I must say that you are a brave person.. PhD thesis are much too important to mess with software issues..
To the point, I have bad experience with converting nisus documents with images (photos, graphs etc) to and from MS word. Indeed my experience does not include word 2010, but earlier versions. The same (and even more so) applies to neooffice (not open office). problems include disappearing images, page formatting discrepancies and more. I would recommend you dearly to check NOW before you get too far into writing how things work for you.
good luck,
Microsoft Word 2010 compatibility
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JLSchweitzer
- Posts: 28
- Joined: 2011-10-07 08:16:23
Re: Microsoft Word 2010 compatibility
I’m relatively new to Nisus however I am working on a large document (or at least large to me, 122 pages) that was originally created in MS Word (but not 2010). Although this doesn't directly answer your question, I can confirm that I had "better results" when I saved the original, MS Word document in RFT format instead of "importing" the .doc into Nisus. [By importing I mean opening the original document (in .doc format) in Nisus].
My personal observations--and confirmed by Ruchama--is that the formatting was a bit off when using the .doc format. Some pictures were either missing or not displayed at all. However, as I said above, when I saved the .doc in RFT format, the conversion was much, much better. I don't think I lost much. But I guess "lost much" is a relative term.
All of this leads me to suggest a possible work-around would be to do all your work in Nisus format and then send the Nisus document to your supervisor in .doc format but ask that when s/he return it to you, to save it in RFT format. It just a few extra clicks for him or her. This might also apply to the person using OpenOffice.
After converting the original Word document to an RTF one and then opening in Nisus, one of the things I did notice was that all images and tables had horizontal padding set to 9. I have had one or two other problems that I was able to overcome with the help of Martin. These one or two problems had to deal with how images or text boxes were anchored.
I would second Ruchama's suggestion to make a test run before completing 80 pages AND THEN finding out it's incompatible. And by testing, I would suggest doing several pages, including several examples of cross-referencing to images, tables, and pages.
I'm sure Martin will chime in here and give you great information. Also, I thought RFT was sort of the universal format for documents. Perhaps another solution would be for both people who review the document to open it as an RTF since both Word and OpenOffice should be able to "read" this format. Again, I'm sure Martin can shed some light on this.
My personal observations--and confirmed by Ruchama--is that the formatting was a bit off when using the .doc format. Some pictures were either missing or not displayed at all. However, as I said above, when I saved the .doc in RFT format, the conversion was much, much better. I don't think I lost much. But I guess "lost much" is a relative term.
All of this leads me to suggest a possible work-around would be to do all your work in Nisus format and then send the Nisus document to your supervisor in .doc format but ask that when s/he return it to you, to save it in RFT format. It just a few extra clicks for him or her. This might also apply to the person using OpenOffice.
After converting the original Word document to an RTF one and then opening in Nisus, one of the things I did notice was that all images and tables had horizontal padding set to 9. I have had one or two other problems that I was able to overcome with the help of Martin. These one or two problems had to deal with how images or text boxes were anchored.
I would second Ruchama's suggestion to make a test run before completing 80 pages AND THEN finding out it's incompatible. And by testing, I would suggest doing several pages, including several examples of cross-referencing to images, tables, and pages.
I'm sure Martin will chime in here and give you great information. Also, I thought RFT was sort of the universal format for documents. Perhaps another solution would be for both people who review the document to open it as an RTF since both Word and OpenOffice should be able to "read" this format. Again, I'm sure Martin can shed some light on this.
Re: Microsoft Word 2010 compatibility
I'm not Martin, but ...
The .doc format option in the save dialog is in fact an RTF file with a changed creator code and the .doc extension. If your supervisor really won't accept an RTF file — and RTF was developed originally by MS for cross-processor file exchanges — then you should "Export" and choose .doc from there. That uses the OpenOffice exporter, I believe, and produces a proper binary .doc.
But yes, as the last poster said, do do a test run before submitting all that work to your supervisor.
Mark
The .doc format option in the save dialog is in fact an RTF file with a changed creator code and the .doc extension. If your supervisor really won't accept an RTF file — and RTF was developed originally by MS for cross-processor file exchanges — then you should "Export" and choose .doc from there. That uses the OpenOffice exporter, I believe, and produces a proper binary .doc.
But yes, as the last poster said, do do a test run before submitting all that work to your supervisor.
Mark
Re: Microsoft Word 2010 compatibility
a good solution would be pdf file. but that limits you supervisor's option to write remarks and corrections with the "track changes" utility.
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carpelatin
- Posts: 5
- Joined: 2011-12-30 04:15:26
Re: Microsoft Word 2010 compatibility
I too would have suggested a PDF, but it depends on if your supervisor uses track changes (mine doesn't, and indeed always wants me to deliver a hard copy to him). The problem I have noticed (I tried to post a topic on this a couple of days ago, but it still must be awaiting moderator approval?) is with my endnotes: no matter what I do, at best they become footnotes. Opening the RTF in Word (Mac 2011, Mac 2004, and a PC version), OpenOffice, and Mellel all showed my endnotes as footnotes. Saving as a .doc also showed them as footnotes in the Word versions. Exporting as a .doc (binary) produced a 'word was unable to read this document--It may be corrupt' error and exporting as a .docx lost the endnotes completely. Do other people have this problem or know of a work-around?