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Compatibility with Leopard and Office 2008

For those of you on the yellow brick road: Tin Man needed oil for his journey. Your software may need a similar tune up. Take heart: this page will walk you through how to check your software, so you can continue on your journey. In the end, Leopard/Office 2008 will feel like home. For more information about Leopard and Vista and Office—Oh My, click the ruby mouse.

Before you begin using the new version of Mac OS X 10.5, called "Leopard," or Microsoft Office 2008, you need to be sure all of your software is compatible. If you use any Simmons computers, you can check the migration timeline to see when Leopard/Office will affect you directly. Except that because people in the Simmons community, in particular students with new computers, are already using Office 2008, it is only a matter of time before you receive a file saved in an Office 2008 format (if you haven't already)!

Software I use

If you use software that is not part of the Simmons standard suite, perhaps specific to your department or field of study, please begin investigating whether the version you have is Leopard/Office 2008-compatible, because over the next 2 years we expect all Simmons-owned Macs to be running Leopard. If your software is Leopard/Office 2008-compatible, great, you're set. If it isn't, you must obtain an upgrade (some upgrades are free, others are not), or switch to another product. This applies to staff and faculty who use applications outside the standard suite (supported as Academic/Accepted), and also to faculty and staff who request that Technology install specific applications on general access, lab or classroom computers (see important note for fall 2008 requests). All general access, lab, and classroom Windows computers will all run be running Macintosh Leopard/Office 2008 at the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year.

As is true whenever there is a software upgrade, you may find you need to share files with people still using an older version. Think about with whom you share files and begin conversations with them about the Leopard/Office migration and the timing of your software upgrade. You may even need to upgrade some of your software before your computer is replaced. Please feel free to speak with a Help Desk technician or manager about these (or any other) issues (617-521-2222, option 8).

Is the software I use compatible with the Leopard operating system?

The standard suite of Simmons software is compatible with Macintosh Leopard with 3 exceptions:

1. Adobe Acrobat 7 Standard, used for creating PDF files, is not compatible (see below for details)
2. Meeting Maker, the Simmons shared electronic calendaring system has two issues (see below for details), which will be addressed by the next Meeting Maker upgrade
3. Turning Point, the Simmons Audience Response System ("clickers") is not yet compatible (see below for details)

If you use any software that is not part of the Simmons standard suite, (a.k.a. accepted/academic software) please check below to see if the Help Desk has tested your software, or check with the manufacturer.

What about opening Office 2003/2004 files with Office 2007/2008 and vice versa?

Office 2007 for Windows, and Office 2008 for Macintosh use the same file format. Office 2003 for Windows and Office 2004 for Macintosh also used the same file format. These two file formats (2003/2004 vs. 2007/2008) are not, unfortunately, compatible. But there are ways to work around this.

Office 2003 for Windows: all Simmons computers running Office 2003 have a "compatibility pack" installed so that these Windows users may open files someone has saved using Office 2008. Office 2003 users cannot access any features only available in Office 2007 (Windows) / Office 2008 (Mac), but they can edit and save documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.

Office 2004 for Macintosh: unfortunately, you cannot open "native" Office 2007 documents using Office 2004. However, Office 2007/2008 users may "save as" an Office 97-2003 format, which you can open. Microsoft does make available Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2.1 (Beta), which converts Word and PowerPoint documents, but is not fully tested fully fledged software yet.

Office 2007 for Windows: by default, all Simmons computers are set to save Office 2007 files in the standard Office 97-2003 formats (Word 97-2003, Excel 97-2003, PowerPoint 97-2003), to make it easier for community members to share files across-platforms and versions. If a Windows user saves an Office 2007 file in its native format, see above for what options users of other versions of Office have.

Office 2008 for Macintosh: by default, all Simmons computers are set to save Office 2008 files in the standard Office 97-2004 format (NAMES of specific examples, see above), with a ".doc" extension, to make it easier for community members to share files across-platforms and versions. While this may keep you from using some of the new formatting features in Office 2008, it will ensure that your files will be compatible with other staff, faculty and students at Simmons.

If you save an Office 2008 file in its native format (with the ".docx" extension), users of earlier versions of Office will not be able to open the file.

Here is a visual example of saving a Word document to a file format that users of earlier versions can open.

