Opening a File Your Word Processor Doesn't Recognize

The captain of my soccer team just sent out a list in WordPerfect that I can't read in Microsoft Word.

Word does include an importer for WordPerfect, but it's not installed by default, nor will Word even let you know it exists unless you go through the right steps. When you try to open the file, click the "file type" drop-down menu at the bottom of that dialogue box, scroll down to select "WordPerfect 6.x," then select the file in question and hit Enter.

If you're using Word 2003, the WordPerfect translator should be installed automatically, but earlier versions, such as the copy of Word XP that I tried, will ask you to pop in the installation CD.

What if you don't have that CD? Try the "recover text from any file" option, which will yank the text content of the WordPerfect file (along with formatting codes that may make the results unreadable if the file was too fancy). Or you can download Microsoft's free Word 2003 Viewer (search for that name at http://office.microsoft.com/ ), which can open WordPerfect files as well as Word documents.

Finally, you can try a free word processor, AbiWord, that can open and save in WordPerfect format ( http://www.abisource.com/ ).

Meanwhile, if you run WordPerfect yourself, you need to accept that most other users have some other word processor installed. Use the "Save As" command to convert a document you want to share to Rich Text Format (.rtf), which any word processor ever made should be able to read. Or consider whether you even need to send that information as an attachment -- many times, you can just paste the text of that file right into an e-mail message and get the point across just as well.

This advice applies to Word users as well. While plenty of people do have Microsoft Office installed, not everyone does. Why risk offending your recipients by sending them a file that they can't read?

-- Rob Pegoraro

Rob Pegoraro attempts to untangle computing conundrums and errant electronics each week. Send questions to The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or rob@twp.com.