OFF97: Cannot Edit Equations and Graphs in Earlier Versions of Word

ID: Q196948

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
Microsoft Graph 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

If you have a Word document with a graph or equation in it, and you try to edit that object, you may receive one of the following error messages:

Word cannot edit the MSGraph.Chart.5 (MSGraph.Chart.8)

-or-

Word cannot edit the Equation.2 (Equation.3)

-or-

Word cannot edit the unknown

CAUSE

Equations and graphs created with later versions of Word cannot be edited in earlier versions of Word, if both of the following conditions are true:

The equation or graph was created in an earlier version of Word on a computer that has both the earlier version and a later version installed.

The document containing the object or graph is opened on another computer that has only the earlier version of Word.

WORKAROUND

There is no workaround for this situation. The equations and graphs must be edited in the program that was used to create them.

MORE INFORMATION

Graph 3.0 and Equation Editor 1.0 were shipped with Word 2.x.

Graph 3.0 and Equation Editor 2.0 were shipped with Word 6.0.

Graph 5.0 and Equation Editor 2.0 were shipped with Word 7.0.

Graph 97 and Equation Editor 3.0 were shipped with Word 97.

When you install a newer version of Microsoft Word, Setup replaces the current versions of the Equation Editor and Microsoft Graph with the newer versions.

If you have both an earlier version of Microsoft Word and a later version on the same computer, equations and graphs you create in the earlier version are automatically created with the newer versions of the Equation Editor and Microsoft Graph. When you try to work on these on a computer that has only the earlier version of Word, the equations and graphs cannot be edited.

Example

Computer 1 has both Word 7.0 and Word 97 installed on it. Therefore, it uses the newest version of the Equation Editor and Microsoft Graph available: Equation Editor 3.0 and Microsoft Graph 97.

A document created on this computer in Microsoft Word 7.0 contains Equation Editor 3.0 and Microsoft Graph 97 objects, even though these programs were installed by Word 97.

Computer 2 has only Microsoft Word 7.0 installed on it. Therefore, it has Equation Editor 2.0 and Microsoft Graph 5.0 available.

If you take the document created in Microsoft Word 7.0 on computer 1 and open it in Microsoft Word 7.0 on computer 2, you receive the error messages described in this article when you double-click an equation or graph object to edit it.

REFERENCES

For more information about running multiple versions of Word on the same computer, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q163154 WD: Problems Running Multiple Versions of Word on Same Computer

Additional query words: officeinterop table macppt winppt OFF97


Keywords          : kbfield word97 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: July 22, 1999