[G4] Problem with spreadsheets in Classic mode

[S. Kennedy]

On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 09:33:26 -0800, B G wrote:
> You might want to download the demo of office X, it is good for 30 
> days. This should allow you to import your files.

I wish to thank all for the six replies to my problem.  Especially the above, which has been a major aid in solving my problem.

No, I haven't succeeded in getting either Excel 4 or Lotus to open and run in Classic or in 9.2.2 on my G4 PM.  However, I was able to get Excel 4 to run in 9.1 on my Pismo which is loaded with 10.3.9 also.  

My major concern was getting numerous Lotus files in a format that could be imported to Ragtime Solo while maintaining all the calculations.  I have done this by using the demo of Office X an saving the imported Lotus files as Excel 4 files.  These can then be imported into Ragtime solo while maintaining the calculations.

So now I am much closer to my objective of getting rid of the need to run anything in Classic while keeping my expenses to a minimum.  Claris Cad is about the only program where a suitable replacement has not been purchased.  I am leaning toward Real Cad as the best bet there.  I prefer Claris Emailer to any email client I have ever used and it still runs fine in Classic.  However, I have switched to Gyazmail simply to avoid the use of Classic mode all the time. Yes, WingZ is quite old but in my opinion it is still the best spreadsheet written for the Mac. I would love to see a version for OS X but that would be impossible since the company has been defunct for a long time.  It is powerful and extremely fast with excellent chart features.

Several replies mentioned NeoOffice, which I have had installed for some time and kept updated.  Unfortunately, it could not handle the translations I needed.  As I mentioned before I really don't like the NeoOffice interface and it is really too slow.  I find Ragtime to be more to my taste in just about everything it does, including import of Word for PC files.  

If it were not for the fact that I do a lot of Photoshop work, my old G3 desktop would be just fine for most everything else and I probably would still not be upgraded to OS X.  However, once I got the faster computer for Photoshop and some digital audio work I do for myself, I really needed to get away from Classic.  My G3 desktop is about 8 years old and has never given me any significant problems at all.

BTW, just as a point of info, I looked into external floppy drives as a possibility but I could not find any that would work with the Mac formatted 800 and 400 MB disks that were used for these old applications.  Since floppies are so fragile, I made disk images many years ago on optical disks but these don't always work for one reason or another.

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

Skid Kennedy