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Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 2nd 15, 01:40 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 284
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

I need to make a simple flyer but I dont have a printer. I will make it
using Wordpad in Win98se, then take it to a local copy shop to print it
and make copies.

I'll be saving it as a .DOC file.

The print shop uses mostly Macintosh computers, but I know they have at
least one Windows machine, which is probably Windows 8.

Will that computer read my file corectly?

What about the Mac computers?

(I know not to use fonts that are not included in Windows).

-OR-

Would it matter if I used my XP machine and used Wordpad from XP???

Thanks

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  #3  
Old July 2nd 15, 04:12 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

Save it as RTF. You can write it in Wordpad or
Write. They're basically the same. It's what's
known as a RichText file.

If you can use XP you can also use Wordpad.
It should be in \Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\
But if you have XP you can install Libre Office, which
will give you more options and probably better printing.

RTF files tend to look a lot like early HTML files.
They're fine, but the details of font edges, colors,
etc just seem to be less precise than the more
modern counterparts.


  #4  
Old July 2nd 15, 04:24 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Bill in Co
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Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

Mayayana wrote:
Save it as RTF. You can write it in Wordpad or
Write. They're basically the same. It's what's
known as a RichText file.


Probably better to use Wordpad, which is newer. Come to think of it, I
didn't know Write was even on Windows98, but my memory may be failing me.

Some newer programs may not be able to open .wri files anymore, so best to
stick with Wordpad and its RTF format.

IIRC, some versions of Wordpad may save the file as .doc as the default, but
it's really a RTF file, in disguise. If that's the case, it might be best
to explicitly save it as RTF, so there's no potential for confusion on the
other end (when its being imported).


  #5  
Old July 2nd 15, 05:52 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 284
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

On Wed, 1 Jul 2015 21:24:59 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Mayayana wrote:
Save it as RTF. You can write it in Wordpad or
Write. They're basically the same. It's what's
known as a RichText file.


Probably better to use Wordpad, which is newer. Come to think of it, I
didn't know Write was even on Windows98, but my memory may be failing me.

I dont think "Write" came with W98. However, I do have it installed,
which I probably copied from Windows 3.x years ago. I have not used it
in years. But I use Wordpad all the time. I have never bothered to
install MS Word or any such programs. I never needed them.

Some newer programs may not be able to open .wri files anymore, so best to
stick with Wordpad and its RTF format.

IIRC, some versions of Wordpad may save the file as .doc as the default, but
it's really a RTF file, in disguise. If that's the case, it might be best
to explicitly save it as RTF, so there's no potential for confusion on the
other end (when its being imported).

This I never knew. I thought a .DOC file was a .DOC file. Wordpad does
all I need. The flyer I need to make is just text, but will need some
large letters (big font size).

Actually, I have AMI-PRO too, (which goes way back), but that has it's
own format, so I wont use that.

Now, I only need to try to remember which fonts are included in Windows.
I added lots of them over the years. I suppose to be safe, I should copy
all the fonts on the flash drive too, just in case!

Thanks!

By the way, I have WORDVIEW.exe installed to view never .DOC files.
Trying to load them in Wordpad makes wordpad crash!



  #6  
Old July 2nd 15, 06:55 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Bill in Co
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Posts: 1,927
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

wrote:
On Wed, 1 Jul 2015 21:24:59 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

Mayayana wrote:
Save it as RTF. You can write it in Wordpad or
Write. They're basically the same. It's what's
known as a RichText file.


Probably better to use Wordpad, which is newer. Come to think of it, I
didn't know Write was even on Windows98, but my memory may be failing me.

I dont think "Write" came with W98. However, I do have it installed,
which I probably copied from Windows 3.x years ago. I have not used it
in years. But I use Wordpad all the time. I have never bothered to
install MS Word or any such programs. I never needed them.

Some newer programs may not be able to open .wri files anymore, so best
to stick with Wordpad and its RTF format.

IIRC, some versions of Wordpad may save the file as .doc as the default,
but it's really a RTF file, in disguise. If that's the case, it might
be best
to explicitly save it as RTF, so there's no potential for confusion on
the
other end (when its being imported).

