Lion's Roar = 2004 No More

In July of 2011, Apple released its newest version of Mac OSX, nicknamed “Lion.” For WriteRAP users who use the WriteRAP toolbar while working on a Mac, this has some implications.

Currently, the WriteRAP toolbar only functions with Microsoft Word 2004 on the Mac. This is purely because WriteRAP makes extensive use of VBA. Microsoft decided to remove VBA support from the Word 2008 version and has restored VBA only partially for Word 2011.

However, because of a shift in the underlying functionality of Mac’s new operating system, Microsoft Word 2004 is not supported by this new version of OSX—this is an Apple decision. If you currently use Word 2004 and upgrade your Mac machine to OSX Lion, you will no longer have access to Word 2004. It won’t be recognized as a usable application.

This means that your WriteRAP toolbar will no longer be available. This does NOT mean that you can’t work with WriteRAP files!

Word 2008 and 2011 can be used in an "offline" workflow. In other words, it can be used outside the normal WriteRAP processes. This entails, of course, some caveats:

• The WriteRAP toolbar will not be available to the user.
• The user is much freer to apply incorrect styles, add styles, etc., that are normally restricted for most users.

However, a user can still:
• Attach the template
• Insert boilerplates using a workaround process (see below)
• Insert images from the local machine, but not from the Image Library
• Paste text in the target format, as in the WriteRAP ParaPaste function


If you find yourself in this position because of an upgrade to OSX Lion, please speak to your Pearson point of contact so that appropriate provisions can be made for your WriteRAP project and to find out if more training is needed.