How can I open old Wordperfect files?

E

Engineer

Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.
Cheers,
Roger
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

Engineer said:
Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.
Cheers,
Roger

Sounds like a perfect question for a Word Perfect newsgroup. If this was my
show then I would also do my homework and check out the Open Office.
 
B

Big_Al

Engineer said:
Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.
Cheers,
Roger

There is a free Word 2007 viewer that MS gives out.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/CD102258581033.aspx

You might see what it does. Word 2007 (the full version) has no WP
reader out of the box. I know there are converters to be had, you'll
just have to search MS's support site for them. I've done this for
other friends both for WP and for Word Star.

Then again if you knew anyone that had WP or Corel that could do the
work for you, that would be great.
 
M

Malke

Engineer said:
Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.

Post back after you try OpenOffice 3.0.

Malke
 
A

AJR

You do not indicaste having MS Word installed - pre-2007 versions provided
a WP converter - if you have a Word CD - run setup and select to add
additional features.
 
T

Terry R.

The date and time was 10/22/2008 2:40 PM, and on a whim, Engineer
pounded out on the keyboard:
Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.
Cheers,
Roger

Hi Roger,

The best recommendation IMO was to install the free trial software from
Corel.

You can get older versions very inexpensive here:
http://www.everythingoutlet.com/cid/Corel-WordPerfect?gclid=CIOD4vKBvJYCFRNOagodlgl0LA

Word & OpenOffice don't import WordPerfect documents very well unless
they're just text.


--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
 
P

Patrick Keenan

Engineer said:
Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.
Cheers,
Roger

As it happens, earlier today, I was working on an old DOS system that had
both WordPerfect 5.1 and WordStar installed.

The documents that were wanted don't have extensions, and at the time, word
processors didn't add them.

All of the WP files open with no problem in Word (2003, as it happens).
Thankfully there weren't a lot of WordStar docs; these didn't translate so
cleanly.

So what you can do is just save those files to disk or USB key, take them to
a system that has WP or Word, open and do a Save As.

OpenOffice can be an excellent solution, so don't hesitate to use it. I
will point out that you should check the default document format - I've been
sent OO files that are in a format that requires a 30Meg converter be
installed to Word. Set the default format to word .DOC format if you need
to share files.

HTH
-pk
 
H

HeyBub

Engineer said:
Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!
Thanks for all replies. Feel free to email me at "analogdino
at(taboy) rogers dot(ty-as-they-)com(e)", suitably decoded - email
address shown is an anti-spam fake.

You can buy a copy of Word. Better would be a copy of Office Professional.
It's only a few hundred dollars.
 
D

Doug W.

I just opened up a WordPerfect file in OpenOffice 2.4 and it
works perfectly.

In any event OpenOffice is a valuable addition to any computer
and it is FREE.

Doug W.
------------
 
E

Engineer

Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.)  The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.)  I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files?  I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.)
(snip)

Cheers,
Roger

Thanks for for all replies. The good news is that OpenOffice9
opens .WPD files. So far no problems, looks good. Of course, I
should have tried this first!
Cheers,
Roger
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

Hi, All.
New to group so please excuse if OT, i.e. not just XP related.
My wife's PC has a number of Wordperfect files on it that she used to
run on an old installation of Corel7 (which did run under XP.) The
system crashed and I had to reload XP (all application programs
lost.) I'd rather not reload a 10 year old Wordperfect CD (designed
for Win95) on XP, so is there a public domain WP software out there
that will open native Wordperfect files? I've not tried Openoffice on
Wordperfect files yet (but it does open MS Word files.) From now on,
not needing exotic formatting, she'll store stuff as .RTF so that
anything can open it - but we have to get at it first!


I'm a WordPerfect fan. If I were in your shoes, I would buy a newer
version of WordPerfect.

I don't know whether there is any public software that will help you.
 
E

Engineer

As it happens, earlier today, I was working on an old DOS system that had
both WordPerfect 5.1 and WordStar installed.

The documents that were wanted don't have extensions, and at the time, word
processors didn't add them.

All of the WP files open with no problem in Word (2003, as it happens).
Thankfully there weren't a lot of WordStar docs; these didn't translate so
cleanly.

So what you can do is just save those files to disk or USB key, take themto
a system that has WP or Word, open and do a Save As.

OpenOffice can be an excellent solution, so don't hesitate to use it.  I
will point out that you should check the default document format - I've been
sent OO files that are in a format that requires a 30Meg converter be
installed to Word.   Set the default format to word .DOC format if you need
to share files.

HTH
-pk- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for comments. My default for simple documents is .RTF - anyone
can open it in free Wordpad.
Cheers,
Roger
 

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