Run-Level 1

[Liam Proven]

On 28 September 2010 21:41, rikona <rikona at sonic.net> wrote:
> Hello Liam,
>
> Monday, September 27, 2010, 8:02:06 PM, Liam wrote:
>
> LP> On 28 September 2010 03:18, rikona <rikona at sonic.net> wrote:
>
>>> Now that is very interesting. Do you know if word6 has the good
>>> outliner as part of it? I've been looking for a good outliner in
>>> linux, but have not found one as good as the M$ one.
>
> LP> Hmmm. Good question!
>
> LP> Word 5.5 for DOS is a freeware download from MICROS~1. Don't know
> LP> if it has the outliner, but you could legally try it, no strings
> LP> attached.
>
> If it's free from M$, there's gotta be a catch... :-)

Not really! It is so old, I think they're not worried. Apparently, if
I remember correctly, they found that older versions of Word for DOS
had a Year 2000 bug problem and rather than offer patches, they
offered everyone a free upgrade to version 5.5. There is no real
practical way of offering an upgrade version so they just made it free
for all.

Word 6 for DOS was the last version & I don't really know why they
didn't offer that instead.

Word 6 is file-compatible across all versions - Win, Mac, DOS, all
used the same files, which is also the same file format as Word 95.
Word 97 changed the format which was also used by 2000/XP/2003 - all
used the same format.

If you install the optional filters to import old documents, 97-2003
all import Word 6 & older files just fine. I am not sure that Word 5.5
has the same format as 6 but I think so.

I've successfully imported files from 5.5 into OpenOffice, anyway.

> LP> I don't /think/ the DOS versions of Word have the outliner.
>
> Checked on the net - it supposedly has one. The 'catch' may be that
> the formats are totally incompatible with newer s/w. Deliberate
> incompatibility seems to be in the DNA of M$. :-)
>
> But - I might still have some old **floppies** [ :-) ] with a somewhat
> newer version. Might have to use wine, though.

Wine works for Office 97+ but not, alas, for Office 95, which I like
because by modern standards it's tiny & lightning-fast. Also, back
then, software updates were expensive - no downloads, few CDs - so
they did *thorough* testing before release. There were never any fix
packs or service released for Office 95 - it just worked, from day 1.

(Part of the reason being that it was a very minor change from Office
4.3 for Windows 3.)

> LP> In the '80s I loved outliners, but it's a software category that's
> LP> just Gone Away.
>
> Agreed - I miss it...

Absolutely!

Perhaps that should be the spur for me to learn a modern programming
language. To write one!

I have, since I got your last message, looked at two free "outliners"
for Ubuntu, JreePad and KeepNote. Neither is what I'd call an outliner
at all - they are more like structured text-note-taking apps that keep
a hierarchy of notes.

> LP> I find the MS Word one clunky & uncooperative, so I don't use it
> LP> much.
>
> Anything you like better?
>
> LP> I miss tools like PC-Outline,
>
> Hmmm.... another search of those old floppies... :-)

www.vetusware.com used to be good but it looks like he's been pulled. :¬(

> LP> or MORE on classic MacOS.
>
> Not a Mac user. Never tried it.
>
> I appreciate your inputs. Thanks.

A pleasure!

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
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