Converting PM4 files to non-PageMaker files

Hi

Is there a conversion utility that converts PM4 files to a non-PageMaker format? I've heard there's a way of conversion through Adobe Acrobat, but I'm not sure how to do that.

Conversion to either .doc or .odt formats, would be helpful.

Failing that, is there a plain reader that will let me open the PM4 documents and see the contents?

Thanks for any help.

I seem to remember an Export to Word function, but wouldn't know it it was available in PM4. And I very much doubt there ever was a "plain reader" for PM files.

Thanks for the reply.
I don't have access to PageMaker 4, it was on 3.5" discs and I can't load the program. Is there a legal way of downloading a program that old, from the Internet?

I'm holding out hope that someone has developed some way of converting PM4 files from outside the file, since I can't open them to save-as or export-as from inside the file.

I have Adobe Creative Suite, including Acrobat. Maybe there's a way for the CS to import those files...

Cheers

> Maybe there's a way for the CS to import those files...

No. InDesign can open PM 6-7 files.

What you can do is download the 30 day PM 7.0 demo from Adobe's site.
It's fully functional and should open PM 4 files. Save them as PMD (PM
7.0 format) which you can then open in InDesign.

Bob

I have received by email two files with the extension pm4. I downloaded the trial version of PageMaker 7 in an attempt to open and print these two files, but PageMaker 4 will not open the files. I have never used this program before. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

PM4 is at least 15 years old, so I hope the files are sound.

All versions of PM from PM4 onwards will open PM4 files. Click File -> Open and navigate to the folder containing the PM4 file. (Copy the PM4 files/folder to a local drive first.)

The usual errors during opening are missing fonts and missing images. There will be an option to find or substitute the font (not usually too serious unless it's an unusual decorative font) but the images may never be found. Sometimes there's a screen display of the image, but that will give a poor print output.

You should be able to extract the text in RTF format.

Best of luck.

Iechyd da! John
12:20 13/10/2008 BST

Hi,

I am trying to do something simliar...open an old .pmd file and then export it to pdf. I downloaded the free trial version to do this, but it does not come with the distiller. Is there a place to get the distiller, I cannot find it online.

Kat