file converting

[animefreak]

this is something that ive wanted to know since macs were invented...

is there a way or program to change a ,lets say, a microsoft word document from a mac into a usable file for windows

[Zxian]

The .doc file that is saved from Word on a PC should be open-able on a Mac, and vice versa. Microsoft has ensured that the encoding of the save files are the same regardless of the OS that you are running.

This isn't necessarily the case for files such as text files, as Windows uses a different encoding than OSX or Unix machines do. There are free conversion tools such as dos2unix or unix2dos that will allow you to convert text files Unix<->Windows.

[torque2k]

True, and the same goes for the rest of the MS files (Excel, PowerPoint), though there's no version of Access for the Mac. Filemaker Pro database files work fine between platforms, though.

Graphic formats are about the same; JPEG files will open on both, as will PSD (Photoshop), AI (Illustrator), FH (Freehand), PNG (used by Fireworks MX) will all float back and forth between platforms, as long as you keep the program versions the same. Some programs aren't picky (like Photoshop and Freehand), but some are (Illustrator, Quark). Office:Mac 2004 is file-compatible with Office 2003 and back, at least to Office 2000 (PC) per my experience.

[animefreak]

ok i get it now
my bro keeps on telling me that i am wrong
so thanx