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

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Word 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 all 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.

On the computer with multiple versions of Microsoft Word installed, you will want to always create and modify documents in the latest (most recent) version of Word available on the computer. If you want to exchange documents with users who have earlier versions of Microsoft Word, you should use an import or export converter to convert the document to format that can be read by the earlier version of Word.

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 will replace 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 machine in Microsoft Word 7.0 will contain 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 will have 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 will 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:

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