PC FORMAT TO MAC WORD VERSION

[OCTOPUSSARIAN]

FRIENDS
ON TWO CD'S, I HAVE A NOVEL I WROTE THAT READS PROPERLY ON A PC. BUT I HAVE A MAC WITH MICROSOFT WORD 2004. I CAN OPEN THE DOCUMENT USING THE READ ALL TEXT OPTION BUT CODE APPEARS ALSO AND SYMBOLS OFTEN REPLACE PUNCTUATION. THIS IS A LONG NOVEL WRITTEN IN DIFFERENT FORMS (PLAY, POEM, FREE VERSE) SO KEEPING IT INTACT IS CRITICAL. I TRIED COPING IT ALL INTO TEXT AND HAVE BEEN GOING THROUGH IT LINE BY LINE MAKING CORRECTIONS. IT IS A HUGE, MONTH LONG JOB AT LEAST AND CAN EASILY LEAD TO SERIOUS ERRORS. I KNOW THERE IS A SIMPLER. MORE EFFICIENT AND LESS TIME CONSUMING WAY BUT NEED ADVICE AS TO WHAT TO DO. WILL SUPER-APPRECIATE ANY HELP.

MANY THANKS

FROM OCTO

 

[CyberTaz]

If you are sincere in your salutation [FRIENDS] then show us the respect of
disengaging your Caps Lock. It's not only hard to read but is considered the
rude equivalent of shouting in electronic communications.

Now, What version of PC Word was used to create the document? If 2003 or
earlier you need only Open the doc as usual in Word 2004. Do Not use the
Recover Text option. If it was produced by Word 2007 & saved as a .docx you
will need the appropriate converters - Office 2007/2008 use a completely
different native file format than previous versions. If you need the
converters you can download them from:

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2004&fid=AB6
6B5BF-37C3-41BB-945E-784782FC582C#viewer>

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[OCTOPUSSARIAN]

Bob

Sorry about the caps as not a frequent poster and octogenarian issues with my eyes make caps easier. Much appreciate your pointing it out to me.

The original text was produced on a 1986 Leading Edge computer (dos) in the first version of Corel Word. The computer still runs fine so a friend managed to take the texts off the harddrive and some fifteen 5 1/4 inch floppies and transfer it all to the cd's I mentioned, All he said was that the transfer opened and looked fine on a PC ( I saw it) and that now he hoped my Mac with my Microsoft Word would do the same or convert my text into a clean version. The only option that showed me text was the Recover Text one. I don't know what Word version he used and did not think to ask as I thought the next step would be easy. As to what he might have used - since he teaches computer science and does occasional consulting I'd suspect it was the latest. I'll look into the converter download links right now.

Many thanks again

Octo

 

[MC]

The original text was produced on a 1986 Leading Edge computer (dos) in the
first version of Corel Word.

Your mention of Corel makes me think you may have created the origiinal
in WordPerfect not Word -- because Corel was (for a while) the company
that owned WordPerfect - and never owned Worrd -- tht has always been a
Microsoft product.

Are you SURE this ws created in Word?

 

[Phillip Jones]

Just for a test try this look for a icon showing the Paragraph mark
(look sort of like a reverse musical note) move mouse pointer and
click. see if all the items disappear. it sounds like your seeing what
in WordPerfect parlance is called reveal codes. in other words you
seeing space markers (looks like faint dots or Paragraph marks and so on.

Bob

Sorry about the caps as not a frequent poster and octogenarian issues with my eyes make caps easier. Much appreciate your pointing it out to me.

The original text was produced on a 1986 Leading Edge computer (dos) in the first version of Corel Word. The computer still runs fine so a friend managed to take the texts off the harddrive and some fifteen 5 1/4 inch floppies and transfer it all to the cd's I mentioned, All he said was that the transfer opened and looked fine on a PC ( I saw it) and that now he hoped my Mac with my Microsoft Word would do the same or convert my text into a clean version. The only option that showed me text was the Recover Text one. I don't know what Word version he used and did not think to ask as I thought the next step would be easy. As to what he might have used - since he teaches computer science and does occasional consulting I'd suspect it was the latest. I'll look into the converter download links right now.

Many thanks again

Octo

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[John McGhie]

Hi Octo:

You're looking at an old Corel WordPerfect file.

PC Word (older versions of it...) still have a WordPerfect converter.
MacWord does not.

Ask your PC mate to save the thing out to Microsoft Word format for you.

Cheers

Bob

Sorry about the caps as not a frequent poster and octogenarian issues with my
eyes make caps easier. Much appreciate your pointing it out to me.

