75. Use Microsoft Word Documents Without Word  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 2 Find, Launch, and Quit an Application 7 Assign an Opener Application to a File 73 Create a New Text Document
Mac OS X has built-in support for Microsoft Word documents; TextEdit, the workhorse text-editing application, can read documents that were created in most versions of Word, and it can write documents that Word users can open . TextEdit can handle basic rich-text word processing; however, many features of Word documents, such as tables, collaborative editing, web links, and so on require additional software, such as AppleWorks, Pages , or Microsoft Word itself. NOTE Be aware that applications such as TextEdit and Pages don't support all the features of Word, such as advanced table management and revision tracking. If you edit a Word document in these applications, content written using these advanced features (if present) may disappear from the document. Only use the techniques in this task if you don't have Word available!
KEY TERMS AppleWorks A commercial application sold by Apple for about $80, or bundled free with many new Macs. AppleWorks is a suite of productivity tools, including a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a drawing program, and more components designed to provide most of the functions of Microsoft Office. Pages The word-processing and page layout component application in iWork, Apple's new $80 productivity suite designed to eventually replace AppleWorks.
| 1. | Open a Word Document in TextEdit
If you don't have Word installed, TextEdit is the default opener application for Word documents (identified by their .doc file extensions). Simply double-click a .doc file to open it in TextEdit.
| | 2. | Save a TextEdit Document in Word Format After you've finished typing a text document in TextEdit, you can save the document as a Microsoft Word document. Choose Save or Save As from the File menu; in the Save dialog box that opens, choose Rich Text Format (RTF) or Word Format from the File Format drop-down menu. Select Word Format to create a .doc file that Microsoft Office users can open without ever knowing that it was created on a Macand a Mac that didn't even have Office installed, at that. Microsoft Word can read RTF documents; RTF is, indeed, a Microsoft-developed format. However, if you have included pictures, tables, or other complex items in an RTF document, Mac OS X uses a somewhat unique format for storing the document's contents. An RTF document with pictures and other objects gets the extension .rtfd , or Rich Text Format Directory, though the extension is usually not shown. This extension refers to the fact that the file is not a single file at all, but a bundle (or package )a folder that masquerades as a file. Inside this folder are all the included pictures and objects, as well as the document's text, in standard RTF. You can right-click or Control +click an .rtfd file and select View Package Contents to see the various items inside the document. However, Microsoft Word can't read .rtfd bundles, and TextEdit cannot save Word documents with included pictures and other items; if you have to create complex files that work with Word, you will need to use AppleWorks or Microsoft Word itself. TIP You can also save rich text documents in HTML format in TextEdit; this is the format in which web pages are written. | | 3. | Open a Word Document in AppleWorks
AppleWorks is a suite of applications sold or bundled by Apple that incorporates many of the features of Microsoft Office, although by no means all of them. AppleWorks can read many different types of Word documents; if TextEdit can't open a Word file, try opening it in AppleWorks instead.
You can select File, Open in AppleWorks, browse to the Word file you want to work with, and click Open. Alternatively, in the Finder, right-click or Control +click the Word file; from the contextual menu, select Open With , and then select AppleWorks to open the file directly in AppleWorks.
| | 4. | Save an AppleWorks Document in Word Format
You can save an AppleWorks word processing document in any of several different versions of Word format. Select Save or Save As from the File menu; in the Save dialog box, use the File Format drop-down menu to choose which format you want to use. For best results, use the most recent version of Word that's listed in the menu.
| | 5. | Open a Word Document in Pages iWork is a new suite of applications sold by Apple, designed to gradually replace AppleWorks as new component applications are added to it. One of these components is Pages , a word processing and page layout application with many advanced features. You can open a Word document in Pages, make changes to it, and save it again in Word's native format (as well as other formats such as PDF, RTF, and HTML). When launching AppleWorks, click Open an Existing File in the template chooser sheet; this allows you to navigate to the location of a Word document you want to open. Select the document and click Open . Alternatively, in the Finder, right-click or Control +click the Word file; from the contextual menu, select Open With , and then select Pages to open the file directly in Pages. 75. Use Microsoft Word Documents Without Word  TIP If you want all your Word documents to open automatically in AppleWorks or Pages, use the Get Info panel and the Open with heading to specify which application to use. Click Change All to apply the new setting to all Word documents. Refer to 7 Assign an Opener Application to a File for more information on how to do this. | | 6. | Save a Pages Document in Word Format
You can save a Pages word processing document in five formats other than its own native format: Portable Document Format (PDF), Word, HTML, Rich Text Format (RTF), or Plain Text. Select Export from the File menu; in the sheet that appears, select the format you want to save in and click Next . You are then prompted for a location to save the new Word file. Navigate to the desired location, specify a name , and click Export .
| NOTE Some export formats, such as Plain Text, remove features from your document that the format cannot support. To keep your Pages documents looking their best, use Pages's native file format to save; only export to another format if you want to share the document with someone who doesn't have Pages.
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