Opening XP documents in vista

Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an XP PC on
Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have created are all
scrambled.

I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to find a
way to do this either. Any thoughts?

Thanks

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:

> Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an XP
> PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have created
> are all scrambled.
>
> I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to find
> a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks

So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
OpenOffice.org. I have, more than once, heard the comment that OpenOffice
is more compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.

Thanks Ray!

No ms office installed! What is openoffice.org? And do I donwnload it??

"ray" wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:
>
> > Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an XP
> > PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have created
> > are all scrambled.
> >
> > I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to find
> > a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
> OpenOffice.org. I have, more than once, heard the comment that OpenOffice
> is more compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.
>

Mrs Moo wrote:
> Thanks Ray!
>
> No ms office installed! What is openoffice.org? And do I donwnload it??

You need to either have MS Office installed OR a program that can read
MS Office formats OR - if you don't want to work with the documents at
all - a free viewer for the Office Programs (PowerPoint, Excel, Word,
etc.). You can get the free viewers from Microsoft's website. Please
note that the free viewers only let you open and read the documents, not
make any changes to them.

OpenOffice is a free office suite that can read and write MS Office
formats. It is available from www.openoffice.org. Other office suites
may be able to read/write MS Office formats, such as the one from Corel
(Word Perfect).


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:31:03 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:

> Thanks Ray!
>
> No ms office installed! What is openoffice.org? And do I donwnload
> it??
>
> "ray" wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:
>>
>> > Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an
>> > XP PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have
>> > created are all scrambled.
>> >
>> > I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to
>> > find a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>>
>> So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
>> OpenOffice.org. I have, more than once, heard the comment that
>> OpenOffice is more compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.
>>

OpenOffice.org is a free open source office suite which is quite
compatible with MS Office. It will indeed import and export the MS Office
file formats. You simply download and install from www.openoffice.org.

On 25 Jan 2008 17:22:05 GMT, ray <> wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:
>
> > Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an XP
> > PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have created
> > are all scrambled.
> >
> > I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to find
> > a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
> OpenOffice.org.


Or just Microsoft Word (which can be bought by itself). She doesn't
need all of Microsoft Office to open a Word file.

*Or* any of several other compatible programs. To mention two others,
there are WordPerfect Office and Star Office.


> I have, more than once, heard the comment that OpenOffice
> is more compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.


Well, you may have heard it, but it's not at all true. As a matter of
fact, any tine you use a program like OpenOffice, WordPerfect, or Star
Office to open a Word file, you can expect that formatting will be
preserved if the document is simple, but for a more complex document,
formatting problems can be expected.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

In another post, I think she said she had Works... shouldn't that open a
Word doc?


--
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

"Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On 25 Jan 2008 17:22:05 GMT, ray <> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:
>>
>> > Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an XP
>> > PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have created
>> > are all scrambled.
>> >
>> > I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to find
>> > a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>>
>> So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
>> OpenOffice.org.
>
>
> Or just Microsoft Word (which can be bought by itself). She doesn't
> need all of Microsoft Office to open a Word file.
>
> *Or* any of several other compatible programs. To mention two others,
> there are WordPerfect Office and Star Office.
>
>
>> I have, more than once, heard the comment that OpenOffice
>> is more compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.
>
>
> Well, you may have heard it, but it's not at all true. As a matter of
> fact, any tine you use a program like OpenOffice, WordPerfect, or Star
> Office to open a Word file, you can expect that formatting will be
> preserved if the document is simple, but for a more complex document,
> formatting problems can be expected.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Works doesn't include word anymore.

"Dave" <> wrote in message
news:...
> In another post, I think she said she had Works... shouldn't that open a
> Word doc?
>
>
> --
> http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview
>
> "Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> On 25 Jan 2008 17:22:05 GMT, ray <> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:
>>>
>>> > Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an XP
>>> > PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have
>>> > created
>>> > are all scrambled.
>>> >
>>> > I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to
>>> > find
>>> > a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
>>> >
>>> > Thanks
>>>
>>> So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
>>> OpenOffice.org.
>>
>>
>> Or just Microsoft Word (which can be bought by itself). She doesn't
>> need all of Microsoft Office to open a Word file.
>>
>> *Or* any of several other compatible programs. To mention two others,
>> there are WordPerfect Office and Star Office.
>>
>>
>>> I have, more than once, heard the comment that OpenOffice
>>> is more compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.
>>
>>
>> Well, you may have heard it, but it's not at all true. As a matter of
>> fact, any tine you use a program like OpenOffice, WordPerfect, or Star
>> Office to open a Word file, you can expect that formatting will be
>> preserved if the document is simple, but for a more complex document,
>> formatting problems can be expected.
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
>> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:54:32 -0700, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

> On 25 Jan 2008 17:22:05 GMT, ray <> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:57:02 -0800, Mrs Moo wrote:
>>
>> > Can anyone tell me how to open a Microsoft Word document done on an
>> > XP PC on Vista? I have tried but without luck - the tables I have
>> > created are all scrambled.
>> >
>> > I also need to be able to merge and split cells but cannot seem to
>> > find a way to do this either. Any thoughts?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>>
>> So, do you have MS Office installed? You'll need either that or
>> OpenOffice.org.
>
>
> Or just Microsoft Word (which can be bought by itself). She doesn't need
> all of Microsoft Office to open a Word file.
>
> *Or* any of several other compatible programs. To mention two others,
> there are WordPerfect Office and Star Office.
>
>
>> I have, more than once, heard the comment that OpenOffice is more
>> compatible with MS Office than MS Office is.
>
>
> Well, you may have heard it, but it's not at all true. As a matter of
> fact, any tine you use a program like OpenOffice, WordPerfect, or Star
> Office to open a Word file, you can expect that formatting will be
> preserved if the document is simple, but for a more complex document,
> formatting problems can be expected.

I have indeed had reports from folks saying that OpenOffice has worked
better for them than going from one version of MS Office to another.
Personally, I have not had any trouble with the formatting in OpenOffice
since version 2.0 came out, though in the past I did have difficulties
from time to time - generally they were solved by using Abiword instead.