Opening PageMaker 4 and 5 and WriteNow docs

[Clare]

Yeah, me again and once again I'm dealing with somebody else's legacy.

I've been given a shiny silver disc which was probably burned in about 2000. Can I get the docs off it please? Can I ekkerslyke.

Anyway what can I use to open PM4, PM5 and WN (no idea about the version).

Have tried all the standard Mac apps, InDesign and Libre Office.

MS won't even recognise there is anything on the CD.

[fuaran]

Try Scribus, seems it has some support for PageMaker files. https://www.scribus.net/

[ian]

For PageMaker, you probably need open them in PM 6, 6.5, or 7.0 to do anything useful, those are the ones that offer cross-compatibility with InDesign (I think they have an save as .indd option, if not InDesign should open the PM native file). If you are desperate I may have an old PM 6.5 disk lying around. Whether it'll install on modern hardware is another matter (and I can't remember if it worked without registration). Never tried Scribus (well, I did once, never got past the installation instructions).

No idea about WriteNow, it's truly ancient. You might be able to simply rename as .txt and pull the text out of it – depends on whether it's RTFy or a binary format, if it's the latter you're probably stuffed.

If Windows doesn't recognise the disk, it's probably Mac formatted. Or the dye has degraded and you have, in your hands, a piece of pointless plastic.

[Jaded]

If the files are really valuable then there will be a way.

I have Sheepsaver somewhere, and a MacBook PowerBook 1400 that might work...

[Clare]

For PageMaker, you probably need open them in PM 6, 6.5, or 7.0 to do anything useful, those are the ones that offer cross-compatibility with InDesign (I think they have an save as .indd option, if not InDesign should open the PM native file). If you are desperate I may have an old PM 6.5 disk lying around. Whether it'll install on modern hardware is another matter (and I can't remember if it worked without registration). Never tried Scribus (well, I did once, never got past the installation instructions).

I've got an old (2001) iBook that might run PM6.5 if your disk is Mac compatible. We are going to re-install the stuff it came with (OS9) and see what that will allow us to do but I might be back to ask if I can borrow your PM6.5 disk.

No idea about WriteNow, it's truly ancient. You might be able to simply rename as .txt and pull the text out of it – depends on whether it's RTFy or a binary format, if it's the latter you're probably stuffed.

I'd never heard of WriteNow when Vernon found it in a Text Edit box, I thought he was about to break into a bangin' choon from The Creatures.

Can't rename anything, the extensions are hidden and I can't find anywhere to untick a 'Hide extensions' box (the one in Get Info is greyed out), We can see text in a Text Edit box but it mainly looks like a bad representation of Guernica in ASCII. At worst we can extract the text.

If Windows doesn't recognise the disk, it's probably Mac formatted. Or the dye has degraded and you have, in your hands, a piece of pointless plastic.

It is definitely Mac formatted, I have been able to save all the images which were .eps to .pdf by the magic that is Preview. The person who tried to look at it on a Windows laptop got the wonderful info that the disk was full and there was nothing on it.

[Jaded]

OS9 didn’t normally have extensions, it had two four letter designators in the file, the Creator and Type codes. These were held in the resource fork.

A great little program was Maclink Plus. I had a copy, no idea if I still have.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacLinkPlus_Deluxe

[Clare]

If the files are really valuable then there will be a way.

I have Sheepsaver somewhere, and a MacBook PowerBook 1400 that might work...

I think my iBook should be of an age that at least recognises the files.

They are the original files for a number of Lace Guild publications, the problem was discovered when we needed to reprint the Honiton Basics book and nobody could find the files to send to the printer, then a stack of CDs were found in the safe, then Sue discovered she couldn't see anything on the CDs and suddenly it became my problem.

The fastest solution for the current problem will be for me to retype the book and get the patterns by scanning of one of the few books we still have. The image files all seem to be OK.

Longer term I want to get everything into a useable format and save it in at least three places and in a format that won't end up in a museum (or hanging from some twine on an allotment). After that it is up to Exec to keep things up to date.

[Clare]

I've had a look at Scribus but, as with Adobe, it doesn't seem to want to play with anything earlier that PM6.

[ian]

Hmm, I think the PM 6.5 might be Windows, I don't think I moved over to the darkside (again) till around 2007. Mind you, I think some Adobe apps came as Win/Mac on the same disk. Let me know if you want me to investigate further, it should be around somewhere, I don't actually throw anything away. Oh look, a Photoshop 6 disk.