Attempting to Read Manuals Created with Obsolete Software

projectnut

projectnut

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Long before I retired, I was asked to preserve parts and maintenance manuals for company created machinery in CD and DVD Format. These manuals were originally created with early versions of Xerox Ventura Publisher and stored on a company main frame. I was told the software versions were from 4.2 to 5.0 but have no way to verify that. I do have a later version (Corel Ventura 12.0) on an older laptop. It does recognize the documents were written in earlier versions of Ventura it doesn't recognize which version and can't open them.

As you might expect the main frame and the people who created the original documents are long gone. Does any software exist today that might be able to recognize which versions of the software were used to create the original documents, or be able to translate them to currently available software to read and possibly print them?

I do see older versions of Ventura are still available on eBay, but since I'm not sure which version(s) were used to create them, it could be an expensive exercise in futility should I choose the wrong one, or find I need multiple versions. To further complicate things my current laptop doesn't like the most current version I have. The machine keeps telling me the software is obsolete and no longer compatible with the current operating system.
 
Most likely they are lost unless you can find someone still running a compatible version.

I’d try throwing them at Libre Office just for fun, but you will probably have just as much luck finding some old hard copy you can scan.

I’ve struggled with many orphaned file formats over the years and mostly it’s a fruitless effort.

Who’s asking for them now?

John
 
This may prove to be a useful website:

Ventura Publisher - Just Solve the File Format Problem

fileformats.archiveteam.org fileformats.archiveteam.org

And this link from that website:

How difficult or possible this may be will likely depend on the exact version.

If there an import feature on your current software by any chance?

How large are files/discs? Can you post some screenshots of their file structures?

If there's nothing that jumps out at you in the previous links, you can image one of the discs to an ISO file & upload it to my Google drive.

If you aren't tech savvy, this will likely be a hell of a lot faster (or at least less frustrating - don't know when I'd be able to tackle it) than bouncing ideas around here on the forum. Especially if I need to spin up a Windows XP virtual machine to play around.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 
Also, if you're lucky, setting the version you have to run in compatibility mode might fix things for you.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 
perhaps you can contact one of sellers on ebay and commit to purchase an older version if it works. You could send them a file to test so you know that the one you purchase will work

You could also get a bit-banger application and scan the header of the files looking to see if they encoded the version number is something readable like ASCII but that would be a long shot
 
Agreed with above that running an older version of OS in a virtual machine maybe the way to go for old applications.
I have used Oracle VirtualBox (free) and VMWare (paid).
Microsoft may even have a free for home use one......

Boswell said:
You could also get a bit-banger application and scan the header of the files looking to see if they encoded the version number is something readable like ASCII but that would be a long shot
Click to expand...

I was going to say that too......it works for PDF files:
I use a hex editor call HxD, that can open nearly any file and show the contents:

ScreenShot103.jpg

Of course with PDF you can even open with a text editor to see it:
1686430486034.png

It is worth a try to ID the application version.

Good Luck!
Brian
 
I found these via google: Not sure any of it will help but here it is. May help hunting down version in files, if you can use a hex editor.
I'm sure there are other resources online too.

Ventura Publisher - Just Solve the File Format Problem

fileformats.archiveteam.org fileformats.archiveteam.org
www.geeksforgeeks.org

Ventura Publisher - GeeksforGeeks

A Computer Science portal for geeks. It contains well written, well thought and well explained computer science and programming articles, quizzes and practice/competitive programming/company interview Questions.
www.geeksforgeeks.org www.geeksforgeeks.org

DOS Days - Ventura Publisher

website description
www.dosdays.co.uk
 
"Ventura Publisher" Haven't heard of that in a long time. pheeew.
I had VP and GEM running on an IBM/AT compatible with good ol' PharLap Extender back in the late '80s, early '90s.
Back in the days of MFM and RLL hard drives. . .
I have/had some older versions of Corel going way back. I'll have to do some digging.
 
A detective suggestion for finding file version. If the dates of creation can be read, then one has a ball park to look in for which version of software generated the documents. The tricky part might be to find the various eras the software was released.
DanK
 
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