Avoid forward slashes in Word filenames

Mar 30, '02 12:37:27PM

Contributed by: Jay

I discovered this in MS Word, but it might apply to other X applications. I was using an old Word Perfect converted document in Word X, and when I tried to print, Word constantly and unexpectedly quit.

I realized the document's name had a date in it in this format: mm/dd/yy. Word doesn't allow forward slashes (/) in filenames anymore (although the Finder does). The document printed perfectly after I renamed it with this date format: mm-dd-yy. Is this a Windows compatibility "feature?"

[Editor's note: Anyone have any information on officially allowed filenames, either in Office or OS X in general?]

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