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Resolved Question

MS WORD2000

by Sep 9, 2011 1:44PM PDT

I'm using WORD 2000 on a 98se desktop and trying to determine the
meaning of an icon on a document file: it is a text file that seems to
perfectly duplicate a "normal" .doc file but is not a .doc file. The
original documents, I'm almost positive, came from an esoteric word
processing program and when converted, showed the last characters of the
file names as extensions.
The icon does not show a W, or what usually shows up in the text icon or
from notepad or wordpad or rtf but I can't find it anywhere.
Determining if this in an ASCII or ANSI file could save me serious
time. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks ---

Discussion is locked

Tosca has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
4 Posts
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Best Answer

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It means nothing.
by Forum moderator Sep 10, 2011 4:29AM PDT

Since we can change such icons at will, it only holds meaning to the person that wanted it to be that icon.

Also, when file extensions are hidden, hilarity follows. You may want to upload one of them to Google Docs and see if it understands the file.
Bob

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WORD/PC Icon
by Tosca Sep 10, 2011 6:59AM PDT

Actually, I think it must mean something. I didn't create it, WORD 2000 or 98se created it. And I can't backtrack with enough confidence to say it happened when I was converting to WORD or ASCII o while in WORD. And it's not that the extensions are hidden, it is that whatever is doing "it" turns the overflow characters of the document/file name into a .xxx
Still - your answer was helpful. I moved copies of a couple of those files to my Mac to see if later versions of WORD and TextEdit could read them and they were fine. My greatest concern was losing format on my manuscripts (poetry) if catastrophe hit and everything looks ok - though I will check Google too. Things can get a little dicey when you're working with a pretty old set of software on an old PC and (relatively) new stuff on a Mac.

I guess I was really looking for a way to find all the damn icons the PC uses which I thought I had - the command doesn't seem to work any longer - ah-me(!)

Perspective - that's what I need a bit more of, Bob - Thanks.

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Let's talk ICONS.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 10, 2011 7:49AM PDT

You did ask where those icons are.

The answer is -> More places than an user ever expected. ICONs can be in any .EXE, .DLL .MSI .almost anything. I've used tools like Microangelo in the past to peek at what icons are hiding in files. And since we can select any of those then it's still a question of the user's choice or the author's choice.

It's just a variable that at the end of the day means as much as we will attribute to it.

I wish there was more to these ICONs than just a ICON but how else to put this?
Bob

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Talking ICONs (??)
by Tosca Sep 10, 2011 11:46AM PDT

Just kidding -- I marked your reply as helpful because of the knowledge it gave me which wasn't what i wanted to hear! But knowledge is knowledge. One thing's sure - my search is over - I'll work with what I have-and know.
Thanks again --

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