometimes compressed or do not appear as intended.
  • Table, paragraph, and page borders may be too thick or not present.
  • PowerPoint 2000 presentations must be saved as HTML v3 using the Save as command.

Working with Office Server Extensions (OSE)

Office Server Extensions (OSE) are software components that make it possible for Office 2000 users to publish to a Web (intranet) site as if they are saving to a file server. This intranet is a dynamic place where people can easily use Web technology to share documents.

Office 98 users can use Internet Explorer 4.x to access and read these documents. However, they are unable to take part in shared threaded discussions around documents and Web pages or to receive automatic e-mail notification when relevant Web pages and documents have been commented on or have changed.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/2/2002
Keywords:kbinfo KB234300
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