I've got a diskette that I put some info on over three or four years ago, that I need to open. Unfortunately, I used Word Perfect at the time, (can't remember which version, probably old at the time), and I desperately need to open it, but MS Word 2002 doesn't seem to be able to do it. At the time on the computer I had then, whatever version of MS Word I had, to the best of my memory, would open it with no problem. I think Word 2002 has a converter, but I it doesn't work or at least I can't get it to. I thought it was automatic, for that matter.

Now all I get when I open it is mostly a bunch of Y's and O's. Since I don't have Word Perfect anymore, does anyone have any idea how I can get it to open?

Not sure but I think I have opened some old type files in Notepad before. From Win3.1 days.

OK, tried Notepad to, and it won't work. I also tried to download a trial version of Word Perfect, but they don't seem to have there act together. You have to register, but then when I log in, it's not recognized. Guess I'm screwed.

Get an old version of word perfect off an abandonware site of some sort. IF you have a lot of difficulty, come into IRC and ask around there, people may know where you can obtain a copy or something that will convert properly.

I have Word 2002 and as you say it should convert word perfect documents automatically, although mine only lists word perfect 5.0 and 6.0, If yours is older you may need to load other converters.
Are your docs being recognised by word when you list them to open.

Storm, I did what you said, even installed all of the conversion tools. Still no go, and they are sensitive or I would send them to you, thanks though.

Hodsocks, mine is the same as yours, I think it only goes back to 5.0 and 6.0. But I really don't know what version the file was made on, it's been a while.

Forgot to mention, although it might be important, when I try to open the file, the MS Word box in the task bar blinks constantly till I click on it and then I get a small box, with all the y's and o's and an option to change to a different conversion, none of which works. Thought maybe Norton might be a problem, turned it off, same problem.

Also, the file conversion box, when I try to open it, still doesn't show Word Perfect or much of anything, except Chinese, Tiawanese and such.

I'm begining to wonder if the files are corrupt. Will going through an airport xray machine mess a diskette up? I've been through a lot of these things with that disk, and others, but never had problem. This IS the oldest one though.

I have opened MS Word files with WordPad in the past though the formatting wasnt exactly flawless also sometimes there are a few character "conversion" problems. If what you basically need to do is be able to read the document then plain old WordPad should be sufficient. As far as wanting to edit those Word files then that is different issue which I'm not sure about.

Acid, I just tried Notepad, same result, except it's all in code. At any rate, it's kind of time sensitive, I need it for work, and it's time to go, so I guess I'm screwed. I still need to open it though if it's not corrupted. I'll check back here later, if anybody has any more ideas. Thanks everybody.

What about Works 4.0?

Papa, I don't know why I said it, but the above quote was meant to be addressed to you, not Storm, no offense intended. At any rate, I finally got it to open on one of my sons computers, although it's not formated right, I'll have to retype it. He's a lot smarter than me, he found some kind of a converter on the web that worked when I couldn't. Edit; But it's kind of scrambled. Still don't understand what happened to that doc.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that helped, I really appreciate everybodies quick responses.