5370 Whether or not you use Microsoft Word, odds are that you will encounter Microsoft Word-formatted (.doc) documents fairly frequently, in email attachments, files produced by word-user colleagues, or informational data downloaded from the Internet.

This is not as much of a problem as it used to be for us non Word users. Many, (in fact most) word processors can open and save Word files these days with formatting reasonably intact. However, if you're using Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you don't need any other Word-savvy software other than Leopard's bundled Text Edit program which these days warrants categorization as a full-fledged word processor.

Text Edit can both open .doc files with basic formatting such as fonts, text formatting (bold, italic, etc.) colors, line- spacing, alignment and justification, etc., sustained reasonably accurately. However, more advanced formatting such as borders, style sheets, graphics, footnotes, bulleted lists, and such don't survive the conversion intact or at all. However, tables seem to translate, although not necessarily appearing exactly the same as they would in Word.

When you save a Text Edit document as a Word file, some of that sort of advanced formatting stuff actually will make the transition in the other direction, notably buttons, numbering, and tables, but not style sheets. Consequently, as with the famous cartoon depicting a dog sitting at a computer, captioned: "on the Internet, no one knows you're a dog," with Leopard Text Edit no one has to know you don't have Microsoft Word, which might help with your cred. in certain circles.

Charles W. Moore

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