The original text was produced on a 1986 Leading Edge computer (dos) in the
first version of Corel Word. The computer still runs fine so a friend managed
to take the texts off the harddrive and some fifteen 5 1/4 inch floppies and
transfer it all to the cd's I mentioned, All he said was that the transfer
opened and looked fine on a PC ( I saw it) and that now he hoped my Mac with
my Microsoft Word would do the same or convert my text into a clean version.
The only option that showed me text was the Recover Text one. I don't know
what Word version he used and did not think to ask as I thought the next step
would be easy. As to what he might have used - since he teaches computer
science and does occasional consulting I'd suspect it was the latest. I'll
look into the converter download links right now.

Many thanks again

Octo

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[MC]

Aha!

I thought it might beWordPerfect but I didn't think of Word doing the
converting.

If John's solution isn't available, look for a program called MacLink
Plus -- it converts to & from most file formats. It should have no
trouble with WordPerfect DOS or Windows to Word Mac, though *some* of
the formatting may have to be tweaked.

 

[MC]

PS to OCTO:

If all else fails, I have MacLink Plus and would be happy to try doing
the conversion for you -- if you're okay with sending the file (as an
attachment) to a total stranger.

 

[Octo]

Hi Bob, MC, Phillip, John,

Thanks again for all the time spent and the clear thinking. John, I spent the weekend digging and found the original manual. And if the manual correctly describes what's on the computer, it was Word Perfect (5.1) and not Word! What a goof! Ahhh! But why not just open the computer to check? Well I thought opening it myself might be pushing my luck and I'd damage something. The friend who helped lives two hundred miles away and carting the computer elements one again back and forth is not easily accomplished. And Phillip, alas, clicking the icon mark was to no avail and my next move will be getting Mac Link Plus as MC suggests. And MC, I'll pass on your marvelous offer to do the conversion for no other reason that the work is not a final draft. Anyway I feel well armed thanks to you all and will post what I'm confident will be my success in the conversion.

Many thanks to you all again

Octo

 

[CyberTaz]

There may be another factor at play... even if your friend saved in a Word
format.

Are you trying to open the files directly from the CD? If so that may
explain why the only option is the 'Recover' choice. If this is the case try
copying [one or two of] the files to your hard drive & see if you have better
luck opening them. If not you'll need to determine what format he *did* use
before going any further. You may be able to select an icon then use Cmd+I to
bring up the Get Info window which may tell you what you need to know abut
the file type. Otherwise I'm sure a quick email to your friend will provide
the information. Then you'll be able to figure out what converter is required
to get the files open in a usable state.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
MVP Office:Mac

 

[MC]

my next move will be getting Mac Link Plus as MC suggests. And MC, I'll pass
on your marvelous offer to do the conversion for no other reason that the
work is not a final draft.

Well, um... Maybe I'm missing something but unless you have WordPerfect
running on a PC you won't be able to get to a final draft until you've
passed it through MacLink Plus, and MacLink is going to cost you some
money...

Up to you, but I think you could save yourself some time and definitely
save yourself some money by taking me up on my offer.

In other words, you send it to me. I rruun it through MLP and send it
back to you as a .doc or .docx file, and you then work on it in Word.

It's really no trouble, but I quite understand if you'd rather not
entrust it to a stranger.

Let me know. My email adddress is (e-mail address removed)

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Octo:

{Giggle} Yeah, I remember now

WordPerfect started using the .doc file extension for their files, because
they discovered that doing so would crash Microsoft Word and make Microsoft
look bad

WordPerfect 5.1 was the beginning of the end for WordPerfect

All you need to do is email your file to your friend. He doesn't need your
computer!

Before you email it, Zip it using OS X's "create archive" utility, so that
it doesn't fall apart on the wire (and so it doesn't take a month to email
it...)

Cheers

Hi Bob, MC, Phillip, John,

Thanks again for all the time spent and the clear thinking. John, I spent the
weekend digging and found the original manual. And if the manual correctly
describes what's on the computer, it was Word Perfect (5.1) and not Word! What
a goof! Ahhh! But why not just open the computer to check? Well I thought
opening it myself might be pushing my luck and I'd damage something. The
friend who helped lives two hundred miles away and carting the computer
elements one again back and forth is not easily accomplished. And Phillip,
alas, clicking the icon mark was to no avail and my next move will be getting
Mac Link Plus as MC suggests. And MC, I'll pass on your marvelous offer to do
the conversion for no other reason that the work is not a final draft. Anyway
I feel well armed thanks to you all and will post what I'm confident will be
my success in the conversion.

Many thanks to you all again

Octo

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[Guest]

Hi Friends!

Wow! All done! Bought Mac Link Plus, as was suggested, downloaded it, and one two three it was translated perfectly, and now am into what I hope will be the final draft.

Many thanks again
and all my very best

Octo

 

[CyberTaz]

Congrats - MLP is a great piece of work

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac