Knowledge Work

Our computers at home are very much up to date, thanks to Barry, and have all the latest bells and whistles — but this week I did a little bit of time traveling: I had occasion to find myself working at a rather ancient and cranky Mac.

I had been working in a document using Open Office 2.1 (software I find vastly superior to the bloated Word), and wanted to use said Mac to finish up the article and submit it. The Mac was running OS 9.2, and its version of Word could not read the Open Office doc. My first thought was to install Open Office on the Mac — but according to the site “no OS 9 support is available.” I tried any program on the machine that I thought might open the document — and even some I was pretty sure wouldn’t work (Acrobat, for example).

I was able to solve the problem once I found Media Convert, which took my OO doc and translated it into a format the Mac could read. The site is notable for several reasons. For one, it’s well designed - straightforward, clear and easy to use. For another, it obviates the need to download new software, which makes using it both safer and quicker. Best of all, the file formats it works with run the gamut from text to movies, images and sound (including ringtones, if that’s your thing).

MC saved my bacon, in short. I highly recommend it to anyone who may need quick and painless file conversion.

– Caren Weiner Campbell