CLEAR! *FWOOMP*

[stoney321]

That was the sound of a defibrillator you just read. Because my heart stopped beating there for a bit. So, I had an old computer that was XP with Corel WordPerfect on it, and I wrote my hopefully-one-day-published memoir on it. Saved it six different ways, on different computers, because I was being s-m-r-t. Tried to open it on my new computer (Vista/Microsoft Works) and got 976 pages of gibberish.

Huh.

Emailed my sister to see if her computer could read it, since she's on XP. Nope, all gibberish. Same thing with my husband's laptop: nada y pues nada. All. Six. Copies.

Turns out you can't save something in Corel and have it open in Microsoft's word processors, because Bill Gates hates people. So... I was pulling my hair out, rocking and moaning because Oh. My. God. My book!!

I went to my old computer, opened it, could read it (THANK THE HEAVENS), saved it as a txt file, rtf, doc, ASCII, you name it. Moved it over to the new computer. Only the .txt file will open. BUT IT OPENS. No formatting, none of the footnotes, endnotes, no page breaks are there. BUT THE WORDS ARE. Holy crap, you guys, my hands are just now starting to stop shaking.

So, instead of swimming, BBQing and lounging like I planned this extended weekend, I will be reformatting the book I thought was lost forever. I'm not complaining, mind, just... holy crap. (Err, and if anyone knows of a 1337 way to convert a .wpd to a .doc, that would be SUPER FANTASTIC.)

[ETA] Oh, how much do I love jgracio and dwivian? SO MUCH. Open Office was the key. It's all there. ALL THE FORMATTING, EVERYTHING. I'm so thankful, you guys. So much love for you both.

Comments

[that_mireille]

Ouch!

I have to deal with this all the time (because my father refuses to use anything but Word Perfect, and guess what THE REST OF THE WORLD (as in his webmaster, his students, his colleagues, his editor...) uses? NOT WORD PERFECT, that's right). But we've *usually* had decent luck with .rtf files. (I say "usually" because sometimes they are gibberish and we can't figure out why.)

I am glad you have managed to save the text, though!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I really disliked Word Perfect, so I don't miss that, just... oh, the formatting! The footnotes on EVERY PAGE (almost) gone!

The rtf's just didn't transfer. But at least the basic notepad txt files did.

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

Have you tried it on OpenOffice?

They might have better WordPerfect support.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

!!!!

I don't know! I'm downloading Open Office right now to find out. Holy... THANK YOU. (I'll let you know if it's the answer.)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I want you to know that I have tears literally running down my face. In conclusion: IT WORKED.

I cannot thank you enough, I seriously mean that.

Hand over my mouth, crying. Thank you.

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

Gosh, shucks, nuthin' to it ma'm. :)

OO's a fine tool, and being Open Source, well, less commercial issues to stand in the way of the tools.

I'm glad it worked.

[melbournegirl.livejournal.com]

Thankgod. I'm looking forward to purchasing your fine, fine book.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

*beams!*

Hopefully there WILL be a book! I might have an answer to the problem *points up*

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

You could try converting it to .pdf and seeing what happens? That won't give you the ability to edit it, but it should give you a complete copy with all the formatting that you can copy over.

If you need help converting to .pdf, just drop me a line--it's actually REALLY simple, just involves some downloading. :-)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

i tried - didn't work. Neither did creating an XML file, a doc, an rtf...

Microsoft just haaaaaaaates Word Perfect. I mean, I do, too, but GOOD HELL.

[dwivian]

I'm told that Open Office can read Corel and write Word with a little formatting loss, but not nearly all of it will go away. And, OO is free!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

It absolutely worked, and I just let JGracio, who first pointed that out to me, how grateful I am.

Thank you so much - it's all there.

[lynnenne]

I am so relieved for you! *hugs*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Lynne, I looked like my icon.

Now that I can see it all??? i'm all fluttery in my stomach. Oh my GOD. *leans*

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I am so glad Open Office worked. That's what Aaron uses and he loves it.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I am so on board with this software...

Saved my hair from going white today, it did.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Open Office is wonderful and infinitely easier to use than Microsoft Word in Vista. (HAAAAAAAAAAAAATES Vista. HAAAAAAAAAAAAATES it.)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

If Vista had eyes, I would gouge them out.

[poshcat.livejournal.com]

OMG I'm so glad your book was saved before I read your post, because I would have been throwing up on your behalf if it wasn't!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget Stephen King, that was the scariest thing I've read in forever. I can't even begin to think about reformatting the entire book. ::faints::

Now...go BBQ, missy.

PS It's 5 degrees here and raining. AM GETTING IN THE CAR TO YOUR HOUSE NOW.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Poshy, it was AWFUL. Awful awful thinking all that work was corrupted/gone. And I thought I was being so smart, saving it in so many formats, moving them to other machines!!

Why is it cold and awful there? It is SO HOT here today. We went to Six Flaggs yesterday and it sucked sitting in the rollercoasters, waiting for them to start with the sun baking down on us. Augh.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

*reads the ETA* Man, am I glad it worked out for you.... o.O

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, you and me both. STUPID COREL!!! Open Office: it looks like it can convert ANYTHING. And? FREE!

[anelith.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEK! Was this what was happening to you that evening you and I kept missing each other via chat? My god what a scare!

I'm noting down that Open Office is the way to go if we ever move up to Vista. We are thinking that when we finally are dragged kicking and screaming to a new computer, we might switch to a Mac, because we are so scared of Vista.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

YES!!!!

I was going to see if it was just Vista. I got my sister on the phone, and thought - at that point - that surely she would be able to open it. Nope. So awful.

And it wasn't a Vista problem, it was a problem with Corel's Word Perfect and Microsoft word processors. Apparently, Corel is Bad and no one likes using it because of it's limitations. That would have been good to know before hand!

It looks like Open Office can convert a huge host of file types to anything you could need, so it's a good resource, regardless.

[jerusha]

Oh, I have done that before. It sucks, but I am so glad you could recover it!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Yeah, losing the book I've been working on for over a yeaer would have been beyond suckage. That would have been sackcloth and ashes and me wandering the desert!