MacLink plus and Mountain lion no longer compatible? How to read WP files?

I'm not sure your question has anything to do with AppleWorks, Apple's long-discontinued productivity suite. Support for all PPC apps via Rosetta was discontinued with Lion & DataViz dropped MacLink long before that. The last I heard, AbiWord could open Word Perfect files.

This is just another example of the need to research the implications of upgrading. Be pro-active & ask questions beforehand rather than try to recover afterwards. At a minimum, you should keep a bootable copy of your existing system on an external drive.

lpell2 wrote:

I just upgraded to Mountain Lion and MacLink Plus won't work. When I click on MacLink Plus, I get a message saying PowerPC applications no longer supported. I went to the Dataviz site, but MacLink is not even listed as one of their products. I have hundreds of Word Perfect files from years of using a PC. I was just translating them into readable form as I needed them using MacLink Plus. I will be lost without it. Is there another product out there that can do this? Why is MacLink no longer being supported?

The need for MacLink Plus has greatly diminished in time, as the competing products user base fell off. Think about it: how long ago was it that YOU purchased MacLink Plus. With no income stream, there is no basis to continue to update these products.

lpell2 wrote:

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I was using Snow Leopard and that was fine, but I wanted to be able to use ICloud to keep all my devices up to date.

When you are done flogging yourself for not being "pro-active & ask[ing] questions beforehand rather than try[ing] to recover afterwards..."

Consider these Workarounds:

1. Restore OS X Snow Leopard;

2. Partition your hard drive or add an external hard drive and install Snow Leopard into it and use the "dual-boot" method to choose between your PowerPC software or Lion/Mt. Lion;

3. Upgrade your software to Intel compatible versions, or find alternative software that will open your data files [as you have discovered, this option may not be available to you]; or

3. Install Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) into Parallels:

[click on image to enlarge]

Full Snow Leopard installation instructions here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

NOTE: STEP ONE of the instructions must currently be completed on a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac and the resulting modified Snow Leopard.cdr install file can then be moved over to your Mountain Lion Mac for completion of the remaining steps.

NOTE 2: Computer games with complex, 3D or fast motion graphics make not work well or at all in virtualization.

A much easier version of Snow Leopard to install that would achieve the same results, is to install Snow Leopard Server into Parallels.

Originally costing $499 from Apple, it can now be found on eBay for $125 or less.

Another option is to run Word Perfect (classic) on your Mac. This would require the use of SheepShaver (or its cousin Chubby Bunny) and would most likely require the IT assistance you suggest, as well!

More information on these options here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=14927170&postcount=28

Your best option is probably what you suggest: do it on your Snow Leopard Mac with an external HD (or flash drive) and start to convert them sooner than later!

There were "macro" programs for the Mac, but I have lost touch with them.

lpell2 wrote:

...Maybe I can figure out how to create a macro (sorry that's probably a PC word) to run a program to translate them in a batch.

This guy (GeneMike) is going through exactly what you are; so read this post (and those that follow) and perhaps join that discussion:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3114414?answerId=20276287022#20276287022

My solution: I kept an old Mac (iBook) with 10.6 for my programs that won't run on new OS--my accounting software, and Solitaire--my favorite time waster.

MacLinkPlus works fine on the the iBook. I transfer all the unreadable files (Word, in my case going back into the early 90s) onto the old laptop with a USB stick, convert them to newer format using MacLinkPlus, then transfer them back to my new computer. You can convert whole folders of files at one time, including folders within folders. File names are retained, but the "created on" date changes to the conversion date. It's much easier than I anticipated.

Since these posts, I have discovered that LibreOffice (free download) will open WordPerfect files and save them in Word .doc format.

Thank you SO much for this reply, MichaelLAX. I too have large archives of old WordPerfect documents that I need to see every now and then.

All,

I was in a similar situation. I had maclinkplus software on my 10.6.8 that converted WP files to current DOCX format. I upgraded my OS to 10.8.3 and was not able to use maclinkplus anymore because of compatibility issues.

Here is my fix. Files that were created in WP, I changed the format to save in RTF. Took the RTF file and opened in Microsoft Word and saved in DOCX format. This how I now convert all my WP files to open in current DOCX format.

Hope this helps.

What has files created in WP to do with AppleWorks?

Do we really have to answer this question; or can you read the last four 2013 posts (and the OP) for yourself?

It is meant as an eye opener. This forum is about AppleWorks and not Word Perfect. It seems that only Peggy and I know that.

Feel free to be in interloper, but your comment is 20 months stale dated...

Quite honestly, I read the OP's question and answer it irregardless of what topic it is posted to. I am not applying to be a moderator...

You, on the other hand, have enough points that you can ask a moderator to move it!

Firstly I didn't post in repons to your post at first and secondly it isn't helping people that are looking for answers to their problems with AppleWorks getting post about applications that this forum isn't about. It isn't a catch all forum.

Your question was clearly stated to all of us who have posted WordPerfect information...

Since this stale topic was revived, I reviewed it and realized that my original post about opening Word Perfect files was now incomplete and posted the information about LibreOffice. At least one reader found that newly posted information helpful enough that he went to the bother to thank me for it!

Now, providing helpful information, to me at least, far outweights the slight error of an incorrect topic decision by the OP.

Further, the "indignity" of posting WordPerfect information in an Appleworks topic will make no difference to future readers who search the term WordPerfect. They WILL find this thread...

Most NEW users use SEARCH and not BROWSE; that is why it is called: "Search communities"

Can we leave it at that; or must you have the last word?