Office 2008 and VBA Macros

Earlier versions of Office allowed Mac users to employ Visual Basic macros. Unfortunately, Office 2008 cannot run VBA macros. For assistance in converting VBA macros to AppleScript, see Moving from Microsoft Office VBA to AppleScript: MacTech's Guide to Making the Transition.

Software installed on many Simmons computers

The Help Desk has investigated the following software to determine its compatibility with Leopard. If you do not see your software on this list, please consult the manufacturer's web site or contact them directly. The links that appear on this list are to the manufacturers' Leopard-compatibility pages.

Adobe
Adobe Acrobat 7 is not and will not be compatible with Leopard. Technology staff are currently exploring different software options to replace Adobe Acrobat.

Adobe Acrobat 7 Standard, part of the of the Simmons standard software suite and used for creating PDF files, is not and will not be compatible with Leopard. Technology staff are exploring different software options to replace the portions of Acrobat Standard that are "beyond-basic." In the meantime, Mac users can continue to create basic PDF files using the tools built into both the Tiger and Leopard operating systems (in the Print dialog box, click the PDF drop down menu, and then choose "save as PDF").

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 is fully compatible with Leopard. On Simmons computers, CS3 includes Photoshop and Dreamweaver (formerly owned by Macromedia). Adobe indicates that no version of Adobe software released prior to CS3 is officially supported on Leopard. Most versions of CS2 will install with some issues.

Adobe PageMaker will not install or run on Leopard.

Apple iLife '08
While iLife '06 functions in Leopard, Apple recommends purchasing iLife '08, which is entirely Leopard compatible, and applying all Apple software updates.

Dreamweaver: See Adobe Creative Suite

Design Science
Math Type v5 is not compatible with Office 2008. Design Science says that version 6 is due in the 2nd quarter of 2008 and "should be" Leopard and Office 2008 compatible.

FastTrack Schedule
9.2 is certified for Macintosh Leopard. Technology does not know how previous versions will work with Leopard.

Fetch
v5.21 works with minor cosmetic issues. The upgrade to v5.3 is free for Simmons-owned computers and is fully Leopard compatible.

FileMaker Pro
Once you add the Leopard-specific update (9.0v3), FMP 9 is compatible with Leopard and supported by FileMaker. Many of the FMP licenses (purchased through Technology's resale of a volume license) are eligible for upgrade to 9.

FMP 8.5 works with Macintosh Leopard, but has some known issues. The 8.5 v2 update fixed an issue where the FileMaker Pro 8.5 would hang when the system language and region did not match. Instant Web Publishing (IWP) does not work in FileMaker 8.5 running under Leopard.

Versions earlier than FileMaker 8.5 (8.0 and earlier versions of FileMaker Pro, Pro Advanced, Server and Server Advanced) will not be tested or supported with Leopard by FileMaker.

JGrasp
For Leopard compatibility, upgrade to JGrasp v1.8.6_07 . Minor font issues with printing are, and have always been, associated with JGrasp on Macintosh OS.

MeetingMaker
PeopleCube (the manufacturer) has acknowledged the current version of Meeting Maker, 8.6.2, is not compatible with Leopard. While it can be installed and is usable the following are known issues:

• Group Views do not work properly
  
• When you are in the Guests tab, clicking in the scroll bar to change the date makes Meeting Maker think the date is in the past (even if it is in the future); see Shino's blog
  
• If you click the Invite Guests link, the meeting's window opens behind all other windows; see Kim's blog
  

MeetingMaker "is aware" of these issues and says they will release an update sometime in the 1st quarter of 2008

NTI Dragon Burn
According to NTI technical support, version 4.21 works with Leopard.

Palm
Palm is working on an updated version of Palm Desktop for Macintosh that addresses Mac OS X installation and synchronization issues.

Quark Express
Quark supports Leopard in version 7.31, with 1 known issue.

Roxio
Toast v7.1.3 and 8.0.3 and above are Leopard compatible (with the latest updates applied). Earlier versions are not compatible.

SPSS
SPSS 16 for Macintosh is compatible with Leopard, but, as has always been true, not all add-ons are Mac compatible.

TurningPoint
TurningPoint is compatible with Leopard. But it is NOT compatible with Microsoft Office 2008. An Office 2008 compatible version is due out in the 2nd quarter of 2008. TurningPoint will not be installed on Macintosh computers running Leopard until Turning Technologies releases a version compatible with Office 2008.