Mac to PC

[[AK]Squidly]

Maybe one of you can answer this (probably Beast)

I want to copy Word files from an apple computer running OSX to a thumb drive, and then open those files on a pc.

I copy the files to the drive, and then put the drive on the pc. Unfortunately the files show up as split (resource fork.) When I try to open the files in Word for Windows, I get an error.

I forget the way to resolve this (creating just a single, windows readable file during the copy process) and my searches on the web aren't coming up with anything helpful.

Does anyone know how to do this?

[[AK]StitchJones]

The best bet if possible is to do a network share and copy the file(s) over to your local machine. I think with the thumb drive your retaining the file system type from the MAC, and it's getting confused on the Windows side.
That's just a quick guess.

[[AK]Squidly]

The network thing is not an option. The whole idea is to bring the files into work for use there.

There's got to be an easy way to do this.

[[AK]The Beast]

Which version of Word are you using? I just happen to have my Mac with Word 2004 sitting right next to my PC, with my thumb drive right in the pocket, so I can do some "semi-live" troubleshooting experiments.

First attempt: Opening the document in Word and "save as"-ing it to the thumb drive does result in a split document (document.doc and ._document.doc). The "regular" file is normal for me (using Word 2003); the ._ version opens but is a bunch of gibberish. Drag-and-drop copy offers the same results.

Not trying to impugn your Mac skills, but did you remember to dismount the USB drive before you unplugged it and popped it in your PC? Like Windows, the Mac will warn you of the dangers of unplugging it "hot"--unlike Windows, the Mac means it--most USB drive file corruption problems I've had have come when I've tried to hot-unplug it from the Mac.

[[AK]Squidly]

I'll have to check the version, but it's a pretty recent one on the mac.
Yes, I remembered to "dismount" the drive on the mac before disconnecting it.

I'm not saving from mac word to the thumb drive. I'm saving the files to the desktop then dragging them to the thumbdrive.

[[AK]Squidly]

Note... I just tried opening the file on my pc at work (Word 2002) and it worked. I had tried opening on my home pc (Word 97) and it didn't.

Evidently it works using later versions of office on the PC.

It still would be nice to be able to save to the thumbdrive without the fork.