my beloved wordperfect

starmouse · #1 June 28th, 2004, 08:20 PM

I am almost completely converted to OS X. Finally. The only thing tying me to OS 9 anymore is Corel WordPerfect 3.5.

I adore wordperfect for it's customizability,
bottomofpage-bottomofnextpage scrolling,
tilewindows,
clean horizonatalinepagebreaks (as opposed to 'here's a pretend piece of paper, grey space, new pretend piece of paper'),
print preview,
invisible margins,
hotkeys,
showcodes,

not to mention that I was actually *raised* in a wordperfect household and have been using it for as long as I have been using a computer .

The fact that Corel had dropped the Mac side of the project several years ago wasn't really an issue until OS X came along. Even then, I figured I could still use it in Classic. After it became clear that my darling was not quite as stable in its new home as it used to be, I began the search for a replacement. I've tried several other programs (Ullysus, Copywrite, Nisus, Mariner, LaTex, Appleworks6, off the top of my head, plus some others that didn't last long enough to make an impression), and nothing seems to have even *most* of what I want.

Recently I've gone back to using WP, but it seems like more and more compatibility issues keep popping up. The latest and most aggravating is an error that appears when I try to open certain files, or just when I leave it idle for too long in the background: "Disk Full Error (-34)"
The size of the file doesn't seem to matter; it will open a 934k file, but not a 96k file. I've got about 40gb of empty space on my hard drive. My disk is *not* full.

I've tried reinstalling from the original CWP3.5 disk, allotting more memory to classic, alloting more memory to WP (though that seems to have been undone by the reinstallation), rebooting, approaching the file like ninja...

basically, I'm stumped and annoyed. What I really want is a permanent fix that will make wp stable in Classic so that I can keep using my little darling forever'n'ever, but failing that, I really need to get these files open. I've tried opening them in some other programs, in a 'just checking' sort of way, with predictable success.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions someone here might be able to give me.

Thanks!

~molly

**Cheryl** · #2 June 29th, 2004, 07:55 PM

I agree, nothing has replaced WordPerfect. It was the cat's meow.

You have experienced the fact that Classic programs do not act like they do in start up OS 9. But there are a few suggestions you can try.
Trash the wordperfect pref file from the OS 9 system folder>Preferences.
Allocate more memory. When you re-installed, it goes back to default.

What else are you running while WP is? How much memory do you have installed on your computer?

Natobasso · #3 July 2nd, 2004, 03:40 AM

Please take the following comments with a grain of salt. I am a freelance designer, and have been for 10 years now.

I have to say I think WordPerfect belongs in the dustbin!

The benefits/features you mentioned fly in the face of what all the new apps have to offer; particularly InDesign. Can you make a web page straight from WordPerfect? InDesign can! How about PDF's? InDesign exports them natively. I don't know one printer who would love to have a WordPerfect file to print instead of Quark, InDesign or PDF.

If you do any printing at all, you will know that WordPerfect is LESS than perfect. The dotted line page break shifts at inoportune times and the page formatting features are antiquated. I used the program 10 years ago to format a large Mesa City Court Document and I was on the phone to the 1-800 number constantly trying to get things worked out. And yes, I am a VERY experienced computer user so don't reply back asking that question. he he.

And Corel is a bit out of date as well. Illustrator, I think, is far more powerful and user friendly.

I will bet these comments won't help in the slightest, but oh well.

**Cheryl** · #4 July 3rd, 2004, 06:26 AM

We all have different preferences and needs when it comes to working with applications. It is always good to hear from different users and get their opinion.

Starmouse, did you install the updater to WP?

macavenger · #5 July 3rd, 2004, 08:48 PM

In a similar vein, I just discovered a couple of WordPerfect files left over on my hard drive. Is there any way to access them? I eradicated all traces of classic from my system quite some time ago

**Cheryl** · #6 July 4th, 2004, 11:41 AM

You could try forcing AppleWorks (or your word processor) to open them.

Click on the document icon, go to the file menu and select Open With. You should get a list of choices. If only other is shown, select that, then point it to the word processor you have. TextEdit might do it.

Or use MacLinkPlus Deluxe to open them.

bobw · #7 July 10th, 2004, 07:03 AM

I still use WP in Classic and have no problem with it at all.

Natobasso · #8 July 11th, 2004, 10:24 PM

If you have old WP files, you might try making a duplicate of the file and adding the .doc extension at the end and opening it with Word. Or try importing to Word directly to see if you can open the file.

Last resort, try to open it in Text Edit and see if you can at least get the raw text from the doc. You may lose formatting, but at least you will get to see what's in that file.