[Papyrus-L] Word 2003

[Raisa Deber]

At 10:57 AM 5/4/2004 -0500, you wrote:

>Hiho lonely users
>    I'm using papyrus with this version of the what we might call the 
> "Loose Canon" :) of the word processing world.  I've tried various tricks 
> but I get lots of gobbledygook (header type junk) showing up on the 
> output from Papyrus.  Anybody have a clue?
>   Thanks,
>   John

I have had exactly the same problem.  I am not using Word 2002/2003, but 
some of my students are, and even a one-line ("This is a test") program 
gets turned into gibberish when processed by Papyrus.  There is something 
about the file format of these later Word versions which can't be processed 
by DOS programs (not just Papyrus; other programs give similar 
problems).  I haven't had much luck finding out precisely what the issue 
is; seems to be something relating to html tags, but I wouldn't bet on 
it.  My suggestion is trying to save it in an earlier Word format, but I'd 
appreciate knowing what works so I can pass it on to others.  (I still use 
WordPerfect whenever possible, where the problem doesn't arise - yet.  I'm 
certain that eventually it too will be 'improved' to make other packages 
non-functional.  I also don't have the problem when I process it through 
Word 2000, which is why I'm suggesting the 'save as earlier version' kludge.)

I just went hunting through some sites; the "conversion" sites are full of 
complaints that various things will no longer work with Word 2003, 
including earlier versions of Word and Works.  There don't seem to be any 
fixes posted other than "convert everything to Word 2003."
Indeed, one post (http://www.mcse.ms/archive137-2004-2-390660.html) tells 
us that "Word 2003 removed the ability to save in any WP format. (I 
returned the product primarily for that reason.) There are a couple of 
formats, WP included, listed in the Save As dialog that simply do not work. 
When you try them, you get an error message that states that the converter 
is only intended for importing, not exporting. This behavior is confirmed 
by the Help screens. (It's not at all clear why they are listed in the Save 
As dialog since they don't work.) You can use the RTF format option, but 
some versions of WP don't do nearly as good a job of importing RTF than 
Word used to do of exporting WP format.  I removed MS Office 2003, went 
back to using Word 2000, and still could not save in WP format, even after 
repairing the installation. To get the old converter to work, I had to 
modify my Office 2000 installation to remove the converters and add them 
back in."

So, the short answer is that I would be very cautious about using a package 
which won't play well with others, but you may not have a choice.  The long 
answer is - please tell me which (if any) formats you can save as which 
won't lose all formatting and will still work.
Thanks
Raisa







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Raisa B. Deber, PhD
Professor
Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, 2nd Floor
12 Queen's Park Crescent West
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8
telephone: (416) 978-8366
fax:  (416) 978-7350
e-mail:  raisa.deber at utoronto.ca
Director: M-THAC (From Medicare To Home And Community) Research 
Unit.  www.m-thac.org