On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:38:14 -0600 Richard Harper wrote: > I am using OpenOffice version 2.2. My problem is that I don't seem to > be able to open a WDB file.
What you are experiencing is an issue called "Vendor Lockin". This occurs when a company, in your case Microsoft, wants to keep all their existing customers locked in to thier products by using a save format that no other company may use (usually through secret binary save formats). When this happens you may only share your saved files with other users of the same software. One solution is to keep bying Works for each new computer you buy, perpetuating the vendor lockin. However you are at Microsofts mercy as to how long they will support your old files. Thankfully there is a part solution. The contents of the database at least can be rescued from obscurity, by using the original program that saved them to save as a CVS or Export as a CVS. This may be read into a Calc spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet, or perhaps directly into a Base Table (i have little experience in Base). This method will not rescue any queries or forms setup in the database. Microsoft Access databases fare a little better as much work has been done to reverse engineer the save formats of Office to allow (imperfect) importing of their files. My recommendation therefore is that you rescue what you can from this "Locked In" format as quickly as possible and resave in the ISO standard ODF format[1] which will give your files much broader access from as many computer programs written by a variety of software vendors (not only openoffice.org[2]) that are prepared to support open standards. This will enable much better future-proofing against both lockin and a company going belly-up. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_software -- Michael Linux: The OS people choose without $200,000,000 of persuasion. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
