Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

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Methen
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Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

When I installed openoffice it converted a lot of my rtf and text files to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document
when I tried to change the file association back all that did was give me a bunch of mixed up letters when I tried to uninstall
open office the results were the same how do get it back to the way it was I do not want to have to convert each file manualy I have to many and formating my computer is a lot of trouble.
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Zizi64
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Zizi64 »

When I installed openoffice it converted a lot of my rtf and text files to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document
The Microsoft format descriptions are NOT published (not opensource). The OOo developers make the converter routines with reverse engineering.

The NATIVE format of OpenOffice documents is the ODF. The ODF is an international Standard. If you work with OpenOffice, always save your documents into native formats (.odt, .ods, odg, odp.) At end the editing of a document make a copy in another document format, if necessary (doc, rtf, xls, etc.).
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Methen
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

Zizi64 wrote:
When I installed openoffice it converted a lot of my rtf and text files to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document
The Microsoft format descriptions are NOT published (not opensource). The OOo developers make the converter routines with reverse engineering.

The NATIVE format of OpenOffice documents is the ODF. The ODF is an international Standard. If you work with OpenOffice, always save your documents into native formats (.odt, .ods, odg, odp.) At end the editing of a document make a copy in another document format, if necessary (doc, rtf, xls, etc.).
Iam sorry but that is not going to fix my problem what I want is for things to be back the way they were before I installed open office.
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Villeroy
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Villeroy »

Nothing gets "converted" when you install another program. Modified document icons indicate that a double-click will load the same file's data into the new program. That's all.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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floris v
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by floris v »

When you install openoffice.org it doesn't do anything with your files. You may have opened those rtf files and saved them in Word format, and if you don't have Automatic file name extension turned on, that will overwrite your old files. If that's what you did, there's no chance to get back your original files. Note: OOo is bad at handling RTF files.
If you didn't open & save any files, something else went wrong.
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Methen
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

I have most of my files backed up on cd what I want to know is why does it still do the same thing even when I uninstall
open office and use a fresh copy of a file from a cd how do I fix that?
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Bill
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Bill »

Methen wrote:I have most of my files backed up on cd what I want to know is why does it still do the same thing even when I uninstall
open office and use a fresh copy of a file from a cd how do I fix that?
You're going to have to provide more information. What is the actual file format? Your statement that the RTF files were converted to DOC files leaves the format in question since files don't get converted automatically from one format to another. Can you upload a sample file that won't open correctly? What application are you using to open the files?
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

The oringal format was ether test or rtf Ill see if I can find something to upload but most my stuff is personal
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

Ok I found something this was a password to something which I do not remember
the oringal test for this is (eyfzjVTm) now if I try to use jarte or word pad to open this I just get a bunch of mixed up letters
this was oringaly created with ether word pad or jarte.
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Villeroy »

The file is a Word 6 file.
Writer has no problem with it.
Same with http://abiword.org
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Methen
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

Well All I have on my computer is openoffice windows word pad and jarte
and when I try to open that file with the oringal software that created it windows word pad this is what I get

for some reason it will not let me paste so I had to make a screen shot ( see file)
it does the same thing whan I uninstall open office too.
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Zizi64
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Zizi64 »

I have many old Word6 documents. The was created under Windows 3.1 with WinWord6. I never they converted with OpenOffice. I never tried to open with Wordpad before, now I have try.

Result: the Wordpad of WinXP can not open the old Word6 files! But can open the newer Word97/XP files. The MSOfficeXP and OpenOffice3.2.1 can open those old files fine.
(I have MSOfficeXP, and OpenOffice3.2.1 on my PC)

Conclusion (for me): The OpenOffice works fine, the error is in Wordpad.


I think you converted those files into Word6 format, but not Word97/XP format. You need to convert those files really into Word97/XP format.
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

I have never had word 6 on my computer Ive always used the windows word pad or jarte.
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Zizi64
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Zizi64 »

You wrote:
When I installed openoffice it converted a lot of my rtf and text files to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document
The Word95 can save into WinWord6 format,
the Word97...2000...XP can save into WinWord6 format,
Do (can?) the Word2003 or Word2007 it? I do not know... I never used them,
the OpenOffice can save WinWord6 format,
jhe jarte: what is it?

maybe you convert those files with one of these programs, accidentally.

OpenOffice save format choosing:
Save_formats.png
Save_formats.png (9.72 KiB) Viewed 12148 times
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Bill »

Methen wrote:I have never had word 6 on my computer Ive always used the windows word pad or jarte.
That doesn't matter. Older versions of WordPad could save in Word 6 format, but support for the Word 6 format has been dropped in newer versions. Jarte claims to be able to save in Word 6 format, but in the current version, the Word 6 files are actually RTF files with a DOC extension. I don't know if Jarte ever saved true Word 6 files. Your Word 6 files might have come from an old version of WordPad. They certainly weren't converted by installing OOo. I'm not aware of any application that converts user files like that. File associations and file icons might change when OOo is installed, but that doesn't modify any user files or their format.

Jarte uses the WordPad editing engine and text converters from Microsoft. The text converters were disabled in Windows XP SP2 due to security concerns. I'd forget trying to use Wordpad or Jarte to open Word 6 files and use OOo to open them. If you want to open files in Jarte or WordPad, then you should use OOo to save them in RTF format.

MS09-010: Vulnerability in WordPad and Office text converters could allow remote code execution
Methen
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Methen »

Well in that case then how come my jarte and word pad cant open them then I never had this problem until after I installed
open office.
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Villeroy »

By mere installation your files will never be converted. This is technically impossible.
If OOo can open those files convert all of your old files to ODF and forget about compatibility issues for the years to come.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Bill »

Methen wrote:Well in that case then how come my jarte and word pad cant open them then I never had this problem until after I installed
open office.
Coincidence? I have several thousand RTF and TXT files on my system and have installed OOo dozens of times. Why have I never had this problem after I installed OOo?
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by floris v »

Methen wrote:Ok I found something this was a password to something which I do not remember
the oringal test for this is (eyfzjVTm) now if I try to use jarte or word pad to open this I just get a bunch of mixed up letters
this was oringaly created with ether word pad or jarte.
Opened easily in Word 2002.
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floris v
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by floris v »

The only thing that could be wrong is that your Windows register took some damage so that your programs can no longer read Word 6 files. Solution: get Abiword or re-install OOo.
Look, many years ago I bought my third or fourth computer for the sole reason that the new antivirus software didn't run on my old one, it was too slow. For the rest it was still fine. So I said, too bad, and bought the new computer. Moral: sometimes we have to do things another way than we like. You may have to start using other programs to access your old files. You will have to sooner or later, because the version of Wordpad that comes with Vista (and I suppose with Win 7 as well) also refuses to open Word 6 files. If you really need those old files, now is the time to convert them to a format that will be readable for a while.
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Bill
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Re: Converted my text doc to Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document

Post by Bill »

See if this helps open the Word 6 files on Jarte:

http://www.jarte.com/office_word_6_conv ... ed=s&ve=41
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