CLEAR! *FWOOMP*
That was the sound of a defibrillator you just read. Because my heart stopped beating there for a bit. So, I had an old computer that was XP with Corel WordPerfect on it, and I wrote my hopefully-one-day-published memoir on it. Saved it six different ways, on different computers, because I was being s-m-r-t. Tried to open it on my new computer (Vista/Microsoft Works) and got 976 pages of gibberish.
Huh.
Emailed my sister to see if her computer could read it, since she's on XP. Nope, all gibberish. Same thing with my husband's laptop: nada y pues nada. All. Six. Copies.
Turns out you can't save something in Corel and have it open in Microsoft's word processors, because Bill Gates hates people. So... I was pulling my hair out, rocking and moaning because Oh. My. God. My book!!
I went to my old computer, opened it, could read it (THANK THE HEAVENS), saved it as a txt file, rtf, doc, ASCII, you name it. Moved it over to the new computer. Only the .txt file will open. BUT IT OPENS. No formatting, none of the footnotes, endnotes, no page breaks are there. BUT THE WORDS ARE. Holy crap, you guys, my hands are just now starting to stop shaking.
So, instead of swimming, BBQing and lounging like I planned this extended weekend, I will be reformatting the book I thought was lost forever. I'm not complaining, mind, just... holy crap. (Err, and if anyone knows of a 1337 way to convert a .wpd to a .doc, that would be SUPER FANTASTIC.)
[ETA] Oh, how much do I love jgracio and dwivian? SO MUCH. Open Office was the key. It's all there. ALL THE FORMATTING, EVERYTHING. I'm so thankful, you guys. So much love for you both.
Huh.
Emailed my sister to see if her computer could read it, since she's on XP. Nope, all gibberish. Same thing with my husband's laptop: nada y pues nada. All. Six. Copies.
Turns out you can't save something in Corel and have it open in Microsoft's word processors, because Bill Gates hates people. So... I was pulling my hair out, rocking and moaning because Oh. My. God. My book!!
I went to my old computer, opened it, could read it (THANK THE HEAVENS), saved it as a txt file, rtf, doc, ASCII, you name it. Moved it over to the new computer. Only the .txt file will open. BUT IT OPENS. No formatting, none of the footnotes, endnotes, no page breaks are there. BUT THE WORDS ARE. Holy crap, you guys, my hands are just now starting to stop shaking.
So, instead of swimming, BBQing and lounging like I planned this extended weekend, I will be reformatting the book I thought was lost forever. I'm not complaining, mind, just... holy crap. (Err, and if anyone knows of a 1337 way to convert a .wpd to a .doc, that would be SUPER FANTASTIC.)
[ETA] Oh, how much do I love jgracio and dwivian? SO MUCH. Open Office was the key. It's all there. ALL THE FORMATTING, EVERYTHING. I'm so thankful, you guys. So much love for you both.