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August 15, 2002
File Formats
By Jeffrey Branzburg
A while ago I received a call from a father who told me his son had used a relative's computer to write a report and then later could not open it at home. It turns out he wrote the report using a different word processing program from the one he had at home, and his program did not recognize the file. This does not need to be a problem. There are a variety of ways to read different file formats, even if you do not have the program that created the document.
Save As
Probably the easiest way to ensure that your file can be read by another program is to use the Save As function. Unlike an ordinary Save, the Save As function allows you to change the format of the file to that of another program. Many programs support a wide range of Save As possibilities; for example, Microsoft Word 2000 on my PC allows me to save a file as a WordPerfect document as well as Word for Macintosh and previous versions of Word for PC.
 | The pull-down menu in the Save As screen offers options for changing file formats. |
Export
Some programs do not include a Save As function, or the Save As function does not include the program you want. In that case, look for an Export function. This frequently works the same way as Save As.
But what if you are the recipient of a file that somebody e-mailed to you or gave you on a floppy disk and you do not have the application that created it? There are still ways to get the file opened. (One note of caution: be sure to run a virus check on every file you receive via e-mail or disk to ensure it is virus-free.)
Try Just Opening It
I have found that most popular programs can open a wide variety of other file formats. When I receive a file in an unknown format, I check it for viruses and then try to open it through Microsoft Word. From the File Menu in Word I choose Open and then navigate to the file's location. If the file is not visible in the list, I make sure to change the Show Files of Type box to read All Files. I select the file, click open, and see what happens!
Converters
This will not always work-no solution is foolproof! In that case you may need to use a file converter. A quick search on www.shareware.com yields a list of converters such as Translation CM Plug-in, which can convert between Macintosh formats (such as from Microsoft Word 5.1 to Microsoft Word 6.0, Write Now 3.0, or Nisus Writer 4.0), and Any Image, useful for doing quality conversions between common image file formats. My favorite graphic converter is Paint Shop Pro, which allows me to open virtually any graphic file and then save it in any other supported format-of which there are over 30.
Viewers
Sometimes you may just need to view the contents of a file, rather than have it available to edit, work with, etc. In that case a file viewer may be just what you need. Probably the most common viewer is Adobe Acrobat Reader, the program used to read files created in the Adobe Acrobat format. Adobe gives the viewer away for free on its Web site. Also popular is PowerPoint Viewer, which enables those without the presentation program to still view presentations.
Commercial Products
If shareware and freeware programs do not suit your needs, there are also commercially available programs to convert between file formats. For example, Abbott Systems has a product named CanOpener that can recover text from damaged, foreign, or virus-infected files on Macs and PCs. And the DataViz product Conversions Plus allows users to open, view, print, and convert a wide variety of files, including Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and AppleWorks.
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