Interoperability with Word on Mac

[LJM]

Hi, I am editing files that were created in Word 2003 in Mac OS. They work fine for me but once I edit the text they cause two problems. Sometimes Mac Word hangs and won’t open the files at all. Other times they open but there are font problems. They contain TIME font, which I do not have. Time works fine unless it is italic, then the Mac users see strange non-characters. If they email the document back to me I see these too. I assume font substitution isn’t working right.

It’s imperative that I can exchange files with these people. Unless someone can tell me what the problem is and how to fix I am afraid it’s back to Word for me.

I am on Ubuntu 11.10 using Libre 3.4.4.

Thanks for your help.

[oweng]

If it is ‘imperative’ to seamlessly exchange files with others get them to email you the Times font. Ideally exchange of documents for editing at either end only works well for a single platform + application + fonts / dictionaries / etc.

[qubit1]

As oweng mentions, it is nearly impossible to get “perfect” interoperability between different applications running on different OSes using different fonts.

If you can’t install the Time fonts on your Ubuntu 11.10 system, another option would be to ask your collaborators to install a different font on their system (e.g. one of the Liberation fonts)

I would also suggest that you upgrade from 3.4.4 to 3.5. It’s possible that some of the problems you’re seeing with the application hanging might be fixed in newer builds.