SUCCESS! Retrieving Old Files

As I devote more time to genealogy, I'm also wanting to rescue the work I did for the Nemaha County Genealogical Society and add it to the re-created web site.

A lot of that work was done with Microsoft Works in the database portion of the software. Even though I had a current version of MS Works installed on my computer, I was not able to load these old files.

Thus, I was on a search for a way to get them open and export the data so it could be opened with today's software, namely Excel. I tried Zamzar and other cloud file conversion options. None of those I tried would convert the *.wdb files.

Thankfully, we haven't done a good job of discarding software because I found a copy of MS Works 7. I had to uninstall my current software in order to install version 7. I cringed a little when it said it required Internet Explorer 6 but, fortunately, the software installed without also installing IE6.

Armed with MS Works 7, I am now able to open those old *.wdb files. I've been able to save them as *.csv files which I can then open in Excel.

 

The only downside is that the column headings are not present. That's a simple problem to resolve by simply re-opening the file in MS Works to identify the headings.

A new column can be added to the top of the *.csv file where the headings can be inserted.

 Ironically, the *.wps files created at the same time won't open with MS Works 7. These can be opened in MS Word -- but some 'junk' comes along.

However, the files are fairly easy to clean up by simply deleting the 'junk'.

Now for the next software issue *.epd files -- EXPRESS PUBLISHER! I have a feeling this one will be more of a challenge.