Word 2004 to Word 2011

• Switching from Word for Mac 2004 to Word for Mac 2011. Formatting and compatibility issues. Really truly clueless. Help? So I got a new MacBook Pro (Oct 2011), and currently have the trial version of Word (Office) for Mac 2011. I transferred all my documents from my old hard drive (MacBook 2007), which were saved as .doc’s in Office 2004. These are my issues: --When opening up my 2004 documents in 2011, they open up in a .doc ‘compatability mode’. Everything looks normal and fine on my end, but after sending that document to a friend, the formatting is all screwed up on her end. The friend I sent it to is using the same 2004 of Word that I used to have. She is seeing lines where I don’t see lines on my end (this is a resumè I’m editing). --So I tried to copy and paste it into a new 2011 document. I saved it as a .docx (when I tried to save it as just a .doc it said that that’s the same as compatibility mode). After sending that to the aforementioned friend, she opened it to find that it was totally blank, where obviously on my end it was not. --So WTF do I do here? This is for the process of resumè and cover letter submissions, so I can’t just use google docs or cut and paste into the body of an email (I am mostly instructed to submit my resumè and cover letter as attachments). And lastly, is it an acceptable practice to email pdf versions of resumès and cover letters when applying for a job? Or should it absolutely be a .doc or some version? Maybe I can try making pdfs? It might be worth noting that I work in a field that tends to be underfunded, so it’s probably safe to assume that the people I’m emailing don’t necessarily have the most up-to-date software. Thanks for you help, and apologies if I sound like a complete fool.

• Answer:

  Not a specific answer to your formatting quesiton, but pdfs are, in general, a much better idea than doc files -- they're more standard cross-platform and everyone can be expected to be able to open one. Unless it specifically says to NOT submit a pdf, I would always submit a pdf. (Also, and I know this is nitpicky, but in case you are actually using the word on your resume -- if you're going to use the accents, it's résumé -- accents on both e's, and the opposite accent (the one that goes up from left to right instead of down) from the one you're using, but the accents aren't really necessary at all).