Need New Office Program

[mccoady]

I kind of started this halfway through another thread but thought I'd start a new thread since I have new questions. I have some Works 4.5 files on another drive that I have copied to my current drive (XP Pro) and I am using WordPerfect with it. I know I need to convert these files to work with WordPerfect but I don't actually like this program, it seems too complicated and has many more features than I need. The thing I liked about Works 4.5 is that it was so simple but unfortunately it won't work with XP. My wife just uses it to write resumes and simple stuff like that.

Is there a simple and inexpensive program like Works 4.5 that's newer (and supported) that would fit our needs? I don't know enough about these type of programs without asking for suggestions. Would we be talking about programs like Word 97, 2000, 2002 or 2003, is this what I need? It would be nice if these programs could convert the Work's files to work with them but if not I found a website that can convert the files to work with them. Also maybe there is a converter I can download from Microsoft to do the job.

[ozymango]

Go to office.microsoft.com and search in the download section for "works 6.0 converter." It's a free download, and it'll convert Works 6 and earlier documents to MS Word format.

Then, go to www.openoffice.org, and download the (free) Sun OpenOffice suite. You can open MS Word docs in OpenOffice (but you can't open Works files, thus you need to do the intermediate conversion.

Hope that helps!

[Ai Haibara]

I know that MS Works 7 will run under XP; I've seen a number of HP/Compaq computers bought within the last couple of years or so come with it. I don't know if they're selling it separately right now, or for how much, though.

I'll second OpenOffice.org (it's technically supposed to be called 'OpenOffice.org,' though I believe everyone just calls it OpenOffice. I certainly do. ), especially if you're looking for an entire office suite. For a word processor only, you can also try AbiWord. Note that that doesn't support direct conversion from MS Works files, either, I believe.

[CogoSWSDS]

I also cast my vote for OpenOffice.org (personally I call it OpenOffice too). I am too cheap to go buy MS Office for my home computer, and OpenOffice meets my needs perfectly. Not to mention it can open recent MS Word Documents as well. Not sure about Works or Word Perfect though, never tried it. Just go to openoffice.org and download their software.

CogoSWSDS

[mccoady]

Thanks for the suggestions but even though OpenOffice is free it's just so big kind of like the WordPerfect I now have. I do need more than a word processor though. Since I posted here I see that Works 8.0 might be exactly what I'm looking for. My wife likes software that is simple and has icons to select different tasks and from what I can tell Works 8 has. That's the good news, the bad news it costs around $45 for a full retail version. There is a OEM version that's about $20, would this be a big disadvantage?

Since it came out in 2004 (I think) how long would this likely be supported so I wouldn't be looking for another program in 2 to 3 years? And although I don't think it would be that big of a deal for me would I be able to use the files it created in other office programs like Word on someone else's computer, or would they have to have Works to read them?