OT-mass conversion of .wpd to .doc

[Geleg]

Guys,

I know a lot of you are handier with computers than I am. Our family recently made the switch from pc to mac, and I am confronted with an issue. I have about 10,000 files created in Wordperfect (.wpd) that I now (grudgingly) need to convert to .doc or .docx so that I can access them on the mac.

So I'm looking for a program that can batch convert .wpd to .doc. Any suggestions? I found one free program (can't remember the name, but it ends in 'zillion' - it's on the home computer and I'm currently at work), and a couple of for sale ones. The latter (including Convert Doc) are really expensive.

I'm not really interested in making my mac into a pc (through those progs that accomplish this task). I want to make a clean cut from the old and convert fully to mac (and, by default, to Word).

Anyone know of anything that might suit my needs? Preferably something cheap?!

thanks in advance,

Geleg

[Eisenmann]

I've never had much luck with batch conversion. Instead, you may want to check out NeoOffice and convert them as needed.

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

[Geleg]

thanks, Eisenmann.

I've heard vaguely about Neo-office. But in looking here http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/ ... le_Formats it's not clear to me that Neo-office will open Wordperfect X5 (i.e., wpd 15) or that it would even allow me to save them in a new format.

but then again, I'm not perfectly sure that I understand what's going on ...

[mgtremaine]

NeoOffice is just OpenOffice with some OSX features. You should try OpenOffice to see if it can open the files. If so use BatchConv

http://oooconv.free.fr/batchconv/batchconv_en.html

Or try Abiword to see if that will open them it also has a command-line converter which I know I have used to change 100's of files at a time.

Good Luck.

-Mike

[Geleg]

thanks again, guys. Abiword looks pretty intriguing, although it seems less oriented toward the Mac at the moment.

anyone ever use Nisus Writer Pro? It costs a bit (but only $79) and seems to be able to open wordperfect and save to other formats.

[Eisenmann]

I've only tinkered with Nisus Writer Pro so I really don't know all that much about the app other than it uses RTF as its "native" format. If Nisus Writer Pro looks like it'll fill your need be sure to check out the Mac Legion bundle which includes the app and a few others that you may find useful.

http://maclegion.com/?tid=102d3ddf65e02 ... 1173&ref=4

The bundle's going for $49.99.

[Geleg]

woah! nice bundle, there.

so here I betray my ignorance. I know what an .rtf file is. But when you say it's native format is .rtf, that doesn't mean that I couldn't use NIsus to save a file as, say, .docx, does it?

In other words, I'm hoping I could 1) install Nisus (for ex); 2) transfer all my wpd files to the mac harddrive; 3) as needed, open one of those .wpd files in nisus; 4) save/export the file as .doc or .docx.

but I suppose what you're saying is that if what I describe is what I want to do, then Open Office will do it just as easily as Nisus (and without having to pay any money at all). Right?

I appreciate you all bearing with my quasi-illiterate knowledge of such things ...

[Eisenmann]

woah! nice bundle, there.

so here I betray my ignorance. I know what an .rtf file is. But when you say it's native format is .rtf, that doesn't mean that I couldn't use NIsus to save a file as, say, .docx, does it?

Basically what that means is that Nisus Writer Pro doesn't have a proprietary file format of its own. Its default file format is RTF.

In other words, I'm hoping I could 1) install Nisus (for ex); 2) transfer all my wpd files to the mac harddrive; 3) as needed, open one of those .wpd files in nisus; 4) save/export the file as .doc or .docx.

Here are the formats that Nisus Writer Pro supports:
http://www.nisus.com/pro/tour-fileformats.php

but I suppose what you're saying is that if what I describe is what I want to do, then Open Office will do it just as easily as Nisus (and without having to pay any money at all). Right?

I appreciate you all bearing with my quasi-illiterate knowledge of such things ...

Hey, no problem. And, yep. I think OpenOffice or some derivative will do the trick for you. I've got a friend who swears by Nisus Writer Pro. He loves it.

[Geleg]

i was just messing around with abiword in my office (on a pc), and it will do the trick nicely. If the mac version is as easy, then my problem is solved ... and for free.

most of my wpd files are very simple texts, in which formatting is at a minimum. They should pose few conversion issues.
Problems may arise with three types of docs:

1. my academic writing, with footnotes, endnotes, and some foreign-but-still-latin characters
2. a variety of docs containing tables
3. my megadungeon doc, which is formatted with newspaper columns and plenty of tabs, etc within.

clearly that latter is the most important.

i'll run a little experiment and see how abiword handles each ..

[Eisenmann]

LOL Cool. Yea, keep us posted on how it goes.

[Geleg]

well, abiword failed, actually. [edit: it failed to convert docs with footnotes to .docx; in fact asking it to do so crashed the program every time. it would save a .wpd document with footnotes to .rtf, but the formatting of the notes got screwed up]

now I've downloaded open office and it works pretty well, although it cannot save directly to .docx. Still, if i open .wpd in OpenOffice, save as .rtf, and then open in word2010, everything works pretty well.

i'm leaving the office now to see if it works as well at home on the new mac

[Lord Dynel]

I've heard of Doxillion Document Converter, which can be found here. Perhaps that's what you were looking for?

[Geleg]

Lord Dynel - that's the one. It's pretty good, but doesn't do well with the more complex type of .wpd files (i.e., with footnotes, columns, or tables). For simple conversions, it is fine (and free!).

so here's the results of my testing:

1. Abiword: nice-looking, but not fully functional for my purposes.
2. Open Office - very cool. and free! One problem (which is more a problem of MS Word) is that word 11 for mac won't open .odt files! Otherwise I might be using open office exclusively. [why the need for word? for sending files at work, professionally, etc)]. It's one serious flaw is that it will only export to Word 2003 and prior, and not directly to .docx. Strange, eh?
3. Neo Office: very nice. It does cost $10 (a 'donation', but required). Unlike Open Office, it will export files directly to the .docx format. N.B.: Both Open Office and Neo Office did a fine job of opening .wpd files (even my three 'difficult' test types), and of converting them to .odt or to .rtf formats.
- I give an edge to Neo Office because it will convert directly to .docx.
4. I decided to take Mike's advice and look at Nisus Writer Pro, through the maclegion bundle (i don't really need those other apps, but it's a great deal!). I hold some hope that it might be a more elegant base word processor.

Thanks to the advice of Mike and Eisenmann, I have changed my entire outlook on this process. I started out thinking that I would need to convert all 10,000+ .wpd files to .doc before transferring them to the mac. Now, I will just transfer them wholesale to my mac as .wpd files, and will open them as needed in Neo Office (or perhaps Nisus, as it's downloading now ....) and then convert them to whatever format I need (probably .docx).

This is a far easier procedure, and for that I'm very grateful for your advice!!!