Importing from Filemaker Pro version 1.0

[Jason Krause]

Greetings,

One of my clients has Filemaker Pro version 1.0v2 on an old Mac LC-520 running OS C1-7.1. They want to purchase a new computer running Windows XP with Filemaker 6 or 7. I was able to copy their Filemaker files from floppy to a WinXP machine, but I cannot open the file. It says the file was created with FM Pro version 1 and it cannot be opened with version 6. What would be the best way to import from version 1 to version 6? I did see the option to export to Tab and Comma Seperated text, SYLK, DBF, DIF, WKS, BASIC, and MERGE file formats. What's the best approach? Thanks for your help!

Regards, Jason

[dbruggmann]

If you only need the data, export it on the mac to a tab delimited file and import that one in the new FMP 7 file on the PC.

You could also try to convert the old database on the Mac up to version 4, 5 or 6, which you then could easily convert with FMP 7 for Windows (so you don't have to rebuild the database structure). You would have to do this in more than one step, since FMP Version 6 only converts from Version 3 and higher. The good news is, that you can use the Trial Versions of FM for the conversion and don't have to buy them. As far as I know, you can find FM back to version 2 online, but for the older ones you have to search apple.com! If I remember correctly, there was a post on this forum with more details not so long ago.

[Ano Nimus]

ftp://ftp.apple.com/filemaker/trial_software/fm/fm_21_trial.hqx

From version 1 to version 2.1, then to version 6, then to 7

(6 converts from 2.1 and higher, 7 does not convert from 2.1)

[Jason Krause]

Thanks for your help. I will try upgrading to version 2.1. Quick question: The file I downloaded is "fm_21_trial.hqx", what is the hqx extension, is it a MAC Compressed file, or can I run the file directly on the MAC without any extra software?

Thanks!

Jason

[Ano Nimus]

AFAIK it's a type of ZIP file, so you'd need winzip (there is a version for Mac of that, isn't there ) to unpack the SEA (which is Mac specific) file inside.

[dbruggmann]

On the mac all you need is Stuffit Expander (should be there, otherwise for free here: Aladdin Systems )

[Jason Krause]

Ok, I now have expanded the .HQX file to a .SEA on the MAC, but I cannot run the .SEA When I double click on the .SEA file, it brings up a message that it cannot find the program used to create the file. Is is possible that this older MAC doesn't recognize .SEA files? Sorry for all the newbie questions... it's because I'm a MAC newbie...

Jason

[Ano Nimus]

Heh, I'm a Mac n00b, too, can you tell?

SEA - Self Extracting Archive. It worked fine for me on OSX 10.3, no idea if it would work on 9 or older

[stanley]

The .sea file should extract itself for you (it is a file compressed as an application, so a double-click activates the decompression of the file.) However, as that does not appear to be working, you should download Stuffit Expander, as Detlev suggested, and that should do the trick. Launch Expander, then select File->Open... and select your .sea file. If that doesn't work, you may need to track down a copy of the full version of Stuffit for your OS, as the .sea format is a proprietary Stuffit format (I believe).

-Stanley