Problems converting .wps files to Word 2003

2010 04 15

I’m trying to help a widow with her old Windows 95 computer. She wants to transfer some .WPS files to her new machine.

Her Windows 95 machine has Microsoft Works for Windows, version 4.0a. This program accesses the .wps files with no problems.

I transferred the .wps files to both of my Windows XP Professional machines with MS Word 2003 (one is a desktop and one is my laptop). I made sure that Windows was fully updated and Office Service Pack 3 was installed on both machines. I also downloaded and installed the Microsoft Office File Converter pack on both machines (file name: OCONVPCK.EXE from webpage: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f0-70e5-4595-8a98-370278f40c57&displayLang=en ) Both machines now say "Microsoft Office Word 2003 (11.8313.8221) SP3" after pressing the "About" button. These two copies of MS Word 2003 appear to be identical as far as I can tell.

But here’s what happens:
When I try to open one of the .wps files on my desktop machine, I get a pop-up box that says, "This file needs to opened by the Works 4.0 for Windows text converter, which may pose a security risk....Choose Yes to open this file only if you are sure it is from a trusted source." After I choose Yes, the file opens with no further problems and all text appears normal.

But when I try to open one of the .wps files on my laptop, I get a popup box that says "File Conversion - (filename): Select the encoding that makes your document readable. Text encoding: Windows (Default), MS-DOS, Other Encoding, along with a Preview pane showing mostly gibberish, although there is readable text toward the end of it.

So there is clearly something different between these two PC’s but I have no idea what it is. If anybody has any suggestions on what’s different or on what to do to make my laptop work like my desktop so it can read these files, that would be great - Registry problems????? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

Thanks, Steve for your response.

I removed OCONVPCK.EXE and also MS Works 6-9 conversion pack, then reinstalled OCONVPCK.EXE. No Change. I also reduced Macro Security to Low, and rebooted the system several times along the way. No change - I still get the popup box on my laptop that says “File Conversion - (filename): Select the encoding that makes your document readable. Text encoding: Windows (Default), MS-DOS, Other Encoding, along with a Preview pane showing mostly gibberish (and my desktop still continues to work correctly).

Any other ideas? Should I remove/reinstall MS Word 2003? and reapply Office Service Pack 3 (or not)?

 

HI, Steve, my original goal was to transfer all the wps files to my friend's new computer so that she could access them there. So I was worried that if I installed OCONVPCK.EXE on her new system, it wouldn't work. That's why I was trying to figure out why my laptop wouldn't work and my desktop would. By the way, I also reinstalled Word 2003 on my laptop, and it still didn't work. But there are only about 40 files involved, so, as you suggested, I decided to just convert them myself to .doc files, and leave the .doc files on her new computer. So I have them all converted now, so I guess the problem is no longer relevant. However, I still wonder what else could possibly be wrong with the laptop that would prevent OCONVPCK.EXE from working. In any event, I am abandoning the effort to figure it out. So thanks for your comments.