This I never knew. I thought a .DOC file was a .DOC file. Wordpad does
all I need. The flyer I need to make is just text, but will need some
large letters (big font size).

Actually, I have AMI-PRO too, (which goes way back), but that has it's
own format, so I wont use that.

Now, I only need to try to remember which fonts are included in Windows.
I added lots of them over the years. I suppose to be safe, I should copy
all the fonts on the flash drive too, just in case!

Thanks!

By the way, I have WORDVIEW.exe installed to view never .DOC files.
Trying to load them in Wordpad makes wordpad crash!


I seem to recall that some versions of both Wordpad and MS Works would or
could save files with a .doc extension, but that neither one was a "true"
..doc file, per se ("true" here meaning identical in format to one produced
by MS Word). Maybe both were .RTF in disguise.

As for Windows Write, you just reminded me: sounds like the Win 3.1 days.
And I bet it's so old it can't even use long filenames (as just one
limitation), so it's best to forget that one.


  #7  
Old July 2nd 15, 09:53 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 284
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

On Wed, 1 Jul 2015 23:55:17 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote:


Thanks!

By the way, I have WORDVIEW.exe installed to view never .DOC files.
Trying to load them in Wordpad makes wordpad crash!


I seem to recall that some versions of both Wordpad and MS Works would or
could save files with a .doc extension, but that neither one was a "true"
.doc file, per se ("true" here meaning identical in format to one produced
by MS Word). Maybe both were .RTF in disguise.

As for Windows Write, you just reminded me: sounds like the Win 3.1 days.
And I bet it's so old it can't even use long filenames (as just one
limitation), so it's best to forget that one.


You had me stumped on the long file names.
So I tried it. Yep, it does NOT allow long file names. I entered some
characters and saved as: "manuscript123.wri". I got an error saying name
is too long. Changing it to "manuscri.wri" worked.
I have not used it in years. I only copied it from Win3.x so I could
read old .WRI files.

I'll leave it installed though. It only uses 240K of drive space, so who
cares if it's there..... After all, I used to run Windows 3.1 on a 10
Meg HD, and still have lots of space left! When I got a 40 Meg HD I
thought I was set for life as far as drive space!




  #9  
Old July 2nd 15, 11:39 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Ammammata
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Posts: 209
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

Il giorno Thu 02 Jul 2015 05:12:40a, *Mayayana* inviava su
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general il messaggio news:mn29vv$97t$1@dont-
email.me. Vediamo cosa scrisse:


Save it as RTF. You can write it in Wordpad or
Write. They're basically the same. It's what's
known as a RichText file.



or make a pdf file using a free tool

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
http://www.bb2002.it

............ [ al lavoro ] ...........
  #10  
Old July 2nd 15, 02:01 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

| or make a pdf file using a free tool
|

Yes, Libre Office can do that, which seems
like a more dependable format to bring to
a printer. As far as I know, RTF is a Windows-only
format. It requires a Windows RichEdit window
to be displayed. Maybe Mac Office can do it,
but that doesn't seem like a smart chance to
take when it's not necessary.


  #11  
Old July 2nd 15, 04:25 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
micky[_2_]
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Posts: 926
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

On Wed, 01 Jul 2015 19:40:12 -0500, wrote:

I need to make a simple flyer but I dont have a printer. I will make it
using Wordpad in Win98se, then take it to a local copy shop to print it
and make copies.

I'll be saving it as a .DOC file.

The print shop uses mostly Macintosh computers, but I know they have at
least one Windows machine, which is probably Windows 8.


I'm not surprised they have at least one PC, and if they do art work I'm
not surprised they have Macs.

I stayed in the Lincoln Centre (spelled T-R-E) Hilton in Dallas last
month and they had 3 compters in the lobby, all of them Macs. All I
wanted to do was print my boarding pass to go home and look at a couple
webpages, and even that was hard because I didn't know how open more
than one "tab". I don't know who told them to buy 3 of the same thing.

Related to that, American Airlines has more foolishness with its
boarding pass. It has a big green button labeled "Print" but right
below that in black in medium sized text it says something like "Print
without tourist information". So if you don't notice this second
option you waste another page of possibly color printing while printing
out tourist stuff that you either already know about or have no interest
or time to go visit.

