Forgive me for the lame question, but here goes…
My computer has WindowsXP. I’ve been sending documents to clients and prospects in the Wordpad format and many of them can’t open the attachment and need it sent in Microsoft Word.
Do I need to buy Microsoft Office at Bestbuy/Goodguys to get Word, or is there a way I can download it from Microsoft?
Is there a way to convert Wordpad to Word in Windoows XP?
Thanks.
Sorry, I don’t use Microsoft Office, but… next time, save yourself, and your office $250+ and simply download:
Open Office
It’s 100% free and it’s 100% open source. You can also view and create Micro$oft Word .doc files.
Cheers.
Trae
I’m not sure you can legally download it anywhere and, it so large that it would be better for you to just go buy it and have the disks on hand if you need to install it again.
I’m not sure what you’re doing in wordpad that couldn’t be done in word. If you’re saving the document in the .doc format word should be able to open it without a problem. When you click to save make sure the document is being saved in the word format and not the rich text format. make sure you save the document in the .doc format as well, wordpad will automatically try to save it in .rtf
Hopefully that works for you and saves you the trip and the cash.
Take it from someone who is in the IT world - Open Office is NOTHING but trouble. Sure it is free, sure some people love it…but is IS NOT a solution for the business world. You can get Office Basic for about $99.00 and you are set. You then will not have to worry about file types, formatting, and who or where someone can open an attachment. If you are one of the Microsoft haters, I hope you hate VHS, and unleaded too, sorry, that is just the way the world went. Conform, or become a minority…if you dont want to hate Microsoft for the sake of hating Microsoft, just buy Office and be done with it.
We’ll see bud.
It is hard to keep something that is Open and Free and Superior hidden from the masses forever. Sooner or Later, people will get hip to the house quake and want to use software that works.
Open Standards help combat things such as software with big gaping security holes in them. (outlook anyone?)
1 millliion eyes on open code can spot bugs easier than…
50 (or less) coders locked up with their super ssssecret code.
Humans want to be free. Software wants to be free. Free as in freedom not free as in beer.
Open thy mind and thy code shall follow. 
Trae
PS. MacOSX is built on Open Source tools for those of you running on Mac’s. If you are using Firefox ( http://getfirefox.com/ ) then, you are using Open Source software.
PPS. He started it. heh.
And some people like to be gay, and some like deisel, and some like free ware that has MORE bugs and gaping holes as they are obvious to more people. Linux is a greaty example…I had a few clients who tried the flavor of the week…they all then went back to a Windows or Netware platform when they noticed that traveling against the flow was pretty hard…and for business when you want to make a profit, just not worth it. Oh…and I think that over 80% of enterprise users are on Outlook…of course people want to knock the guy off the top of the hill, it is the obvious target…
Oh, and “started it”…no, just trying to lead the guy down the right path, that is what I do for a living. When it comes to data I need to provide for my clients what is right for them, not the politics of a Microsoft hater. In business, no Word, it is HARD to do business.
I guess then again maybe we should all go after routing and IP’s…who is up for a DOS attack on Cisco while we are at it?
FACT : if you have a small business with data needs Microsoft Small Business Server / Exchange is the most profitable, easiest to manage and run way to go - period. Then again, somehow social deviant always try to get their point out as the best way, kinda like i am with Campy gear.
Although Open source is not for everyone it is the prefered choice for web servers.
“Apache is the most popular Web server software, used on 63 percent of Web servers, more than three times Microsoft’s 20 percent share”
I have a linux box set up here as a web server. And although I’m FAAAARRRRRRR from a even a basic Linux user I found it much more “configurable” than pretty much any Windows box I’ve used. On the downside it’s also far more complex and “non intutive” to use.
I compare it more like a professionals tool to a weekend warriors tool. If you’re professional you want as many options as possible. These options may be more cumbersome, but once you learn how to use them they are far more powerful. OTOH Windows is mostly meant for just about anyone to step into and use…In most cases just enough to be dangerous…in my experiance.
I’d also agree with you in teh statement of “Go out and buy office and be done with it”. For the most part it’s the standard. In a business situation even if you have a couple of wasted hours trying to “be compatable” you’ve lost the money you saved going with the “open source”. Penny wise pound foolish.
I’ll use open source where ever I can, but not to the point of cutting off my own nose.
~Matt
back to the orginal post what file format are you saving it in? RTF, DOC? either way its compatible with word.
he really doesn’t even need to buy an entire office suite. they sell word seprate at any computer store. if you decide to buy word, install it and open up your already created docs and resave them.
to the others there are plenty of other forums to debate open source.
Office Basic costs less than Word on is own
.
either way its a write off as a business expense for him
.
Another option is to learn LaTeX, and then just send PDF files…
It’ll look nicer than MSWord, too…
Guys; Thanks for the suggestions. I’m sure I’ll get it figured out with all of the sage advice.
However, I was ‘trippin’ just a bit; The program is Microsoft Works. The word processor ‘program’ is Microsoft Works Wordprocessor and all docs are saved as .wps
Does this change anything?
I’m leaning towards going out and getting “Office” because I could use the Access and Powerpoint programs as well.
Thanks again.
Name for me please the program used for about 80% of web servers out there. Quite certain it isn’t Micro$oft. Micro$oft products are for the lazy and unimaginative. Any admin in his right mind knows which product is less buggy. True MS has the lions share of the marketplace, however, it isn’t because it is a great product. It’s much the same as the current political situation in Canada right now…the Liberals are still in power because there is nothing less evil than they are. 
Seriously though, I will put my FreeBSD up against any OS Micro$oft has and I will beat it to a pulp. But I will freely admit, it isn’t for your normal end-luser…yet.
I’ve never heard of the word processing program, so any thing I could offer would be a shot in the dark. If you clients need the deliverable in word format then I’d say go get the low cost version of office and write it off your taxes.
Take it from someone who is in the IT world.
Hey, Chip. I thought you were in the legal world, not IT?
For some idiotic reason, Works files do not play well on Word/Office software.
If they are using Word and trying to open up a works file, they need to go to microsoft.com and download a works/word converter file and install it. I’m guessing this one would be the one you want. Otherwise, search ‘word works convert’ in the downloads section.