Parallels Desktop 12 Update 1 adds even greater support for Microsoft Ink. (You can read an overview of Ink on the Mac here.) In this blog post, I will specifically discuss the uses of Microsoft Ink in Word for Windows 2016 running on a Mac with the use of Parallels Desktop 12.

1. Legacy Tool For Word On A Mac Laptop
2. Word For Mac Free
3. Using Word On A Mac
4. Get Word For Mac

As outlined in my earlier blog post, my Ink setup uses the Apple Pencil, an iPad Pro, and the AstroPad iPad app (Figure 1).

I am trying to format drop down, list boxes and can't find the legacy tools in MAc word. Do I need to access another program to make forms? This thread is locked. Microsoft Word is a word processor developed by Microsoft.It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running the Classic Mac OS (1985), AT&T UNIX PC (1985), Atari ST (1988), OS/2 (1989), Microsoft Windows (1989), SCO Unix. Opening legacy docs in MS Word - Mac OS X Hints. Opening legacy docs in MS Word. Jan 03, '12 07:30:00AM. Contributed by: macandrew. Word 2011 now opens oldest Word document formats. I've been using Word for the Mac since v1.0, so I have a lot of older documents created in early versions. At some point I discovered that Word (I forget which.

Ink in Word for Windows 2016

If you have installed Word for Windows 2016 as part of an Office 365 subscription, then there are a number of different ways you can use Ink in Word, and Parallels Desktop 12 Update 1 will enable the Draw tab in Word (Figure 2) so that you can access all of these Ink uses.

Figure 2

Ink Annotation

Ink is an excellent way to comment on or review a Word document (Figure 3).

You can use the standard proofreader marks if you are sure that the individual to whom you will be sending the reviewed document will understand those marks (Figure 4).

Figure 4

As you can see in the Word Draw tab, there are three conversion tools: Ink Editor, Convert to Shapes, and Ink to Math.

Legacy Tool For Word On A Mac Laptop

Ink Editor

The Ink Editor tool gives you the ability to perform simple document editing tasks using Ink as gestures. Currently, there are only two gestures: encircling to select text, and scribbling out to delete text, both shown in Video 5. I suspect that more editing gestures will be added in the future.

Convert to Shapes

The Convert to Shapes tool gives you the ability to add shapes to your document. I was not able to use this Ink tool to enter all 160 of the shapes from the Shapes menu, but the simple ones worked as expected, and some of these are shown in Video 6.

Ink to Math

The Ink to Math tool gives you the ability to enter typographically-rich equations in your Word document just by writing them naturally with a pen. Word added an excellent equations editor several years ago, but it is a bit tedious to use. The Ink to Math tool—shown in Video 7—makes entering an equation extremely natural.

Ink Replay

Ink Replay, the last tool in the Draw tab in Word, provides you with a type of animation for your Ink sketches.

I have found the use of Ink in Word to be an excellent way to annotate and add content to a Word document. Remember that while you need Word for Windows 2016 (in an Office 365 subscription) to enter or edit Ink in a Word document, any recent version of Word will correctly display Ink. As one example, I have used Word for Mac 2011 to display Ink in a Word document without any problem (Video 8).

I hope you find Ink in Word to be as useful as I have.

Have you tried Microsoft Ink in Word on a Mac yet? Share your experience with us in a comment, or reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter.

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I am afraid this 'hint' is simply incorrect. I have old Word 3/4 documents from 1988/1989 that Word 2011 (or Word 2008 for that matter) is simply unable to open, no matter which option I choose. When I try to open them, Word throws a 'Convert File' dialog box asking me to choose a file format to convert from, but 'Word 3 document' and 'Word 4 document' are not listed as options and 'Rich Text Format' does not work.

There is also an option called 'Recover text from any file' (which is apparently a file format in MS's parlance) but it fails to preserve accented characters, so even that option is useless. For such files, my only option is to force-open them in TextEdit, which at least preserves the accents. (Take that, Microsoft.)

Word 2011 is indeed able to open Word 5 documents, but not via double-click or drag-and-drop. You are obliged to go through the Open File dialog box for each file. If you make sure that the file name includes '.doc', you don't have to use any special options to open them. (Be aware, however, that some Word 5 documents will cause Word 2011 to crash or freeze, presumably because of the nature of some of their contents, so you have no guarantee here either.)

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Microsoft's inability to support its own older file formats is scandalous, but we are used to such disregard for usability and data integrity from the world's biggest software developers, I am afraid.

In light of these shortcomings in Word 2011 and Lion's lack of support for older versions of Word, I made sure to convert all my older Word documents before upgrading to Lion:

Using Word On A Mac

'Getting ready for Lion: Converting old files'
http://www.betalogue.com/2011/07/14/lion-oldfiles/

Pierre

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