Bulk conversion of Word Perfect files

[Roppen]

What facility is available for the conversion of 200K to 300K Word Perfect
files, created over a number of years, to Word.doc format? Will all
formatting convert without glitches? If there are features that do not
convert is there an opportunity to repair them? Is 100% inspection of the
converted documents necessary?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Which Word version?
Whether the conversion will work 'accurately' is difficult to say without
knowing what is in the documents. You need to open some of them in Word to
see what the implications are. If you have used WP fonts the probability is
that there will be lots of issues to address. Take a look at
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/WordPerfectConverters.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Roppen]

I will check out the link. The situation is that a large volume user of Word
Perfect is considering moving to MS Office as the installation standard and
the internal thinking is to convert all legacy documents to Word format.
Accordingly, I would expect that the latest version of Word running under XP
Professional would be the target

 

[Graham Mayor]

I think I would be inclined to deter the user from making the change
Not only would it be a logistical nightmare for someone to have to sort out,
but there will be training and productivity implications. Rather you than me

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Roppen]

I have looked at the document in the link and it was most helpful. While it
appears to be 9 years old, the conclusions would appear to be valid forever
based on their foundations.

However, I am searching for a failsoft approach to converting the
organization to Word. Would it make sense to a) create a backup library of
all WP documents; b) not convert any documents to Word; c) Install Word with
instructions on how to converyt individual documents using Word:Open; d)
maintain a Help Desk function that could use a surviving copy of WP to
read/print the backup library of documents in the event that a user complains
that a conversion failed; and e) provide a document reconstruction-in-Word
service where all else fails?

Alternatively, I could use the above approach as stated with the change that
all documents could be converted to Word. Then if a user opened a document
and found "garbage" they could call for support. To do this, I still need
the bulk converter -- a routine that could be run in batch mode that would
take all documents in a folder and convert them into like-named Word
documents differentiated by the ".doc" extension. The unanswered question is
whether any converter runs in this "bulk" mode.

 

[Jan :\)]

Hi Roppen

Don't know about fail-safe, as that is sometimes not always doable, but, I
have a suggestion that might be of help

Several years ago I ran into a serious problem when we got a new IT head at
our company, who immediately had our WordPerfect and Presentations programs
removed from all company PCs and replaced them Microsoft Office 2000
programs. None of us were given any notice of this event, and all our data
was uploaded to the server and hard drives were wiped.

I was working for a light rail operation at the time, and over several years
had created a complete schematic of the entire system, which included
station locations, every switch, signal, grade crossing, bridge, etc. at
precise locations, and using their equipment identifications, which included
text and numbers in Presentation 2.0 and 4.0 when we moved into that
version. The text I used as basic as possible, not sure of the name or it
now, but, it was comparable to one in Word 2000.

The text documents were not to hard to take over to Word, however, the
Presentation slides would not transfer to PowerPoint in any usable way. I
begged for a copy of Corel Draw, as when I contacted Microsoft to ask if
there was a software that I could use that allow the Presentation drawings
to be converted to PowerPoint, they told me to use Corel Draw. However, our
IT head refused to have anything but Microsoft programs on our machines,
even temporarily. My department was not the only one that depended on the
system drawings, the Transportation dept. also used them for training the
Operators. So it was very important that I be able to convert the drawings
and edit them. I asked in the PowerPoint ng for suggestions, and MVP Steve
Rindsberg told me to go to cnews.corel.com, subscribe to the
corel.WordPerfect_older_versions group, and look for either Joell Hagan or
Roy Lewis. Roy and I wound up working on a macro that would convert the
entire batch of drawings from Presentations to Powerpoint, automatically
changing the text from the one I used in Presentations to a comparable one
in PowerPoint, thus requiring very little alterations to the text once
converted, and the entire conversion process took approx 10 minutes, as I
had several hundred slides, and images to be converted.

