Convert Word 2 doc to Office 2003

[Sue]

Is there a converter for this? I have a lot of Word 2 doc's that I need to
access. I am now using a newer machine running XP Home and Office 2003.
Previously I was using Win98SE and Office 2000 but the documents were kept in
Word 2 format even as they were used and updated. (Word 2 was a great
program!) I see now that that was not wise but what should I do now? Office
2000 handled Word 2 perfectly but Office 2003 will not open them at all for
me.
Many thanks if you can help.
Sue

 

[Graham Mayor]

I think that the Word for DOS converter you can download from my web site
*may* work.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Sue]

Word 2 is a Word for Windows program. I am desperately hoping to be able to
retain layout especially tables and other formatting. Will Word for Windows 2
be backward compatible to DOS without loss of layout (I know it is forward
compatible up to Word 2000)? Can I load Word 2000 on this machine as well as
the Office 2003 it has? I will try your suggestion but I did not think that
Windows files could be run in DOS. Mind you I do have a few DOS files still
(Word 5 for DOS)!!.

 

[Graham Mayor]

OK - wrong version. It has been a long time However, I have an inkling
that before Word 95 brought RTF format to the table, the early versions of
Word for Windows used the Word for DOS file format. It can do no harm to
install the converter and see if it does in fact open your ancient
documents. Perhaps you can let me know one way or the other and I'll add a
note to my web site?

Installing Word 2000 and 2003 on the same platform can be a bit
problematical because of the shared registry locations - however see
http://www.gmayor.com/Toolbars_in_word_2007.htm for registry hacks (Word
2000 is Word 9.0). Whether this will restore the previous functionality is
hard to say, because Windows security updates will contrive to delete or
replace old converters allegedly for reasons of security vulnerability.

Whether you can re-install 2000 after 2003 I hestitate to guess. You *may*
have to uninstall Office 2003 first, install 2000 then put 2003 back again.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word 2.0 files can still be opened in Word 2003. You do need to have the
converters, and you also need to unblock the file type (using the download
from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938810).

I have a lot of Word 2.0 files that I created myself, and I have (ancient)
Rotary recordkeeping software that outputs to Word 2.0 format, so I know
this is possible.

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Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org