How can I open a MS Word 2003 that was originally written on a MAC on my home PC? It says that the disc was formatted for a MAC and won’t let me access it. Is it even possible for me to open this file on my PC, or do I need to go back and use a MAC.
PCs can’t read Mac discs without special software. Your best bet is to use a Mac to open the file and save it on a PC disk in Word-for-Windows format; Macs can read PC disks just fine, and Word for Mac will “Save As” Word for Windows.
I take it to mean that someone using a Mac created a document using the Mac version of MS Word, copied it to a floppy disk (formatted as a Mac disk) and you want to read that file on a PC? Is that about it?
There are software tools that will allow a PC to read Mac-formatted disks. Is this what you are seeking?
so then how would I go about opening a file that was created on a PC with MS Word, Revised on a MAC, and then go to the original PC in order to open it up and print it off? Is this even possible?
There is software that can do all this for you, but that may be a little much for one disk.
What I would do is setup an online e-mail account at yahoo, take the disk to Kinkos or some other copy place, rent a computer for a half hour, and e-mail it to myself while saving the output to rich text format, html, or .txt. Probably be the cheapest way.
Good luck!
That’s it. Thanks for making my OP clearer and the Google Search. 
For over 15 years now, I’ve had a Mac at home and a PC at work. I go back and forth all the time between platforms. I used to have to use translation software, but that is no longer necessary.
For some time now, at least since MS Office 97 (and MS Office 98 for Mac), the .doc files used by MS Office on the PC and the Mac are identical. You don’t need to convert the .doc file into any other format.
The only problem is getting the files back and forth. Being a smaller niche player, Macs are designed to operate in a world of PCs. A Mac can read any PC-formatted floppy, CD-Rom, or Zip disk. The converse is not true, as you have found.
In practice, I exclusively use PC-formatted floppies and Zip disks. They work on both platforms. Nowadays, you can also simply e-mail files.
I routinely e-mail Word files created on my PC home to my Mac, edit them, and e-mail them back. No problems with formatting or anything else.
I second Robby’s experience. I used to need to do this when we had iMac’s at school and I have a PC at home. Word files work fine in both formats. When you save the file on a Mac, give it a file extension .doc . The Mac won’t care, but it gives your PC a clue as to what to do with the file. You can email the file to yourself, or use a USB flashdrive to move it. Don’t bother with disks at all.
wordviewer…
Word Viewer 2003 lets you open Word 2003 documents and documents created with all previous versions of Microsoft Word for Windows® and Microsoft Word for Macintosh.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en
Qite possible, and very easy after you’ve done it once. Robby’s post has the essential details.
An important point is that a Word doc created on a Mac is not alien to Word running on a PC (and vice versa ). The only thing to remember to do is to make sure you either:
a) transfer the file from Mac to PC w/o using a disk (e.g. e-mail), or
b) use a PC-formatted disk for all “transactions” between Mac and PC.
Use a PC (FAT) formatted floppy disk. The Mac will read it just fine. The file formats are identical.