Migrating files from the very first iMac to a nice, new XP laptop.

[Guest]

So, my aging mother bought a computer a number of years ago and rather than
listening to her son, she bought an iMac. It has served her well. However,
it is so old that she really needs to upgrade. I purchased a nice new
Toshiba Satellite Notebook. The issue: she has many files (all created in
Appleworks and all documents) which she will need that I need to get off the
iMac and then convert into Word.

My Question: Assuming that the old iMac has a USB drive, does anyone know
if my USB flashdrive will work? Does it need to be configured differently
for Apples?

My second question: is Word capable of opening Appleworks files and saving
them as Word files? ( I assume the answer is yes).

Third, if the USB flashdrive will not work, any ideas will be welcome. My
last resort is to e-mail each file but that would be tedious.

Thank you!

 

[Anando [MS-MVP]]

My Question: Assuming that the old iMac has a USB drive, does anyone
Please consult the Apple support forums or Apple Support
http://www.apple.com/support

Microsoft Word (for Windows) cannot. Word X for Mac can only open certain
AppleWorks 5/6/6 Japanese Word Processing files after the installation of a
convertor.


--
Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
Microsoft Certified Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org

Folder customizations
http://www.anando.org/folder

 

[Elmo]

So, my aging mother bought a computer a number of years ago and rather than
listening to her son, she bought an iMac. It has served her well. However,
it is so old that she really needs to upgrade. I purchased a nice new
Toshiba Satellite Notebook. The issue: she has many files (all created in
Appleworks and all documents) which she will need that I need to get off the
iMac and then convert into Word.

My Question: Assuming that the old iMac has a USB drive, does anyone know
if my USB flashdrive will work? Does it need to be configured differently
for Apples?

My second question: is Word capable of opening Appleworks files and saving
them as Word files? ( I assume the answer is yes).

Third, if the USB flashdrive will not work, any ideas will be welcome. My
last resort is to e-mail each file but that would be tedious.

Thank you!

The same flash drive should work on both a Mac and a Windows machine.
That said, the one time I tried to show this to a Mac owner, the drive
wasn't recognized on his new iMac. This link I received from a
TigerDirect email today says it should work with MACs and XP alike. I
mention this one specifically because it's "free after rebate", and,
when looking for a compatibility guaranteee, this happened to be the
link I clicked:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...0003 ISS&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=WEM1238CU
Compatibility

* Windows 98SE/2000/ME & XP
* Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2 & 10(X) or higher
* USB 2.0 or 1.1 compatible

 

[Webshrink]

My Question: Assuming that the old iMac has a USB drive, does anyone know
if my USB flashdrive will work? Does it need to be configured differently
for Apples?

Nope, your key should work fine unless it is not backwards compatible to USB
1.1 which is what the old iMac may have.

My second question: is Word capable of opening Appleworks files and saving
them as Word files? ( I assume the answer is yes).

No. You can, however, open the files in Appleworks and save as .txt files
which Word can open and then save as a .doc file.

It will also depend on her naming convention. Appleworks allows the use of
the "/" in the file name whereas the PC side will see that as a directory
structure. Such as, she could have a file named Cookbook / Grandma /
PBCookies.?? That file will not export to a PC, normally you will see a
"Filename too long" or some other error when you try to copy or move the
file over.

Third, if the USB flashdrive will not work, any ideas will be welcome. My
last resort is to e-mail each file but that would be tedious.

You should not have a problem with this. I have a 128MB key that I use
between my W2k, XP, OS8 and OSX machines.