MacLife - USA (2020-03)

Upgrade from Office 2008 to the current
Office 365, which is compatible with Catalina,
and you should have relatively few problems.
More modern versions of Microsoft Word
don’t support very old Word doc formats.
You might find some .doc files, in Word 98 or
earlier and not saved since, can’t be opened
in version 16. Before upgrading, open and
Save As so they’re rewritten in a more modern
format, or save in Rich Text Format (RTF).
We haven’t come across any Excel
spreadsheets with similar problems using old
formats, but a useful trick is to save them in
comma–separated or CSV formats. Some of
the other office suites like NeoOffice, from

the App Store, should also be able to open

troublesome older–format files. Upgrade to

Office 365 before going to Catalina, and you

should be able to solve problems before losing

access to older versions of the Office apps.

Upgrading Microsoft Office for Catalina
I’m still running Microsoft Office 2008 in Mojave, but I’m preparing to switch to Catalina
and need to upgrade. Do I also need to convert old Word docs and Excel spreadsheets?

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Our advice may refer to

the following features;

check out the support

articles linked below

for full instructions.

macOS RECOVERY

The Recovery system

contains tools to help

you look up info online

when macOS won’t start,

and to repair or reinstall

the system. Learn more

at bit.ly/mlrecovery.

SAFE MODE

When you start your Mac

in Safe mode, macOS

performs extra checks

and stops certain third–

party software from

running. See how to use

it at bit.ly/mlsafemode.

RESET SMC & NVRAM

These features handle

low–level functions and

store key settings for

your Mac respectively.

Resetting them can fix

various issues described

at bit.ly/mlresetsmc and

bit.ly/mlresetnvram.

HARDWARE ISSUES

Your Mac includes tools

that check for certain

hardware issues without

going to a Genius Bar.

For Macs introduced in

June 2013 or later, see

bit.ly/mldiag, otherwise

see bit.ly/mlahwt.

Essential

support

articles

Changing Photos behavior graphics?
How can I get Photos to show its library selection dialog each time it opens?

Holding the Opt key when opening Photos
opens its library selection dialog. But this gets
tedious. You can instead open Photos with the
library you want to use by double–clicking it.
There’s a hidden preference setting which
forces it to open that dialog, but it’s only
accessible through the defaults command in
Terminal, and resets every time you run the
app. You can write a three–line AppleScript
script which changes the hidden preference,
waits a little, then opens the Photos app:
do shell script “defaults write com.apple.
Photos
IPXDefaultShowLibraryChooserOnLaunch
‘true’”
delay 2
tell application “Photos” to activate
Test your process in Script Editor then,
if it’s working, export it as an app.

Run the AppleScript in Script Editor, and it should

open Photos with its library selection dialog.

Once happy with your script, Export it as an app,

which you then run when you want to open Photos.

NeoOffice copes well with opening even ancient

Word documents: this one was last saved in 1989.

Tech Support & Techsplanations

maclife.com MAR 2020 79