Mac and windows compatibility

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qwerty7

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#119100 20-May-2013 17:17

I have I windows pc with ms office. The work computer is mac and doesn't have ms office. How can I print my word documents at work from USB. What should i format the USB too what and how should I save the files , as pdf's?

Asking on behalf of someone else never played with a mac myself

Behodar

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#822562 20-May-2013 17:51

All versions of OS X can read FAT32 and NTFS, and since three years ago also exFAT so you shouldn't have any trouble with the drive format.

You'll have no trouble with PDF. If the Word documents are fairly basic then the built-in TextEdit app should open them. The built-in "Quick Look" tool (click the file once then press Space) should also be able to display the Word documents but I don't know whether it can print them (when I select Print on my machine it launches Word so I don't know what will happen if Word isn't installed).

qwerty7

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#822567 20-May-2013 17:57

The hard thing is I'm trying to give advice to someone completely computer illiterate about an is I haven't used before. I had a USB that got formatted in a mac a few months ago the i tried formatting it in windows and it failed was only showing 10% of its size i tried everything to fix it but maybe that was just a coincidence that it failed

DaveDog

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#822796 21-May-2013 09:34

Find out if they have iWork installed on the Mac - if so that will open and edit the Office documents quite happily...

myopinion

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#822801 21-May-2013 09:51

Yes PDF first at home.

bagheera

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#822803 21-May-2013 09:55

or you could install libreoffice on the mac so it can open most MS format file

mac installer

billgates

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#822811 21-May-2013 10:05

Use SkyDrive + Office Web apps. Install SkyDrive at home. Log on to SkyDrive at work mac. Edit your documents on the web browser and done. This is the official Microsoft Office Web apps so it will be the most compatible.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps

Or you can buy Microoft office for Mac 2011 and install it at work mac.

Do whatever you want to do man.

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myopinion

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#822816 21-May-2013 10:09

These are all good suggestions but the original question was how to print a word document on a Mac that doesn't have a native Office / Word app installed. The easiest solution is to print to PDF and then print this from the Mac at work. It will then open and print as intended.

bagheera

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#822822 21-May-2013 10:20

myopinion: These are all good suggestions but the original question was how to print a word document on a Mac that doesn't have a native Office / Word app installed.

all suggestion does this, it up to the OP to decide which he want to do.