As you are looking for a means to convert these documents in a batch method,
I would highly advise you to go to the newsgroups above and look up Roy
Lewis, aka Iemoto, tell him "the pie lady" I sent you <g>, and I feel sure
he can help with a macro that will do what you need to do. He is a great
person to work with, and I sure learned a great deal from him in the
process.

Jan

 

[Graham Mayor]

Several years ago I ran into a serious problem when we got a new IT
head at our company, who immediately had our WordPerfect and
Presentations programs removed from all company PCs and replaced them
Microsoft Office 2000 programs. None of us were given any notice of
this event, and all our data was uploaded to the server and hard
drives were wiped.

The text documents were not to hard to take over to Word, however, the
Presentation slides would not transfer to PowerPoint in any usable
way. I begged for a copy of Corel Draw, as when I contacted
Microsoft to ask if there was a software that I could use that allow
the Presentation drawings to be converted to PowerPoint, they told me
to use Corel Draw. However, our IT head refused to have anything but
Microsoft programs on our machines, even temporarily.

How do these idiots get these jobs?

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Jan :\)]

How do these idiots get these jobs?

Easy....

1. They know just enough to fool a large number of people who are in charge
of hiring that type of employee, who have little or no clue about networks,
software or much else about computers other than how to check or send their
emails.

2. They are willing to work cheap, as they can't get a job at a place where
people doing the hiring actually do have some reasonable measure of
knowledge about such things.

Related to #1. The first person who was put in charge of handling all IT
related issues and contracts was the Admin. Assist. of the Admin. VP, both
having little or no computer experience other than how to use the email and
print out a letter. They sent her for 3 weeks of basic Computer Concepts 101
training. She was then considered qualified to handle all IT related issues
for the entire company. She was replaced 2 years later by the other IT
person.

Jan

 

[Roppen]

Jan, I appreciate your reference/referral. I would also like your thoughts
on the proper strategy assuming that the level of idiocy in my target
organization is not quite as high as the level that you en countered. Refer
again to my second 10/18 post. Mayby I'll meet you someday on the front
porch of the IT Professionals rest home and we can swap war stories before
they wheel us off to nap time

 

[Jan :\)]

Hi Roppen,

I ran the conversion using my only copy of WP at the time, which was v7.
Roy was using v9, and in the UK. this meant that some changes had to be made
in the macro on my end for it to work with my US v7. I had never created a
macro from scratch before, so it was a very basic learning process of me, so
it did take a while working by email to get all the code worked out, but, it
was truly worth it in order to save years of hard work and not having to
recreate it all over again. I don't think I would live long enough. ) I
had the WP and Presentation programs on my computer at home at that time,
and I all the work at home. The only alternative I had was to save the
drawings as a png or jpg, but, then I would not be able to edit them when
necessary, as there was always some construction or extensions being added
over the years.

The WP X4 has a start up window that provides a mode for MS Word, with which
you can open an existing WP document, or create a new one, in the Word
format. However, you were looking for a batch means to convert them all at
once and I would go with creating a macro in WP to do that.

If a well created macro can convert over 2000 intricately detailed
Presentation 4.0 drawings with all sorts of shapes and attributes, into a
high quality PowerPoint format within minutes, I would think that WP
documents would not provide too much of a challenge.

I admit that our IT people were not likely the norm, and you are lucky that
those you will be working with have some knowledge which should make things
easier. If you feel that those you will be working with will have the
expertise and time to put the macro together, then that would likely be a
way to go. If not, then I would do it yourself and take it from there.

I would contact Roy and see what he recommends, as it may depend on the time
and complexity of the macro needed. I would imagine that the program you
would use to convert the documents would be WP. Once the macro is
completed, you can run a test batch to see if the documents convert properly
or if there will be any after work required and to what extent. However, it
has been some time since I did the conversion of the Presentation drawings,
and Roy may have a better idea. He and Joell are the experts with WP.

And then we can sit out on the veranda at the OFH with a cup of tea and
compare macros (I still have the macro). )