Moving Files Between the Windows and Macintosh Operating Systems

Moving Files Between the Windows and Macintosh Operating Systems

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Microsoft Office 2000 users can share files with Office 98 for the Macintosh users. The following topics identify the graphics and font issues that a user encounters when moving files between the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

Changes in graphics formats between Windows and the Macintosh

Windows stores graphics in WMF format, while the Macintosh operating system stores graphics in PICT format. If you create a file in Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 (Windows) that contains a graphics image, and then you move the document or presentation to Microsoft Word 98 or PowerPoint 98 (Macintosh), Word and PowerPoint (Macintosh) convert the WMF graphics image to PICT format.

Although the original WMF image is retained in the Word or PowerPoint (Macintosh) file, the PICT image is the one that the user sees. In this conversion, there might be a slight loss of image quality because Windows-based and Macintosh computers have different graphics rendering systems — GDI (Windows) and QuickDraw GX (Macintosh).

Depending on how the Macintosh user manipulates the graphics, the graphics format changes.

If a Macintosh user disassembles a graphics image in Word or PowerPoint, the image becomes a group of drawing objects. When the group of drawing objects moves into a Windows environment, the image remains a group of drawing objects. That is, the image is not reassembled, and so the image quality decreases.

If a Macintosh user does not disassemble a graphics image in Word or PowerPoint, but instead modifies the image’s attributes by cropping it, recoloring it, or changing its brightness or contrast, then Word and PowerPoint convert the WMF graphic to PICT format. However, Word and PowerPoint do not discard the original WMF image. When the file containing the graphics image is moved back to Word 2000 or PowerPoint 2000 (Windows), Word 2000 and PowerPoint 2000 display the original WMF graphic with no loss of image quality.

When a file that contains graphics originates in Word or PowerPoint (Macintosh), and then is moved to Word 2000 or PowerPoint 2000 (Windows), similar conversions are made.

Important   The Windows PICT filter does not convert PICT images that contain JPEG-compressed QuickTime® data. As a result, an Office 98 (Macintosh) image loses its clarity when the file containing the image is opened in an Office 2000 application.

Converting Macintosh fonts to Windows fonts

Font names are different for Macintosh and Windows environments. The following table identifies which Macintosh fonts you can convert to Windows fonts.

To replace a Macintosh font in PowerPoint, click Replace Fonts (Format menu). In the Replace box, click the Macintosh font you want to replace; in the With box, click the Windows font that you want as the substitute font.

To specify fonts to use when converting files in Word

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Compatibility tab.
2. Click Font Substitution.
3. In the Missing document font box, click the font you want to replace.
4. In the Substituted font box, click the font you want to use.