I don't know the particulars of WriteNow or its file formats, but every word processor I've ever seen has had the ability to save files as "Text" (sometimes referred to as "ASCII Text".) And every word processor, including Word, has the ability to open or import "Text" files.
If you still have access to the Mac SE and WriteNow, you should open each file and save each one back (or "export" it, depending on how WriteNow labels it) as a "Text" file, which you should then be able to open in Word on any Macintosh or PC. There are several options for getting those files onto a disk that a newer machine can read, but unless the Mac SE is networked to another computer or able to get to the Internet to send email, the best option is probably to save them to 3.5" floppies. There are cheap and easily accessible 3.5" portable drives that can be connected to newer PCs or Macs that can transfer the files to those machine's hard disks. If she doesn't have access to one of those, I'm sure many of us here on the list, including me, could help her out. For heaven's sake, please don't retype all that unless you've tried every other alternative. Dan > Can anyone help her? > > >> Subject: WriteNow question >> >> Does anyone have suggestions for how to get documents that are in >> WriteNow on an Macintosh SE (from 1987) off of that computer and >> translated into Word and onto a PC? Is this completely hopeless? I >> have years and years of writing on it -- a lot of short stories, a >> few aborted novels, etc. -- for some reason I stubbornly kept >> writing fiction on the Macintosh SE because I loved working on it. >> I used to work somewhere that had Apple computers that could >> translate the WriteNow program into Word, but that was years ago. >> Now the Apple computers where I work don't even take disks. If it >> is possible for me to somehow download the entire contents of the >> Macintosh SE onto one of the Apples at work and then convert, I >> could do that. >> >> Is the best bet to just retype everything? Any suggestions are >> extremely welcome! >> >> Thank you, >> >> Andrea >> > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be October 25 at Pitt Academy, 6010 Preston Highway. > | The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> > | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup> > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be October 25 at Pitt Academy, 6010 Preston Highway. | The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
