Word Perfect 8

[Oldebaloney]

I have been using WP8 for a long time and all of a sudden, it just loads and freezes. I can bring up a blank document or bring up a document with text but it simply freezes and I have to do alt,cntrl,del to get out and it says "not responding". I have the installation CD and attempted to do another installation with it just, allegedly, going in and installing what might be missing or needed validation. I restarted the computer after that installation. Although I realize there are not a lot of WP users - just thought I might get some help as I have lots of documents that I, definitely, want to keep.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks much.

Oldeb :

 

[CyndyZ]

Delete your printer from the Windows Printers folder, then reinstall it.

If that doesn't work, locate your default template file (wp8xx.wpt where xx is your language version - e.g. for the U.S. language version, wp8us.wpt). With WP closed, rename (don't delete) your template file, then open WP (a fresh, default copy of the template file will be created).

There are other possibilities too of course (and a lot depends on what operating system and which version of WP8 you're using) but that's a start.

 

[Oldebaloney]

Hi -
Tried your hints - no success but thanks for your input. Actually, the WP program is so outdated - I'm probably going to get Word since everyone seems to have it. Perhaps you can answer a question - will old WP files come up in Word? (I, actually, have some WP files that are older than those created in WP8 - stuff that I really don't want to lose.)

 

[brendandonhu]

Old WP files should work in Word. If not you should be able to find a way to convert them.

Also, unless you need Word for complex graphs and such, you might want to take a look at OpenOffice.org

 

[CyndyZ]

Word can generally open WordPerfect files if the conversion filters are installed during the Word installation (at one time they were not installed by default; I'm not sure if they're installed by default with the current version(s) of Word or not, but it should just be a matter of locating the right checkbox during installation).

But if you like WordPerfect, I encourage you to try one of the newer versions of WordPerfect. WP12 is the current version (WP13 is currently in beta). If cost is an issue, there's a Home Edition which costs quite a bit less (it's missing some features of course), or you might want to look into getting WP11 (still available at places like amazon.com), since WP8 will qualify you for the upgrade price on WP11 but not on WP12. There's also a home version of WP11 (Family Pack 5) which may still be available at amazon - here's a layman's description of exactly what you do and don't get with Family Pack 5:
http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=10818

For a comparison of the various "flavors" of WP12:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satell...s/Display&pid=1047022958453&cid=1047024934171

Corel has a downloadable free trial version so you can get an idea of what WP12 would be like (and by extension what WP11 would be like, since they are extremely similar).

As for your WP8 problem, my next question would be what operating system are you using and which build/release of WP8 (in WP8, go to Help | About WordPerfect) - 8.0.0.710 is what you're looking for as earlier releases were sometimes quite buggy and may have become unstable. I believe the necessary patches are still available from Corel, so if you have one of the older versions, that doesn't necessarily mean you're out of luck.

There are many people happily using WP8 (and 7, 6, and 5), so if you want to keep WP8 you should be able to do that. I would recommend posting your question in the forums at http://www.wpuniverse.com - there are lots of helpful WP-experienced folks there.

 

[Oldebaloney]

Thanks for all your help. I have posted to the WP forum you indicated and have also looked at Amazon for newer versions of WP. Thinking about it. I like WP better than Word. Back in the day, I used Wordstar.

 

[Oldebaloney]

Thanks for your info. I will check out what you indicated.

 

[CyndyZ]

Correction for the record: WP8 does qualify you for upgrade pricing on WP12 (Sorry about that!)