Word 2007. Equations issue. Printing, clear font, etc. Help!

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Jayce

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I work in a school district. We are currently having an issue. We are deploying new laptops loaded with XP Pro to replace the Macbooks that seem to break down more often than girls I check out when I'm at Hooters. They are preloaded with Office 2007. The math teachers are running into an issue. They want to plug equations in to their worksheets to print out for tests, however, there's 2 issues.

If they open a pre-existing word document that was created in Office 03 or Office 04 (Mac) in Office 07, the equation is grayed out. The fix is to copy/paste all of the 03/04 data to a blank, brand new 07 document. That way it's a fresh clean slate, etc.

When the teachers plug equations in after pasting, it will display on the screen. However, when they hit print, the equations do not print with the rest of the document. It's as if it's a floating layer, like it isn't anchored or something.

How can we get it so equations will display (and print) on pasted 2007 documents?

Note: If teachers open a new Word 2007 Document and they DO NOT paste anything, if they plug in an equation and hit print, it prints out great. But it will not print if they plug the equation into a pasted document.
 
Hello,

The 'Equation' feature in Microsoft Word 2007 is not compatible with .doc files. Only .docx (the new Word 2007 format) supports the equation feature in Microsoft Word 2007.

To get the equation feature working for older documents, you'll need to open the document and save it in / convert it to the newer Microsoft Word 2007 .docx format. It should fix the problem.
 
Alvin - that's the problem. We want all of the files to be 03 and 04 (Mac) compatible... that way when teachers send emails to one another, those using 03 (which is rare) and 04 (Macs, which is a decent chunk of the school) can read them without any issues. We were instructed to do away with the docx files.

What I don't get is, the math teachers used to use this same exact feature on their word 2004... so the feature is obviously there and functional, because the first thing they did when they got 2007 is go to see if the equation feature was there.
 
Hello,

I can see the frustration.

Again, unfortunately, the equation feature in Word 2007 is not available for .doc files, created in previous versions of Word, or in Word 2007. Only the new .docx format supports the equation feature in Microsoft Word 2007.

As you rightly stated, this means that users using older versions of Microsoft Word won't be able to view the .docx file. So, in order for them to view the document, you'll need to convert it back to / save it as a Word 97-2003 .doc file. But, unfortunately, in the conversion process, Word 2007 will convert the equations into images, meaning that while the equations in the .doc file can be viewed, they cannot be edited, until converted to the new .docx format. I don't exactly understand why this is, since equations in Word 2007 are regular formatted text and not objects. To my understanding however, it's due to the different versions of the Microsoft Equation Editor in previous versions of Word and the new Word 2007.

image2wa3.jpg

The result when converting a .docx file containing equations to .doc file.

Seems like a case of Microsoft inability to provide full compatibility, and an IT department's lack of thorough software testing. Though, I wouldn't have foreseen such a problem myself. I think the best solution is to install and use Microsoft Office 2003 on the new laptops.
 
But that's what I'm saying. The equation feature was added for 2007. How in the world did the teachers have it on 2004 (Mac Edition)???
 
But that's what I'm saying. The equation feature was added for 2007. How in the world did the teachers have it on 2004 (Mac Edition)???

Hello,

Microsoft Word 2007 has an newer version of Microsoft Equation Editor.

The Equation Editor exists in previous versions of Microsoft Office, including 97, 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 for Windows, and 98, 2001, 2004 and 2008 for Mac OS (though some versions may have required the user to choose to install the Equation Editor in the options during installation).
 
Do you know if there is any type of add-in that is available for compatibility reasons between 03, 04, etc so everything is backwards compatible?

The underlying objective here is to allow users using Office 2003 or Office 2004 to read/print/edit documents with the equations listed in them.

I understand that 07 is completely different, but I do my best to ensure that everybody's system is working to the best of its ability, and it enrages me to hear that after purchasing new software at an insanely expensive rate, it's incompatible with one of the most important things the math department needs. So, if there's a way out there, I'm going to find it.

Thank you for your help thus far.
 
Okay, this may be beating a dead horse, but I don't care. I'm going to find a fix for this.

All of the teachers have their documents in 2003 format. Okay great. When you open a 2003 document in 2007 and print it, the equations get weird on the printed out pages. Okay fine.

So, while having the 2003 document open in 2007, I save as and add docx to the end of the name and save it as the updated file.

GREAT! Now I can edit the equations! Beautiful!

...except when I hit print, it doesn't print. All equations are gone.

I don't care if I'm beating a dead horse here. I will find a fix for this.

In essence, I saved a 2003 document as 2007, and now the equations won't print. How can I ensure they will print? The rest of the document prints, just the equations are missing.
 
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