text files corrupted?

[David]

When I open text files on my XP machine, all sorts of weird characters
come up instead of the original text. Any idea what the problem might
be?

TIA,
David

 

[Elmo]

When I open text files on my XP machine, all sorts of weird characters
come up instead of the original text. Any idea what the problem might
be?

If you open a Word .doc file with Wordpad or Notepad, you'll probably
see the formatting characters otherwise hidden. Is that what's happening?

 

[Malke]

When I open text files on my XP machine, all sorts of weird characters
come up instead of the original text. Any idea what the problem might
be?

1. In what program were the files created?
2. In what program are you trying to open them?

Offhand, it sounds as though you are trying to open files created in a
word processor (Works, Word, Word Perfect for ex.) in a program that
isn't equipped to do that such as Wordpad or Notepad.


Malke

 

[David]

Nope. These are text files, not work docs.

Full story. These were on an XP machine and then transferred to a Mac
where they were never used. There were recently moved to another XP
machine. The same result occurs on the Mac and new XP machine. They
are no longer on the original XP machine.

Thoughts?

David

 

[Malke]

Nope. These are text files, not work docs.

Full story. These were on an XP machine and then transferred to a Mac
where they were never used. There were recently moved to another XP
machine. The same result occurs on the Mac and new XP machine. They
are no longer on the original XP machine.

Actually, that still isn't the full story because you forgot to tell us
with what program you are trying to open the files. I would try and open
them with something like Text Wrangler on the Mac and if successful,
save after changing the Document properties to Windows line end format.
Make sure you save the files like name.txt because the default in OS X
is to not include the file extension and Windows needs this.

If this doesn't work, then the files have been corrupted somewhere along
the line and might as well be trashed. Replace from backup,


Malke

 

[Poprivet`]

When I open text files on my XP machine, all sorts of
weird characters
come up instead of the original text. Any idea what
the problem might
be?

TIA,
David

 

[David]

I'm attempting to open them with Text Wrangler on the Mac and
UltraEdit on XP.

 

[Malke]

I'm attempting to open them with Text Wrangler on the Mac and
UltraEdit on XP.

If neither of those programs will read the files successfully, they are
too corrupted and should IMO just be trashed. If you didn't have a
backup you took before all the back-and-forthing, then they are
basically gone.

Sorry I was unable to help you.


Malke