Category: File Conversion

MS Publisher Unavailable for MacOS

September 2, 2021 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

If you use Microsoft Publisher, you might be interested to know that Publisher is not available for Apple users. Anyone using an iMac or MacBook is free to buy and install Microsoft 365, like anyone else. But after the install, the Apple computer will offer Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., but NO Publisher.

It’s not such a big deal, until someone sends a Publisher file to a Mac user. Then the trouble starts: the Mac will be unable to open or show the file, and it will offer no help as to what to do!

Since there is no way to get Publisher for MacOS, here are some workarounds:

Try LibreOffice

LibreOffice can open Publisher files, as well as allow for some editing. Install it for free from their website.

Convert the File to PDF

There are plenty of free websites that can convert an unopenable file to a PDF version. The converted file will then easily open in Adobe Reader or your browser. Consider uploading the .pub file to PublisherToPDF.com for this option.

Ask the File Creator for a Different Format

You can always let the sender know that you don’t have access to Publisher. They may be able to save their work as a PDF and send that over to you, instead!

Retrofloppy.com

July 22, 2021 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

We’ve pretty much moved past digital storage media, such as CDs and DVDs, by now. If you’ve got any old discs laying around with important data on them, you should probably move your files off to an external hard drive or cloud storage. These days, very few computers come with an optical drive for reading such discs, and you also have to worry about disc rot as the years go by.

Don’t have a computer with an optical drive? No worries, you can always grab an external one from Amazon or other vendor. A USB-connecting CD/DVD drive should only set you back about $25. Same goes for floppy discs: you won’t ever see a floppy drive in a modern computer, but you can still buy a USB floppy reader from some tech stores and websites. Although here’s a warning, today’s floppy readers may not work for you if your diskettes are pre-2010 or from old Macintoshes…

But you should also know about Retrofloppy.com. If you’ve unearthed some floppies, and need the files off of them, Retrofloppy.com will gladly get your files for you, and provide them to you over the internet as a download. But that’s just the start of it.

Retrofloppy can handle virtually any kind of archaic storage media you have. Zip disks, tape drives, Bernoulli disks… If the media is undamaged, they can read it and copy off the data.

Even more, they can convert archaic file types to modern-day, universal files. Example: If your old digital camera saved some pictures to its disk as MVC files, Retrofloppy will change them over to JPG files for you.

Check out their pricing or contact them for a pricequote, if you think you might need their services.

Editing and Converting PDF Files

November 24, 2020 / Jesse Mueller / 2 Comments

If you need to edit a PDF, the best way is to contact the creator of the file, and ask if they can provide you with the original, editable file that the PDF was based off of. But that’s not always possible. Other solutions are out there!

The most obvious may be to go to Adobe and get their Adobe Acrobat program. But that comes with a cost. It looks like Adobe Acrobat DC Pro currently has a pricetag of $15/mo.! Other FREE solutions are out there!

There are many websites that offer a bevy of PDF editing tools. And they are largely free. Simply upload your PDF to their site and they’ll allow you to edit, convert to a different file type, delete pages and more! You can Google for “online PDF tools” or consider these sites that I have used and appreciate:

And if you have any concerns about uploading your data to some unproven website, that’s perfectly understandable! You don’t have to, because some of these websites also offer a free software download. You can install their tools as a program on your computer, and make your edits while offline and solely on your hard drive.

IrfanView Graphic Viewer

November 23, 2020 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

IrfanView has been around for over 20 years. If you use it, you’ll notice its menus and overall look still have that Windows 98 look! IrfanView is a small program that will help you view and edit your image files.

But why would you use it (over more modern apps)? This program does exceedingly well at opening old, archaic file types. If you have found some old pictures that you can’t open, IrfanView can probably help. Some examples:

If you find an old digital camera in your junk drawer, and it’s full of photos in the FlashPix format, IrfanView can open those files.

If your designer gave you some archival files in the Photoshop format, IrfanView can handle them.

And once you open such files in IrfanView, you’ll also be able to use the Save As… function to convert your your files to JPG or other modern formats.

IrfanView is free to download for personal, educational and charitable use. If you want to use it in a professional setting, they ask $12 per license.