[Gloucs] Old WordPerfect files.

[Simon Fryer]

G'Day,

On 06/11/2008, Geoff Bagley <geoff.bagley at btinternet.com> wrote:

[...]
> I still have a lot of old files on floppies, which I would like to read.

You seem to have a disk drive for your floppies - which makes life easier.

> Please what is the best way to read old  Windows3.11/WP51  files on a
> Debian GNU/Linux machine ?

I assume you have tried open office and abiword to try and read the files.

If the formatting is not very important, you *should* be able to use
strings to get the text from the files.

Last option is to use something like dosbox and run WordPerfect under
emulation - if you can find the disks.

Final option that doesn't meet the requirements you have stated above,
but *should* work. Find a friend with a Windows box and Office. I have
just checked my work machine and Word claims it can read WordPerfect
5.x files. Then save in a format that your favourite editor can read.

I am not aware of anything specific in the free/open source software
world that converts WordPerfect files into a more common format.

Simon

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, an engineer is not concerned with the truth; that is left to
philosophers and theologians: the prime concern of an engineer is
the utility of the final product."
Lectures on the Electrical Properties of Materials, L.Solymar, D.Walsh