Moving PC WordPerfect files to Word?

Question

Moving PC WordPerfect files to Word?

I have recently started using my new Mac, and so far I have moved nearly all of my old useful info from my PC successfully. However, I have many, many, many documents in WordPerfect. I have installed Word, and I can save them individually in Word on my old computer and transfer them, but it will take a long, long time, and the ones I've tried replace some characters with others, and these are simple files.

Has anyone tried an app that moves WordPerfect files to Word for Mac? I've tried to find out more online, and in two possibilites I've found are NeoOffice for Mac and WPD Wizard. Basically, I would like to be able to use and save my documents in Word now, especially since it's how most of my fellow workers save their documents. It's not clear from what I've read if either of these tools would allow me to do so. It seems as if these would allow me to read them, but I would like to read, edit, save, and use the documents in Word.

Sorry--it's a specific question, but I was very attached to WordPerfect and I didn't quite understand how complicated this part of the move from my PC would be.

I appreciate any information or advice about how to learn more anyone can offer!

Thanks very much.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Dec 16, 2012 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 16, 2012 2:54 PM in response to leighfromgrand rapids

NeoOffice, OpenOffice Mac and LibreOffice are all Office "work-alike" packages. They will present you with similar problems to using Microsoft Word -- that you will have to handle each and every file.

You can reduce complexity slightly (in Word or any other package) by opening a handful of files, then saving each of them in Word format.

WPD wizard looks like you can drag and drop a handful of files on it, and have them all open, then save them as Word format as well. Since this seems to be its ONLY trick, I expect you would need less "fixing up" using this Application.

Nothing seems to provide a batch conversion. You could do a bunch of conversions until they become too tiresome, then convert more later when you need them or when you feel the urge to do more.

------

I have a similar problem with older files created by Microsoft Word itself -- version 3.02 and 5.1a. It takes opening and re-writing with several different intermediate versions to get files that can be edited by today's version of Word or Pages.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,458 points

Dec 16, 2012 5:32 PM in response to leighfromgrand rapids

As of version 3.4, OpenOffice Writer no longer supports opening Word Perfect files. The functionality was removed due to licensing issues. NeoOffice now charges a $10 donation fee to access the full distribution. The latest free LibreOffice for OS X still supports opening Word Perfect files that can then be saved in .doc, or .docx format.

WPD Wizard is in the App Store for $10. Last updated in Sept. 2012. Can open Mac and Windows WPD files. Here is a features page that reveals more detail information on supported versions and file formats. File export appears to be limited to .rtf, or PDF. Or copy/paste from the Word Perfect documents. Argh.

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Answer 3

Dec 16, 2012 5:54 PM in response to leighfromgrand rapids

Open them and resave them with AbiWord [free]/

Peter

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Answer 4

Dec 16, 2012 6:24 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Peter-

What version of AbiWord for the Mac?

Do you have to build it yourself or is there a recent one pre-built?

Does it work in later than 10.6.8? There are a lot of references to cocoa on their site, and I hope that is not to the old Mac Cocoa, as I fear that is not supported in 10.7 or later.

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Answer 5

Dec 16, 2012 7:38 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Sometimes you have to do some of the work.

Peter

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Answer 6

Dec 16, 2012 7:43 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I see version 2.4.5 is available pre-built for the Mac.

What version did you build and are you running?

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Answer 7

Dec 16, 2012 8:06 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Last time I tried it was well over a year ago.

I don't need to use it, so it was to test it for someone else.

Just try it, that's what I would have to do.

Peter

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Answer 8

Dec 16, 2012 9:26 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks very much. I will look into AbiWord, but I now understand there's not a great program that can do just what I want. I am now more willing to accept the individual conversion I had started to suspect was necessary.

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Answer 9

Barry

Level 9

60,023 points

Dec 16, 2012 10:25 PM in response to leighfromgrand rapids

Hi Leigh,

NeoOffice v3.1.2, which was the last of the free ones at the time Neo started requiring recent donations to get the (then) current version, list .wpd (Word Perfect) as one of the file formats it can open. The process would be similar to that used with the others mentioned.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 10

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,458 points

Dec 17, 2012 5:54 AM in response to leighfromgrand rapids

AbiWord v2.4.5 (latest download) is a PowerPC-only distribution, and will not run on Lion (10.7.n) or Mountain Lion (10.8.n). The OP mentioned, “my new Mac," so AbiWord for Mac would not be an appropriate recommendation in this post.

The latest Abisource source pool work was from last month Nov.2012 and the version is 2.9.4. The AbiWord source code is convoluted, complex, and has 21 external dependencies found only in Dante's Inferno. Not worth the time investment.

I did install AbiWord 2.8.6 on Windows 7. It offers .wpd and .wp file import. Save as offers .doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, and others. The install is straightforward and slow. This could be a possible solution to convert selected WordPerfect files on the Windows side to .doc files, and then move them over to Mac for post-processing with Pages or Preview. There also may be better tools that I previously mentioned that work on Mac.

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Answer 11

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,293 points

Dec 17, 2012 11:57 AM in response to leighfromgrand rapids

Several tips in this blogpost:

http://www.themaclawyer.com/2009/09/how-do-i/how-to-work-with-wordperfect-files- on-a-mac/

How to Work with WordPerfect Files on a Mac

By J. Benjamin Stevens on September 25th, 2009

Some attorneys just seem to love WordPerfect. I am not (and have never been) one of them, though I have several good friends who are. For that reason, I occasionally receive files in *.wpd format, which I must open on my Mac. This might seem to pose a slight problem, since there hasn’t been a Mac version of WordPerfect for several years.

Fortunately, there are several solutions to this "problem." The one that I prefer is to simply open the *.wpd files using NeoOffice, a free open source word processor, and then saving into one of the many available formats, which will work with virtually all of the Mac word processing programs. In fact, many attorneys use NeoOffice as their word processing program, though I prefer Pages for my firm.

Of course, if you don’t want to use NeoOffice, you can also utilize one of the following methods: online translators (Zamzar or Media-Convert), translation program (MacLinkPlus), other word processing programs (Open Office, AbiWord, or Nisus Writer), or run WordPerfect for Macintosh using Classic environment (pre-Intel Macs) or Sheepshaver (Intel Macs).

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