New iMac running Mojave 10.14.6 but I have Office 2008 files. HELP?!

[callmedory]

I have an older iMac also. I wanted to link the two, copy all documents (since most are newer, being constantly updated/saved, but some are just being held), basically backing up the files to the old iMac, in case I lose them on the new iMac.

But I want the files (Word/Excel) on the new iMac. I realize that means a new version of Office, which will be a pain to get used to, but doable.

My main question is: How do I get the old files updated to be used with the new Office? I was told the new version for Mac is not backwards-compatible.

 

[chscag]

Your title states that you have a new iMac running Mojave. If that's correct, Office 2008 will continue to work as before. What makes you think otherwise?

Now, if you plan on upgrading to Catalina, Office 2008 will no longer work. Please clarify.

 

[callmedory]

I have Mojave. Office 2008 works fine.

i want to upgrade to Catalina. That’s the issue.

 

[IWT]

Now, if you plan on upgrading to Catalina, Office 2008 will no longer work. Please clarify.

As stated, with macOS Catalina will not accept Office for Mac 2008.

Your choices are to buy the latest standalone version of Office for Mac:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...ce-2019-is-now-available-for-windows-and-mac/

or consider subscribing to Microsoft 365. As the word suggests, this is a subscription service, usually paid annually, but it offers substantial extras - read here:

Microsoft 365 for Mac, Office for Mac

Office for Mac with Microsoft 365, gives you power and flexibility to get things done from virtually anywhere.

www.microsoft.com

You can use this on up to five Macs or iDevices, each having the free 1TB online storage.

Ian

 

[callmedory]

You’re missing my point entirely and repeatedly. *I’m aware I would need the new Office if I upgrade the OS.*

I’m asking about my existing Office documents, in Word and Excel, in Office 2008.

Would they automatically upgrade to Office 365?
What would I have to do for them to be usable in Office 365?

 

[chscag]

We understood your point but first needed to clarify exactly what it was you intended to do.

All your Office documents will be fine. I'm currently using MS Office 365 and I have very old Word, PPT documents from 20 years ago that still can be read and edited with the new version.

So, you have nothing to be concerned about. All your documents are safe and will carry over to the new version without a problem.

 

[IWT]

I'm truly sorry, callmedory. It seems that I did misunderstand your first post.

From my experience, the later versions of Office did recognise my older Word and PowerPoint files. I don't use Excell much, but even the few files I have in that format were recognised.

I started with Office for Mac 2008, then 2011, then a year ago (late 2018), subscribed to what is now called MS 365 and all previous files were recognised. What you should do in those circumstances is to change the format from .doc to .docx and ditto for Excell and PowerPoint.

Just to test this, I found some Word docs from 2004 which are readable on MS 365, but need/should be changed to .docx.

Hope that helps. Apologies for my misunderstanding.

Ian

 

[IWT]

Ah, I see that my mentor, chscag, has responded in a similar manner. This should be a relief to you, callmedory.

Ian

 

[krs]

Just to test this, I found some Word docs from 2004 which are readable on MS 365, but need/should be changed to .docx.

Why would you want to change the documents to the new .docx ( and xlsx, pptx) format?
That would mean anyone you send these updated documents to who is still using MS Office 2004 or earlier would not be able to readily open these documents

 

[chscag]

What I do with those older docs is keep the original and then do a "save as" in the new format. I can then use the newer docs to send to folks who are using a modern version of Word, Powerpoint, and so on.

And, I still retain the original in my archives.

 

[IWT]

Why would you want to change the documents to the new .docx ( and xlsx, pptx) format?

A perfectly reasonable question.

Because all these are for me and the future. In other words, I'm trying to future-proof my data as best I can.

But if any of my data is to be shared, then, like chscag, I keep the original and reformat a copy.

I think, that most fairly recent versions of Word, PPT etc can read .x data anyway. I think you have to have a very old version of MS Office before there would be a problem reading .x. I no longer have MS Office 2004 to test this, but the folks I deal with professionally have much more recent versions.

Good question, though.

Ian

 

[callmedory]

Sorry if I offended anyone. This is a lot of documents that I really don't want to lose, so THIS statement:

>Just to test this, I found some Word docs from 2004 which are readable on MS 365, but need/should be changed to .docx

REALLY helps! As does this:

>What I do with those older docs is keep the original and then do a "save as" in the new format. I can then use the newer docs to send to folks who are using a modern version of Word, Powerpoint, and so on.

>And, I still retain the original in my archives.

I will see what I can do.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. I come to you guys for answers and you’ve never failed me. (Musband thinks I’m a genius, so thanks also for making me look good--though I *do* give you guys credit!)

 

[krs]

A perfectly reasonable question.

Because all these are for me and the future. In other words, I'm trying to future-proof my data as best I can.

But if any of my data is to be shared, then, like chscag, I keep the original and reformat a copy.

I think, that most fairly recent versions of Word, PPT etc can read .x data anyway. I think you have to have a very old version of MS Office before there would be a problem reading .x. I no longer have MS Office 2004 to test this, but the folks I deal with professionally have much more recent versions.

Good question, though.

Ian

I see, good point to make important documents future-proof although I would opt to use a Microsoft (proprietary?) format to do that.
Or at least have the documents in a variety of formats like pdf and rtf.

But I don't worry about that myself at this time, when applications disappear to open specific documents, like AppleWorks for instance, one can always find ways to still open them.

And MS Office2004 can't open ...x MS documents - I ran into that issue myself years ago when people sent me those and I had to go back to request a copy without the ...x suffix.
Now I see there are ways to open the ...x documents with MS Office 2004 by going through some conversion process (which maybe didn't exist at the time).

PS: On future-proofing documents, I read an article recently that suggested to use paper with a full page Q-code, if I remember right, it said one full page Q-code could hold about one meg of data.
Interesting, but paper doesn't last forever either.

 

[callmedory]

As stated, with macOS Catalina will not accept Office for Mac 2008.

Your choices are to buy the latest standalone version of Office for Mac:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...ce-2019-is-now-available-for-windows-and-mac/

or consider subscribing to Microsoft 365. As the word suggests, this is a subscription service, usually paid annually, but it offers substantial extras - read here:

Microsoft 365 for Mac, Office for Mac

Office for Mac with Microsoft 365, gives you power and flexibility to get things done from virtually anywhere.

www.microsoft.com

You can use this on up to five Macs or iDevices, each having the free 1TB online storage.

Ian

A friend will get me this, as I do research for her and create summary docs back. Or I could get the .edu version through my husband.