Works to Word Conversions

MS Works is a Microsoft word processor that usually comes bundled with new computers. One must purchase MS Office to use MS Word. Our computers use MS Word. Many customer computers use MS Works. MS Word cannot open MS Works files. What do we do?!

I have added a page to the MPLIC Wiki with instructions on converting Works files to Word files using http://www.zamzar.com.

This page can be found under the Helpful Handouts section of the Staff Development wiki.

How to Open Files

A couple staff have contacted me lately because they were having difficulty opening customer files. The cause of the problem was due to the fact that they were trying to use Word to open the file. And the type of file format that the customer wanted to view was not a Word document. They ended up getting gibberish like you see to the right.

Have you ever gotten that before? Basically, Word has no idea how to read the file, but he will try anyway. Much like if I tried to read a language I did not know or if I tried to explain abstract art. I'll give it a try, but you probably won't get anything useful.

So how do you know what program you are supposed to use? Just let the computer choose. Follow these instructions in this past MPLIC Tech Train blog post that explains how you use the Address Bar in Internet Explorer to view files on a customer's disk or flash drive. If you access the file directly, the computer will automatically use the best program to view the file.

In one instance, the customer wanted to view a PDF (or .pdf) file format. A PDF can only be displayed by a PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader. Click here for more information on PDFs.

In the other instance, the customer wanted to view a picture (generally a J-Peg aka .jpg file format, although many more image file formats exist).

Microsoft Word can only properly display certain types of file formats, mainly .doc files (document files).

There are many file formats out there. File format extensions can be found at the end of the file name. For example:

Healthy Websites.doc
Form 1040.pdf
Grand Canyon.jpg

For all you file format nuts out there, you can see this ENTIRE LIST OF ALL FILE TYPES...crazy.

See Also:

Search for the Format You Want

Search for the Format You Want

Someone recently passed on a Google search tip that could be useful when creating a quick First Responder display. This tip could also be useful for customers wanting to print something basic on a broad topic. For example, you would like to display a fact sheet and some of your books about Manatees. You need to find something that can be printed quickly and easily.

We all know the Web is not the best format to print from, but the Web also holds many PDFs. PDFs are wonderful in that the documents remain the same no matter what computer you are on, hence the name Portable Document Format. For example, if the IRS did not use PDFs for their tax forms, different computers would arrange the text in different ways. Not what the IRS wants. So whenever people want to place their documents online and they also want to ensure that the format of those documents is not changed, they will place them online as PDFs.

To perform a search from Google for only PDFs, click on Advanced Search. Enter your search terms in the first text box. Then, about the sixth line down, you will see File Format with a text box that lists several different file formats. Select Adobe Acrobat PDF. Your search results will return PDF files only. These are all files that are "ready to print".