I am a math teacher who uses Word 2008 on the Mac, and I need to collaborate with other teachers who are using Word 2007 under Windows. When they send me a document with mathematical equations in it, I can open it but cannot see the equations or the document loses formatting, such as superscript for exponents.
On this page of Known Issues in Word 2008, Microsoft says,
Equations saved from Word 2007 for Windows do not appear in Word 2008 for Mac
Equations saved in Word 2007 for Windows are not supported in Word 2008 for Mac. The equations will be preserved so that they display correctly in Word 2007, but will appear as placeholders in Word 2008.
What can I do to collaborate with users of Word 2007 on mathematical documents?
Best Answer
The short answer is that Office 2008 for Mac is a weak imitation of Office for Windows.
Options:
None of these is a simple solution.
The virtual machine solution is the most likely to just work after you get it set up, but setting it up will take some time. The OpenOffice solution is quick (and free) to try, but may have some compatibility issues opening and re-saving documents. The Mac team at Microsoft has lots of great things to say on their blog about the next release of Office, but I'll believe it when I see it.