Opening old DEC files

[Liam Proven]

On Thu, 21 Mar 2019 at 20:50, Curt Vendel via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> I have many DEC files that I’ve recovered from old VMS backups to a PC.
>
> Many are Word-11, ALL-IN-1 WPS and VMS Mail MAI files.
>
> They don’t open well in programs like the Windows Text editors
>
> Is there a program on Windows that can open these files and recognize all of the formatting and control commands so they can be properly viewed?

Wow, I bet they don't!

That's a great question. I used tools such as that myself, decades
ago, but I didn't get to keep any documents.

I've even had the issue of importing from Word 6 into Word 97 and
later. I run Word 97 even now, under WINE on Ubuntu, not because
there's anything in 97 I need -- there isn't -- but because it uses
the same file-format as versions up to 2003 (Win)/2004 (Mac). I'd
rather run an even older, lighter version such as Word 95 or Word 6
for NT, but they use an older file-format modern WPs can't import.

A late version of WordPerfect for DOS *might* do it... I have WP6.2
for DOS running on PC DOS 7.1 and it runs fine on modern hardware. I'm
not confident, though.

-- 
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