Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject: NeoOffice and File Conversion
I have been using Open Office on a PC for some time. I also use Microsoft Word. I recently acquired a MAC. My students frequently upload WordPerfect and Microsoft Works documents for review. I was unable to convert any of these documents using Word for the MAC. What a pleasure to discover that NeoOffice would do the trick. I find the interface clean and enjoyable to use (although a visual font picker would be nice). Thanks NeoOffice!
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:13 pm Post subject:
You can enable visual font menus by choosing Tools > Options > NeoOffice > View and checking "Show preview of fonts". We disable it because otherwise it foces loading of every single font on the computer which makes it durned slow
Joined: Oct 31, 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Victoria BC Canada
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:38 pm Post subject: Word 5.1a format conversion?
Yes, the file conversion possibilities in NeoOffice are great. For us old timers, there is one format that would be most welcome: MS Word 5.X. In its day, starting with OS 7, it was widely held to be the best word processor ever conceived on any platform (WordPerfect for Win may have been a competitor until MS started subverting it with sneaky code in Win 95). In any case, it was a unique product of the MS Mac unit before they were ordered to make the Mac version function like the WinWord 97 one (resulting in the horrid Word for Mac v.6, which was widely shunned).
As screens got above 640 X 480 and monitors greater than 14 inches, it became harder to use Word 5.1a with older eyes, so due to its magnifiable windowing I used WordPerfect 3.5e for the Mac for a time, a 'close but no cigar' effort. Thankfully the WP 3.X files do translate into NeoOffice.
But, I still have all these Word 5.1a files from a very productive period of my life (I used it up to yr. 2000) that I can only convert by booting into OS 9 and using a converter there. Most awkward. Thus my question: is there any prospect of a Mac Word 5.X file format converter? I would be loathe to ask this over at OOo due to the dominant attitudes, though I should be able to justify it, as at one time I believe there were over a million Word 5.x users and that adds up to a lot of files.
Or maybe I'm wrong; doing a search here didn't turn up anybody else referring to Word 5.x conversion issues, that I could find. Such may be the past-blotting pace of digital obsolescence
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:52 pm Post subject:
Yeah I don't know of anyone who's planning on working on a Word 5 converter. I don't know even if iWork can do it. Historically until Word 6, the Mac version was independent of the PC version and the two had evolved different file formats. I think Mac Link Plus still supports Word 5. It's not free, but at least it will run without Classic. Might be the last solution available for Intel macs, too.
I too miss Word 5. Slick and minimalist, a welcome set of design ideals in this day and age.
Joined: Oct 31, 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Victoria BC Canada
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:03 pm Post subject:
As of iWork 1.x it couldn't translate Word 5 files. I didn't know MacLink had an OS X version, I have their 11.02 version, which is a Classic app, and I'm not about to pay them again for this one conversion. When I have the bucks, I'd rather donate it to NeoOffice.
You may not get layout but NeoOffice does a respectable job of accessing content in the few old Word 5.1 files I've tried. Fairly basic text files.
Make sure that you end the Word 5.1 filename with '.doc' (missing in most cases because the Mac never need such suffixes). When presented with the "ASCII Filter Options" dialog during the opening process, make sure you change from the default Unicode (UTF-8 ) character set to the Western Europe (Apple Macintosh) before clicking on OK to proceed.
But even dragging the file onto the TextEdit icon will open the file and give access to the basic text content.
Not a full solution but trust this might help a little. _________________ Ray Saunders
World Scout Bureau
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