Reading, migrating, etc. Microsoft Word 4.0 (for Mac) files

Some mild success…

Upon my first try, I followed your instructions, though the 'Type' and 'Creator' fields were blank. Don't know if that may be an indication that they are *not* what I'm purporting them to be, but I changed them in Properties and was able to get the file icon for the file to show as MS Word.

Upon trying to open the first file, however, I got an "Sorry, a system error occurred. 'Microsoft Word' illegal instruction" error message with the only option being to restart.

When I tried with a second file, I got an "Not enough memory to run Word" error message. Which lead me to create a new volume in HFV explorer with a larger volume size, but still garnering the same error.

I truly apologize for the back and forth on this, but your help is really proving to be a treasure trove. If anything, it's a great way for me to get my feet wet.

I'm tempted to mess with the .cfg file and up the size, but I wouldn't even know where to start, let alone know if that would even work.

Thanks for your continued support!

Brief aside

I tried a third time with a smaller file and was able to open it! … but, still received an error message "Sorry, a system error occurred. 'Microsoft Word' bad F-line instruction" with the only option at that point being to restart.

I could see the text in the background, though! So, some progress…maybe…

Yes it is very possible that now the issue is the emulator, either being limited (not enough RAM) or having some incompatibility with Word (which probably is a "pesky" program).

You could try a Basilisk II install.
It is a tad bit more complex to install/setup but it has a GUI configuration tool that allows to easier try different settings for memory/Mac model/CPU, etc. (and has colour screen and various (higher) resolutions available.

Here
https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/basilisk_ii

https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/basilisk_ii_setup

I quickly tested it and the archive.org hd images work just fine with it (i.e. you don't need to follow the above guide to install system 7.5.3).

For the test you want to use this exact version
Basilisk II 15/01/2010
http//www.emutopia.com/index.php/emulators/item/317-apple-macintosh-68k/482-basilisk-ii

Once it is setup and working then you can try later versions.

jaclaz

Thank you for your continued help! I will have to put a pin on this until next week when I am back in the office, but it's good to know there are other avenues to explore. I will keep you abreast of any progress made, but sincerely appreciate all the input!

Thank you for your continued help! I will have to put a pin on this until next week when I am back in the office, but it's good to know there are other avenues to explore. I will keep you abreast of any progress made, but sincerely appreciate all the input!

No hurry, you already did the first 90% of the work (becoming familiar with HFV explorer and learning to edit Type/Creator) now you only need to do the remaining 90% 😯 i.e. setting up Basilisk II wink .

jaclaz

Hello, again! @jaclaz

Thank you for your guidance all of last week. I was able to install the Basilisk 142 build of the emulator since the one you linked to was giving me the infamous black screen.

I'm left scratching my head at what to do now. Unlike PCE-Plus, the ROM I downloaded (QUADRA605) did not have any pre-installed software loaded onto it, so I've been trying to figure out how I can go about installing MS Word 4.0.

I tried downloading the IMGs that Internet Archive provides (https://archive.org/details/mac_MacOS_7.0.1_compilation) but I'm afraid I'm either not too savvy or there's a compatibility issue seeing as how this was most likely developed for the PCE-Plus emulator.

I also looked at this website (https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/68k_software) but did not find MS Word.

Any help, AS ALWAYS, it truly and sincerely appreciated.

Best regards!

@ jaclaz

Lo and behold, I figured it out. Downloaded StuffIt Expander and MS Word to open my first document in the emulator – only one out of three loaded, but hey, I'll take it.

Not to bog you down with requests, but I was wondering if you were aware of any way I could save this document as is; I read somewhere that perhaps it can be exported as RTF and then saved to a PDF? Are you familiar with this process, at all? I can tinker in the meantime…

Again, couldn't have done it without you!

All the best!!!

Somehow I missed your replies. 😯

Not to bog you down with requests, but I was wondering if you were aware of any way I could save this document as is; I read somewhere that perhaps it can be exported as RTF and then saved to a PDF? Are you familiar with this process, at all? I can tinker in the meantime…

The issue is not about the text, it is "all the rest".
Fonts, spacing, possiblly DPI settings, etc.

