Where can I get old versions of Microsoft Works?

[bruce-leroy]

Hey gang. So I'm writing something for grad school and I need some notes I wrote on the subject, like 10-12 years ago. I have the notes on a diskette, and I have a USB diskette reader. However, the current version of microsoft works word processor won't open the files. Notepad will open it somewhat, but it won't open the full file (some of the data gets translated into what computer professionals call "goobledegook"). Is there anywhere on the net I can go to get old, old, SUPER old versions of microsoft works? Like, the version that shipped with windows 3.1?

[tokenuser]

Hey gang. So I'm writing something for grad school and I need some notes I wrote on the subject, like 10-12 years ago. I have the notes on a diskette, and I have a USB diskette reader. However, the current version of microsoft works word processor won't open the files. Notepad will open it somewhat, but it won't open the full file (some of the data gets translated into what computer professionals call "goobledegook"). Is there anywhere on the net I can go to get old, old, SUPER old versions of microsoft works? Like, the version that shipped with windows 3.1?What word processor are you using? MS have installable file readers for many of their legacy aps on their web site.

An alternative, is to try renaming the file to *.RTF, and opening up in word. A lot of the early MS Workds files were actually RTF files. Formatting might still be skewed, but most of the gobbledegook should be removed.

Its worth a try.

[computoman]

It would be interesting to see if "openoffice" would work with that file.

[bruce-leroy]

I'm using Microsoft Works 8.0 word processor.

Excuse my computer ignorance, but how do you rename the file extension? I tried to rename it as a .rtf, and it came out as "filename.rtf.wps", and gave me the same error message.

[slonkak]

Excuse my computer ignorance, but how do you rename the file extension? I tried to rename it as a .rtf, and it came out as "filename.rtf.wps", and gave me the same error message.

Two quick ways. First is to open a command promt, cd to the folder with your document, and
move file.wps file.rtf

Other way it to make Explorer show you the extensions. Goto the control panel, open folder options, goto the view tab, and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types." Then you can just rename the file from Explorer.