Converting WordPerfect to Word on my Mac?

November 4, 2004 8:40 AM

Is there a (free and easy) way to convert Word Perfect files into Word documents on my Mac? [MI]
posted by faustessa to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

I had this issue about two weeks ago and I believe one solution is to download a freely available copy of WordPerfect (my understanding is that Corel made it available as a free download), open the *.wpd document with that application (in Classic mode if you're running OS X), and then "saving as." I've been doing this for the past week or so and have yet to run into any problems.

This page breaks down where you can download the application from

Download Site One
posted by buddha9090 at 8:59 AM on November 4, 2004

Response by poster: Everyone in my office uses WordPerfect for Windows. Every time I get an attachment with a .wpd file, I have to go and bug them to convert it to Word (or anything else I can read on my Mac). I'm sick of this, but I don't want to buy Word Perfect just to read files people send me.

Is there a cheap or free utility for my Mac that will convert the files to something I can read?

On preview, I'm downloading WordPerfect now- thanks.
posted by faustessa at 9:04 AM on November 4, 2004

If you are running a newer version of OS X it might not have the Classic environment.
posted by anathema at 9:09 AM on November 4, 2004

how about openoffice?
posted by andrew cooke at 9:18 AM on November 4, 2004

Even though it appears to have been solved, I thought I would echo the openoffice suggestion. It has successfully converted to Word on two occasions documents I was otherwise unable to get even the plaintext out of. That's an oddly constructed sentence. Hmmm - Let me open that sentence in openoffice:

How about openoffice?

Yeah, that's it.
posted by sfz at 9:24 AM on November 4, 2004

It's not free, but it is OS X native. MacLinkPlus will convert WP files to Word format quickly and easily.
posted by andrewraff at 9:41 AM on November 4, 2004

Response by poster: It's actually not yet solved- I downloaded WordPerfect and the patch, and while the program worked, (I have Classic) I was unable to open or view my coworkers' files. I'm off to try openoffice now.
posted by faustessa at 9:50 AM on November 4, 2004

anathema: New Macs have Classic, they just don't boot into OS 9. Classic is within OS X, it's not a synonym for OS =9.
posted by mcwetboy at 11:32 AM on November 4, 2004

Response by poster: Well, I can't make it work with openoffice, but it looks like MacLinkPlus will definitely do the job. Thanks, all.
posted by faustessa at 12:13 PM on November 4, 2004

Using the openoffice filter requires installing dependencies and compiling it yourself.

http://wp.openoffice.org/filter.html

I still can't get maclinkplus to seamlessly open wpd docs from within safari and firefox.

I'm surprised at how pissed I get when some dinosaur sends me a wordperfect file because they are too lazy to save it as rtf or html. Invariably it's something that could have been sent as plain text.
posted by mecran01 at 1:31 PM on November 4, 2004

What about Word? Open it in Word, and save it as a Word file. The later editions of Word should be able to recognize it and convert it pretty well.

I know you said free, but presumably you have access to Word, or you wouldn't have this problem...?
posted by bingo at 7:09 PM on November 4, 2004