Convert from WordPro to Word

No - you'll need to go through a two step conversion, whether via RTF, Open/StarOffice, Wordperfect or an earlier version of Office

Yes, this is what we have found out, too. We "save as" in WordPro as a Word 95 file then import in Word 2000 on another PC.

Our client is just going to have to go through this tedious process. To some extent it is their own fault, as they have not bothered to upgrade, in the full knowledge that this person was using an ancient unsupported operating system as well as an old wp application.

Thanks to you both anyway

Moderator, I think it is unlikely that there is a solution to this one. What should I do with this question?

Crak's on the right track too.  Why not remove office.  Install Office 95,install the wordpro converter, use the batch convert macro, then install the latesr version.

Possibly, remember the old machine is Win3.1. If we were to use an intermediate PC we'd need Office 95, which we don't have.

WordPro converter no longer available either, see my original question.

Just checking and OpenOffice has not got a WordPro Import

I came across

http://www.xpertss.com/cgi-bin/webdata_freebies.pl?fid=938343854&query=pagenum%3D1%26cgifunction%3DSearch&cgifunction=form

but again you will need an new version of SmartSuite.

The Microsoft word (pun intended) is

SUMMARY
=======

This article explains how to convert documents between Lotus Word Pro and
Microsoft Word 2000. Lotus Word Pro is the successor to Lotus Ami Pro
versions 3.x.

Although Word does not directly support the importing or exporting of Lotus
Word
Pro 96 word-processing file formats, you can use one of the following
methods to
view and edit your document.

How to Convert Lotus Word Pro Documents to Word
-----------------------------------------------

To convert documents from Lotus Word Pro to Word 2000, follow these steps:

1. On the Lotus File menu, click either Save As or Import/Export.

2. If you select Import/Export, select the option to export your document
into
   another file format.

3. Select one of the following file format options in the List Files Of Type
   list in the Save As dialog box or the "Export to what file format" list
in
   the Import/Export dialog box:

    - Rich Text Format (RTF)

    - MS Word for DOS 3,4,5,6

    - MS Word for Windows 1.0

    - MS Word for Windows 2.0

    - MS Word for OS/2

    - MS Word for Windows 6.0

   For best results, select the option that most closely matches your
version of
   Word.

4. Click Export to convert the file, and then open the document in Word.

After you convert the file to Word 6.0 format successfully, you can convert
it to Word 2002, 2003 etc.

For additional information about Word text converters, click the article
number
below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

212265 OFF: Additional Text Converters and Image Filters Available in
Microsoft
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=212265

The following third-party conversion solution companies provide converters
for Lotus Word Pro:

   Dataviz, Inc.
   www.dataviz.com

   Verity, Inc.
   www.keyview.com

Lotus Word Pro 96 is manufactured by Lotus Corporation. For more
information,
contact Lotus Technical Support at (508) 988-2500, or browse to the
following
Lotus Web site:

   http://www.lotus.com

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find
technical
support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does
not
guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

The third-party products that are discussed in this article are
manufactured by
companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty,
implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these
products.

Keyview Export looks like an option.

You may also want to check
http://www.minstersystems.co.uk/download.htm
though this requires WordPro and access on the same machine.

Given that the old PC is running Windows 3.1 rather than 3.11 here’s a rather perverse alternate.

Clone the HD to the new machine.  Upgrade Windows 3.1 to NT 3.51, apply NT3.51 SP5.  Upgrade 3.51 to 4.0. Apply NT4 SP6.  Check apps still working and ghost again.  Upgrade to 2K, XP or 2K3, check again.

This perverse method will get the best conversion through cut and paste as both wordprocessor's register the formats they accept with the clipboard.

Yes, I think NO was the best answer :-)

Thanks all, but no success. Atheist's link to xperts was useful but it assumed WordPro was running on Win 95 or above

She will continue to convert existing files to Word 95 then with a floppy put them onto her new PC running Win XP and Word 2003. Formatting goes a bit awry, but she is tidying them up.

It is not ideal but she'll copy the files across as she needs them and eventually when all are done she can scrap fthe old Win 3.11 PC

Sorry, butno points this time

The questioner may not like the answer, but several have been given, for example:

No - you'll need to go through a two step conversion, whether via RTF, Open/StarOffice, Wordperfect or an earlier version of Office

I wouldn't mind if this Q would get PAQ'ed without an accepted answer, but I must agree with atheist. We both suggested a two-step conversion; exactly the way gerlis' chose to do this!

gerlis, have you tried other intermediate formats (like RTF) to see which gives the best result for the original layout?

We had already established that, refer to my original question:

"We could save as Word 95 (version 7).  Save a file to a floppy disk and took it
to another computer.  Found that this could be successfully imported into Word 2000."

And this is what we are now doing. What we were idealy looking for was a batch process.

Then, if macro's don't aid to this problem, I don't know of any such thing, so ok, PAQ it.
Do yourself a favour though, and ditch those floppies if you can. Can't you establish a network connection or use a USB memory drive instead? The jobs is boring enough without diskettes slowing people down!

Good point re: floppies, but this is an ancient Win 3.11 486 PC! We could try a zip drive I suppose, but she is coping well enough with floppies. Anything more technical and she panics!

Thanks for your assistance anyway.

But if she saves all Word95 files some place, you could help her right?
You must have considered that already I assume.....

So far we have been looking to MS for converstion. Never thought of checking with Lotus. They can be considered 3rd party, right?

See http://www.lotus.com/products/product2.nsf/wdocs/faq
And http://www.lotus.com/products/product2.nsf/wdocs/ssfact

Summarized:
SmartSuite Release 9.8 runs on Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, Win NT4, Win 2000 and: Win XP!
Its able to read files from earlier versions of SmartSuite.
It can save in Word 95, 97 and 2000 format or lower.
Costs US $235 (Retail) or US $176 (Upgrade) (compare with the employees cost: how much time is lost the conversion?)

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but this may be your "3rd party tool"!
Unfortunately there's no free trial for download....

I keep an old copy of SmartSuite that was distributed on the cover of  the UK Mag PCPlus for when I come across WordPro docs.

But the old copy may not be able to convert from WordPro straight to Word2003.... So you're stuck with a 2-step conversion.
This one does it in a single step!

many thanks

The following solution helped me with
a similar problem.

I found a viewer for various Lotus files.
It goes by the name "KeyView for Lotus".

It will not allow you to save the files to any other
format, but will print and do the cut-n-paste.

If you print to the wormhole printer ''Acrobat PDFWriter'',
you can then open the created PDF file,
if you have the the right Acrobat software,
and save it to [ for example ] RTF files.

The layout after these steps in not impressingly
similar to your original, but at least acceptable.

There exist also wormhole printers ( = allow
you to print to a file ) that will create html files.
Although I never seen any, perhaps you can find
one that will print to a MS Word file.

              Tristan L.

references:
- HTTP://WWW.KEYVIEW.COM/LOTUS.HTML (found in readme file)
- on the Lotus SmartSuite Millennium edition CD
go to : '' \EXTRA\VIEWERS\KVLOTUS\ ''
- the installer is named : '' KVLOT32.EXE '' - 2.57MB

Tristan L. (aka harlekeyn ?)

Thanks, but in this instance it wouldn't have helped as they need to share the Word docs for full editing. There is a free Word viewer available from M$

Mind you I have often found that using the PDF output on a file can bypass printing and viewing problems in any document, whether Word or not.


 

Please ignore my last comment, I thought you were responding to another problem a client had recently, to do with Word files! Sorry! Doh!

Tx for your suggestions

Key View for Lotus is the only solution.....rest all is crap