How freakin' hard is it to support your own product, Bill?

[dr_kromm]

SJ Games has always demanded Word 6.0/95 files from its authors and editors. The reasons boil down to "This version is compatible with any PC or Mac that still runs." That's okay, I guess. I formerly used Word 2000, and then 2003, but it was never a problem to warp back to 1995 . . . shoot, Descent was pretty cool back in the day, too.

Anyway, my new PC has Word 2007. Which is awesome, incidentally. It's many times faster and more stable than Word 2000 or 2003 ever was, and personally, I like the interface. There's just one hitch: It cannot save in Word 6.0/95 format. I don't mean that it's less-than-perfect or requires an add-in -- I mean, you can't do it.

Well, not quite. Apparently, if you've got the volume-licensed Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 and install a special admin tool, you can, via the Office Configuration Tool, enable a "Save As" option that outputs Word 6.0/95. So it's possible in the sense that the converter is lurking in there somewhere, just not in the sense that plebes like me, with lowlier editions (see here), can use it. Argh.

So now I have to figure out how to fix this headache, which of course Microsoft doesn't want me to do. Argh!

Comments

[huyderman.livejournal.com]

*Checks the newest version of OpenOffice* Woo, it can still save Word 6.0/95. So I'm set if I ever get time to send any proposals. :)

[jerril]

I was going to suggest that. SJG doesn't use elaborate formatting rules, just basic style applications, so you may be on solid ground with OpenOffice exports.

I haven't actually tried it out myself, I'm happy with my Office Pro 2003 at the moment, but I'm leaning more in that direction every day.

If I can just get WoW, Fallout III, and Diablo III to run under Linux, I may just jump right off that band-wagon entirely.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

Sadly, OO munges our style sheet for some reason. I have OO and know that it has an annoying habit of converting a Word style to type that looks identical on the screen but that QuarkXPress can't import as part of a true Word style sheet. Quark imports Word style sheets in some magical way that doesn't quite work when you emulate Word with OO.

[peekitty.livejournal.com]

Every file I sent in for COTN (I always sent 'em in) was written in OO 2.x. AFAIK, Niki got them, edited them, and then saved them in whatever format she saved 'em in and sent them in for publishing. So I don't think it's that huge of a problem, as long as the editor can save them correctly. :)