  #12  
Old July 2nd 15, 05:21 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
micky[_2_]
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Posts: 926
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

On Thu, 02 Jul 2015 03:58:41 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 02 Jul 2015 02:32:05 -0400,
wrote:

As for Windows Write, you just reminded me: sounds like the Win 3.1 days.
And I bet it's so old it can't even use long filenames (as just one
limitation), so it's best to forget that one.


When I play with the old Wordpad (98) files it talks about the Office
97 - 03 version of a DOC file when you open it in Office 2007 and try
to save it. The default on Wordpad (98) was DOC tho. I still have a
hundred or so that I have not changed to RTF and the XP version of
Word works fine (the program that it defaults to) but wordpad gives
you a bunch of those square boxes where the formatting should be.


If worse comes to worse, I'll put it on my XP laptop and just have them
plug a printer into my laptop computer.


I'm not sure "just" is the right word. They'll have to install their
printer to your computer, which means it will have to be listed in XP's
list of printers, or they'll need the installation program that came
with their printer but which they may have misplaced, or they'll have to
find and download the file from the maker's webste or elsewhere.

I was staying in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem when
I had to print something. I'm trying to remember what it was but I
think it was just a couple pages. Needless to say, I had no printer
with me. I did remember to bring a flashdrive with me (as cheap as $4
or 5 now) so I took the file** to a small Arab computer shop in the
Moslem Quarter (well, right by the Yaffa Gate) which mostly rented
computers to people who worked right there. They had about 15 PCs.)
But he couldn't print it. I could watch what he was doing, but I missed
the error message.

**(I forget what format it had, but it wasn't exotic. Probably from
notepad or wordpad.)

So I went back to my room and printed the text to a file, an option of
almost all text editing programs***. That he had no trouble with.
IIUC, one prints the file from a cmd box using DOS commands,

Copy textfile.txt lpt1

If somehow lpt1 doesn't work, prt1 sounds familiar. Com1 less likely,
but possible.

I don't know how to print it using a Windows program.

IIRC he charged me a modest but fair per page price, and then we had a
long talk about various things including his hopes to go to Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. I think he was finishing high school that
year.

So if I had to do it again, I'd put both versions on the flashdrive, but
I think printing to a file is better, because it assures you that what
gets printed from someone else's computer will be the same as what would
get printed from your own, if you had one. All the printer control
characters are inserted into the output file when you print to a file.
OTOH, if you only print the .rtf file and the second computer has some
setting that makes .rtf files print differently from your computer, then
it will.

Maybe .rtf was so firmly established that this can't happen??, but iiuc
some formats are complicated enough, or have gone through changes, that
it can. For example, the .doc format was originally meant iiuc for
Wordpad, a much more simple program than MS Word, and though it's
supposed to be backward compatible, maybe that's not perfect. And it's
not even claimed to be forward compatible. So at the very least if you
wrote it using win7 and wanted to print the document on a win98
computer, you'd be a lot better off printing to a file first.

***I just checked and the XP version of Wordpad has Print to File. I
had Windows ME at the time. I guess this was about 8 years ago, so XP
was out already. He probably had that.

I suppose one of these days I'll have to buy a printer again, but it's
been about 2 years since I needed anything printed. By now the ink would
have dried up. Thats why I dont buy them. They charged me about $2 to
print something from a flash drive a few years ago.


  #13  
Old July 3rd 15, 03:03 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 284
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

On Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:21:20 -0400, micky
wrote:

I'm not sure "just" is the right word. They'll have to install their
printer to your computer, which means it will have to be listed in XP's
list of printers, or they'll need the installation program that came
with their printer but which they may have misplaced, or they'll have to
find and download the file from the maker's webste or elsewhere.

I was staying in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem when
I had to print something. I'm trying to remember what it was but I
think it was just a couple pages. Needless to say, I had no printer
with me. I did remember to bring a flashdrive with me (as cheap as $4
or 5 now) so I took the file** to a small Arab computer shop in the
Moslem Quarter (well, right by the Yaffa Gate) which mostly rented
computers to people who worked right there. They had about 15 PCs.)
But he couldn't print it. I could watch what he was doing, but I missed
the error message.

