Word 2004/OS X 10.4.2 can't read old Word files

[RHead16]

I have some older Word files (5 or 5.1), and can't read them anymore
with Word 2004 (11.1 (040910)) and OS X 10.4.2. They are just text
files (no graphics, etc.), but all that appears on screen are formatted
rows of little blue rectangles in place of characters.

The files are normally visible in Word v.X running OS X 10.3.9 on
another machine. Oddly enough, though, even with v.X, if I "save as
text", the files turn into nothing but blocks of rectangles. Cutting
and pasting the text into a new document seems to make no difference.

I've run Font Book and turned off duplicate fonts, but evidently that's
not enough. (Could it be that these odler files are trying to use the
OS9 fonts, and can't display anymore?)

What's weirdest of all is what happens if I select all and try to
change the font.
Each time I do this, 2-3 lines of the text appear...but garbled. If I
do it again (to the same font, or toggling to another, it varies), the
garbled parts pretty much clean up, and another 2-3 lines of text
appears. But the clean up is not perfect..there are gaps and missing
bits, and eventually the process stalls.

There doesn't seem to be a way to get the visible text in Word v.X
"out" to another application (TextEdit). It's quite odd and I fear
losing access to these documents completely, eventually.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[RHead16]

John,

Many thanks! (And sorry to everyone for the double posting to the
group).

Sorry to disappoint, but the fonts were in a font no more unusual
than...Courier.

I will definitely try the RTF route -- though I note that saving the
files as straight _text_ just produced a text document that displayed
(in Word or in Text Edit) as lines of dashes. So something is
definitely weird about the files.

Oh...cutting and pasting the little rectanges -- even as "unformatted
text" does nothing.

Thanks again!

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Yeah: In your other thread I said I think I know what's wrong. Answer the
email I sent you and we'll see if I am right.

Cheers

John,

Many thanks! (And sorry to everyone for the double posting to the
group).

Sorry to disappoint, but the fonts were in a font no more unusual
than...Courier.

I will definitely try the RTF route -- though I note that saving the
files as straight _text_ just produced a text document that displayed
(in Word or in Text Edit) as lines of dashes. So something is
definitely weird about the files.

Oh...cutting and pasting the little rectanges -- even as "unformatted
text" does nothing.

Thanks again!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[JosypenkoMJ]

Somewhere on the MS site there are programs that can be downloaded that
will convert old Word files to new ones.