MacWrite 2 Documents in MS Word 98

Hi, idipous -

Dataviz's utility MacLinkPlus Deluxe should be able to translate those documents if Word can't do it directly. MacLinkPlus works seamlessly in the background in conjunction with OS 9's File Translation services.

Some versions of AppleWorks (bundled versions of AW5, perhaps some versions of AW6) came with an OEM version of MacLinkPlus. If a Mac-equipped friend has such, you might ask them to translate the files for you.

I used to help PC-using friends by using AW5 and MacLinkPlus to convert PC-WordPerfect files to PC-Word format.

Hi, idipous -

Filenames can be a bit tricky across platforms.

Mac OS 9 (and earlier Mac OS's) can handle a filename no longer than 31 characters, including all extensions. OSX can handle names much longer than that, as can Windows. However, DOS can handle filenames only in the 8.3 format (8 characters basename plus 3 characters extension).

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If you are using a DOS-formatted disk, such as a PC-formatted Zip disk, to transport or save files, that may result in a change made to the filename to accommodate the restrictions of the disk format.

The long-term solution would be to reformat such a disk to a Mac volume - Mac OS Extended is the preferred Mac format for both OS 9 and OSX.

A short term solution for that, or one if you can not reformat the disk (reformatting will erase everything on it), is to download and install Joliet File System by Thomas Tempelmann.

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Files created or modified on a Mac running OSX can result in filenames too long for OS 9 to accept, in which case they will be truncated (shortened). Don't know of any work around for that, other than to manually fix the names of the files.

Don

How do I post a message on the message board and what does the dot in dot com stand for?

Hi, sboro -

How do I post a message on the message board...

You just did!

If you mean in the place where you would like it to be, specifically to start a new Topic of your own -

In Discussions, new Topics can be created only when viewing a Forum page; they can not be created when viewing a Category page.

A Category page would be one like this -
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=99

Note that the word 'category' is the last word in the URL before the 'ID=###' element of the URL. The word 'Category' is also displayed as part of the pagename for the above page; that page element is immediately below "Apple Discussions" in the upper left of the page.

In order to post a new Topic within a category, you would need to enter one of the forums (in this case one of the two forums) shown in the upper section(s) of the page. In the example, and for this thread, you would enter the "Using Mac OS 9.x" forum -
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=669

Note that the URL for that page has 'forum' as the last word preceding the 'ID=###' element, and that the pagename includes the word 'Forum'. Once you are viewing a forum page, there will be a new link in the upper left, under the pagename: "Post New Topic". Click that to create a new Topic of your own in that forum.

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...what does the dot in dot com stand for?

Don't know exactly, other than the word 'dot' is used to verbalize the period that precedes the element "com" in an internet address, such as Apple.com (pronounced aloud as "Apple dot com"). The convention of pronouncing the period as "dot" is also used for other domains, such as Fred.org (Fred dot org), etc.

The word 'dot' is also often used in text work to represent the period in URLs.

For one reason, it's easier to see or refer to "dot" than it is to see or refer to ".".

Another reason is to foil bots sent out to harvest email addresses - such as by using "meATplaceDOTcom" instead of "me@place.com".

Yet another reason is that most of us seem to think in those terms. When I'm typing Apple.com, I spell it out for my fingers as "capA p p l e dot c o m" rather than "capA p p l e period c o m".

As for the function of a 'dot' in a URL - don't know the technical lingo, but it is used as a separater, a specific character used to separate different elements of an address. This allows the processing computers at the central server farms to identify an address and direct traffic to where it should go.

Don you are a legend

What back up method would you most recommend for a personal computer?

Sboro

power book g4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi, sboro -

The backup method I use is supplemental hard drives.

Since I have a G4 tower, I can (and do) have more than one drive in it. I have two internal drives, one of which has been partitioned into three volumes. In addition, I have three full-time firewire drives connnected.

On a regualr basis (at least monthly) I do a full-drive backup of the drive I use most of the time to one of the volumes on the other internal drive. I use Finder to make that backup copy - since I use OS 9, I do not need to use a specialized utility.

In between times I do incremental backups of just data files to one of the firewire drives - this I do nearly every day. It's my habit to back up a file as soon as I'm finished with it for a while.

I've set things up so it is very easy to make incremental backups without using any program other than the OS. I create a project (or equivalent) folder on the firewire drive; then I make an alias to that folder and place it in the project folder on my main drive. When I'm done with a file for a while, I just drag it to the alias and let go - Finder automatically copies it into the folder on the firewire drive (I do have to okay a replacement if I've copied the file there previously). No fuss, no fancy utilities - just quick and easy. All it takes is developing the habit to do it.

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Since I believe in redundancy when it comes to my stuff, all seven volumes have OS's on them, all are bootable.

In addition, I have an emergency-boot pocket-size firewire hard drive with a universal (boot any Mac) install of OS 9.2.1 on it, plus all the utilities I can think of that I might need. I put a universal install of OS 9.2.1 on it so I can use it with either of my dissimilar G4s.