**(I forget what format it had, but it wasn't exotic. Probably from
notepad or wordpad.)

So I went back to my room and printed the text to a file, an option of
almost all text editing programs***. That he had no trouble with.
IIUC, one prints the file from a cmd box using DOS commands,


It's done. I saved the file as both a .DOC and .RTF. I put it in my XP
laptop and the .doc file was all garbage characters, but the .RTF file
was fine. When I got to the print shop, they were closed. I thought they
were open till 5pm, but they close at 4. I ran into a friend who told me
to take it to the library, and they can print it.

I went to the library and she connected me to a computer. The .RTF
loaded fine, but because I put a small picture on the page, it would not
fit on one page. The woman told me she could fix it, and got the header
next to the picture, rather than below it, (which is what I wanted
anyhow). Then it fit the page and printed perfectly. I only had to pay
for the copies, not for any help. I'm very happy with the results.

I asked what software was being used, and it's MS Word 10, running
Windows 7. That's the first time I ever used Windows 7, or MS Word.
MS Word looked very complicted, but worked well for my needs. Windows 7
looks a lot like XP from waht I could see.

Thanks for everyone who told me to use .RTF. I quickly found out that
..DOC is useless, if transferred to another OS.


  #14  
Old July 3rd 15, 04:09 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

wrote:
On Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:21:20 -0400, micky
wrote:

I'm not sure "just" is the right word. They'll have to install their
printer to your computer, which means it will have to be listed in XP's
list of printers, or they'll need the installation program that came
with their printer but which they may have misplaced, or they'll have to
find and download the file from the maker's webste or elsewhere.

I was staying in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem when
I had to print something. I'm trying to remember what it was but I
think it was just a couple pages. Needless to say, I had no printer
with me. I did remember to bring a flashdrive with me (as cheap as $4
or 5 now) so I took the file** to a small Arab computer shop in the
Moslem Quarter (well, right by the Yaffa Gate) which mostly rented
computers to people who worked right there. They had about 15 PCs.)
But he couldn't print it. I could watch what he was doing, but I missed
the error message.

**(I forget what format it had, but it wasn't exotic. Probably from
notepad or wordpad.)

So I went back to my room and printed the text to a file, an option of
almost all text editing programs***. That he had no trouble with.
IIUC, one prints the file from a cmd box using DOS commands,


It's done. I saved the file as both a .DOC and .RTF. I put it in my XP
laptop and the .doc file was all garbage characters, but the .RTF file
was fine. When I got to the print shop, they were closed. I thought they
were open till 5pm, but they close at 4. I ran into a friend who told me
to take it to the library, and they can print it.

I went to the library and she connected me to a computer. The .RTF
loaded fine, but because I put a small picture on the page, it would not
fit on one page. The woman told me she could fix it, and got the header
next to the picture, rather than below it, (which is what I wanted
anyhow). Then it fit the page and printed perfectly. I only had to pay
for the copies, not for any help. I'm very happy with the results.

I asked what software was being used, and it's MS Word 10, running
Windows 7. That's the first time I ever used Windows 7, or MS Word.
MS Word looked very complicted, but worked well for my needs. Windows 7
looks a lot like XP from waht I could see.

Thanks for everyone who told me to use .RTF. I quickly found out that
.DOC is useless, if transferred to another OS.


Just remember "LibreOffice to PDF", for future adventures.

LibreOffice is available for Windows. Don't try to download
it over dialup. It's a "trip to town" package.

LibreOffice is on just about every LiveCD in the Linux world.
We're paying to hump that around all the time now. It adds
more than a 100MB to the DVD. And as an added bonus, when
you install Linux, the OS goes online and downloads another
metric ton of "Language Packs" that you don't need.

But once you have some version of it installed, it's the
most practical way to make a WYSIWYG portable PDF. As long
as your print is B&W or monochrome, there should be no issue
at the printer. If you're doing four color separation,
you'll get an earful from the printer about color space,
and you having to sign off on the results. PDF supports multiple
color spaces, but the tools generating the PDF might not
be fluent. And LibreOffice PDF output (coming from Cairo),
is nothing to rave about. It's barely adequate.

