Optics Express
Published by The Optical Society of America

Instructions for Users of Word 2007/DOCX

Because of changes Microsoft has made in its recent Word release that are incompatible with our internal workflow, which was built around previous versions of the software, OSA cannot at present accept any files in the new .docx format produced through Microsoft Word 2007, either for initial submission or for revision. Users of this release of Word should convert these files to a format compatible with Word 2003 or Word for Macintosh 2004 before submitting to any OSA journal.

Users of Word 2007 should also be aware that equations created with the default equation editor included in Microsoft Word 2007 will be unacceptable in revision, even if the file is converted to a format compatible with earlier versions of Word; this is because conversion will render equations as graphics and prevent electronic printing of equations, and because the default equation editor packaged with Word 2007 was not designed to be compatible with MathML. Regrettably, we will be forced to return any revised manuscript created with the Word 2007 default equation editor to authors for re-editing. To get around this, please use the MathType equation editor or the equation editor included in previous versions of Microsoft Word.

Summary

  • OSA does not currently accept manuscript submissions or revisions in DOCX format.
  • Users of Word 2007 may save files in Word 2003 or Word for Macintosh 2004 DOC format for submission but should note points below about the Word 2007 equation editor.
  • Submissions containing math produced with the Word 2007 equation editor will not be accepted (either in DOCX or DOC format). Authors are urged to use MathType or previous versions of Word's equation editor (see screenshots on accessing the acceptable equation editors).

OSA's policy is modeled on that of Science magazine; see http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/prep/docx.dtl.