So, yes, you can save them as RTF, but the result on another platform may not be accurate (or fully accurate).

Possibly opening the .rtf in a (Windows) Word is "good enough", but cannot really say. ?

About your issues with Basilisk II, I am pasting below the settings I am using

disk D\MACOS7\hd2.img
disk D\MACOS7\hd1.img
extfs
screen win/800/600
seriala COM1
serialb COM2
udptunnel false
udpport 6066
rom D\MACOS7\Basilisk\Mac OS ROM
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 16777216
frameskip 6
modelid 5
cpu 4
fpu true
nocdrom true
nosound true
noclipconversion false
nogui false
jit true
jitfpu true
jitdebug false
jitcachesize 8192
jitlazyflush true
jitinline true
keyboardtype 5
keycodes false
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 3
ignoresegv true
idlewait true
enableextfs false
debugextfs false
extdrives CDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
pollmedia true
etherpermanentaddress true
ethermulticastmode 0
routerenabled false
ftp_port_list 21
portfile0 C\B2TEMP0.OUT
portfile1 C\B2TEMP1.OUT
You can copy and paste as "BasiliskII_prefs".
Of course paths need to be changed to reflect your situation, the hd1.img and hd2.img are the ones inside the mentioned
http//www.hampa.ch/pub/pce/pce-0.2.2-macplus.zip
and they work just fine here.

jaclaz

@jaclaz

Thanks for all of your help. I was able to open all/most of the documents I needed, used PrintToPDF to save them to a hard disk partition on my local computer, and printed/saved them for the collection.

I think you were instrumental in getting me along this entire process and for that I thank you!

One final request I'm wondering how I can save the emulated environment I have "created." In other words, I want to make sure that I can have other people open this particular environment that I have created (Mac OS 7.5.3 w/ Microsoft Word and PrintToPDF) on their computers. An "out-of-the-box" solution, if you will.

I'm having a hard time visualizing it; is this even possible? Maybe modify/save the ROM so that it already has all of that software installed?

Any input would be truly appreciated!

Thanks for all your help!

One final request I'm wondering how I can save the emulated environment I have "created." In other words, I want to make sure that I can have other people open this particular environment that I have created (Mac OS 7.5.3 w/ Microsoft Word and PrintToPDF) on their computers. An "out-of-the-box" solution, if you will.

I'm having a hard time visualizing it; is this even possible? Maybe modify/save the ROM so that it already has all of that software installed?

Actually the ROM contains "nothing" (related to the actual apps) and being (originally) a ROM (i.e. a Read Only Memory) it is best left "as is".
Technically the OS 6/7/8 used a number of libraries that were inside the ROM, imagine that on Windows an actual chip on the motherboard contained the main OS .dll's.

What you want to save is the hard disk image(s).

If you used the two suggested hard disk images (hd1.img and hd2.img inside http//www.hampa.ch/pub/pce/pce-0.2.2-macplus.zip ), those will have been modified, by the install of PrintToPDF, by copying your files, etc..

So, if you have put those hard disk images inside the same folder as the emulator you used (at the end Basilsk II, if I got it right), all you have to do is to archive the whole folder inside a (say) .zip archive, that will include
1) the emulator, including its config file and ROM used
2) the hard disk images containing the OS and data

Simply expanding it in a new directory on another machine should have it working, with the only caveat that since paths in the config file are absolute some editing of the config file will be needed, but it would be just a matter of adding a small "readme1st.txt" explaining which lines need to be adapted so that the "new user" in the future will be able to adapt it.

Thanks for all your help!

You are welcome ) , it has been a nice occasion to re-visit how great was (at the time) System 7, it was years, that I hadn't an occasion to play with it again.

Ahh, the memories … roll

I paid an awful amount of money in 1993 to buy a Powerbook with a System 7.01 and a whopping 4 Mb RAM/80 MB hard disk, with a greyscale display, starting the foundation of jaclaz's Law of laptops 😯 , according to which each and every "decent" laptop costed, costs (and will cost) around 2,000 Euro, I am maybe at my 10th or so laptop in these 25 years, and till now it has proved true. ;), at the time that was around 4,000,000 Lire, and - to give you an idea - it was about 3/4 times a "normal" wage.

jaclaz