Color is a lot more tricky to get right, and the last thing the
printer wants to hear, is you won't pay for the order because
the colors are wrong. That's why tech exists to make
"perfect color transfer", in the hands of skilled
professionals. If you go to an advertising firm, they
can make a thing on their screen, that when printed,
looks exactly the same. Their tools talk the same
language as the tools the printer staff use.

Paul
  #15  
Old July 3rd 15, 05:41 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Ken Springer[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,817
Default Reading a Win98 Wordpad File in Newer Versions of Windows

On 7/3/15 9:09 AM, Paul wrote:
wrote:
On Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:21:20 -0400, micky
wrote:

I'm not sure "just" is the right word. They'll have to install their
printer to your computer, which means it will have to be listed in XP's
list of printers, or they'll need the installation program that came
with their printer but which they may have misplaced, or they'll have to
find and download the file from the maker's webste or elsewhere.

I was staying in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem when
I had to print something. I'm trying to remember what it was but I
think it was just a couple pages. Needless to say, I had no printer
with me. I did remember to bring a flashdrive with me (as cheap as $4
or 5 now) so I took the file** to a small Arab computer shop in the
Moslem Quarter (well, right by the Yaffa Gate) which mostly rented
computers to people who worked right there. They had about 15 PCs.)
But he couldn't print it. I could watch what he was doing, but I missed
the error message.

**(I forget what format it had, but it wasn't exotic. Probably from
notepad or wordpad.)

So I went back to my room and printed the text to a file, an option of
almost all text editing programs***. That he had no trouble with.
IIUC, one prints the file from a cmd box using DOS commands,


It's done. I saved the file as both a .DOC and .RTF. I put it in my XP
laptop and the .doc file was all garbage characters, but the .RTF file
was fine. When I got to the print shop, they were closed. I thought they
were open till 5pm, but they close at 4. I ran into a friend who told me
to take it to the library, and they can print it.

I went to the library and she connected me to a computer. The .RTF
loaded fine, but because I put a small picture on the page, it would not
fit on one page. The woman told me she could fix it, and got the header
next to the picture, rather than below it, (which is what I wanted
anyhow). Then it fit the page and printed perfectly. I only had to pay
for the copies, not for any help. I'm very happy with the results.

I asked what software was being used, and it's MS Word 10, running
Windows 7. That's the first time I ever used Windows 7, or MS Word.
MS Word looked very complicted, but worked well for my needs. Windows 7
looks a lot like XP from waht I could see.

Thanks for everyone who told me to use .RTF. I quickly found out that
.DOC is useless, if transferred to another OS.


Just remember "LibreOffice to PDF", for future adventures.

LibreOffice is available for Windows. Don't try to download
it over dialup. It's a "trip to town" package.

LibreOffice is on just about every LiveCD in the Linux world.
We're paying to hump that around all the time now. It adds
more than a 100MB to the DVD. And as an added bonus, when
you install Linux, the OS goes online and downloads another
metric ton of "Language Packs" that you don't need.

But once you have some version of it installed, it's the
most practical way to make a WYSIWYG portable PDF. As long
as your print is B&W or monochrome, there should be no issue
at the printer. If you're doing four color separation,
you'll get an earful from the printer about color space,
and you having to sign off on the results. PDF supports multiple
color spaces, but the tools generating the PDF might not
be fluent. And LibreOffice PDF output (coming from Cairo),
is nothing to rave about. It's barely adequate.


If the job is simple, even if color, I think a more practical way would
be a PDF printer driver, rather than have to deal with Libre Office or
similar.

Color is a lot more tricky to get right, and the last thing the
printer wants to hear, is you won't pay for the order because
the colors are wrong. That's why tech exists to make
"perfect color transfer", in the hands of skilled
professionals. If you go to an advertising firm, they
can make a thing on their screen, that when printed,
looks exactly the same. Their tools talk the same
language as the tools the printer staff use.

Paul



--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 36.0.4
Thunderbird 31.5
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"
 




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