You could go to file "save as" and put it in "My Documents" unless you just want to have it on a disc. Or...if you "do" want it on a disc, do the same file "save as" and from the drop down menu, find your CD drive (mine is F) and follow the prompts from there to put it on the disc.

great step by step directions!

Sue, does this work for you?

Moni

I knew I could count on a KTer!

I have it saved in My Documents, but I am supposed to hand it over to another person this evening. Wont they be surprised when I give them a CD!!!

I couldn't believe that it could do it in nano second. I sat there waiting for it to finish and then realized it was finished.

Yes, Moni, the directions were perfect. I had no idea it would be that easy. I always learn on a NEED To KNOW basis, and hadn't needed to know before. Didn't want to risk causing my PC to get upset you know.

Thanks a heap Maybee.

Sue

Check it on someone else's computer before giving it to her. When I first started doing this, I found that there was a finalizing step when I clicked off of the "save to" step...it comes up when you click off. I don't know your computer, but that's how it is with mine. But...it is "almost" as easy as it was to do with floppy discs

On occasion, I use CDs as storage medium or to tansport files. I use the rewrittables, CD RW, for this chore. it de-complicates things and I don't have to concern myself about closing a file. But first, the CDRW must be formatted as a data disc. These days, most software for CD burners will auto-detect when you have inserted a blank disc, fire up the utiltiy, and ask what type of disc you wish to prepare, music, files or data, and maybe a few other choices. Select "data disc" for a re-writtable CDRW and let it do its thing. A 650 KB disc will require about 5 to 10 minutes to format. With a felt tip, mark the finished disc as formatted, or simply use the letter F, to aid yourself later. I keep several formated disc at my desk.

A formatted data disc is used the same as any other hard drive, floppy, or thumb drive. It is a good idea to eject the disc before shutting down the computer. Press the eject button and the drive should close all files on the disc before ejecting, although I have forgotten to do this at times leaving the disc in the drive without any problem. The only time you may have a problem is if the manual emergency eject feature is used and there are open files on the disc.

Me again.

I guess I'm confused. I put in the CDRW disc, I didn't see anything that asked what type I wanted to do, or about formatting. I just followed Maybee's directions, and saved the documents.

I didn't know about the finalizing step. I googled for info but only find info that says you need to finalize. Doesn't say how to do that.

I still have the disc. What should I do now, or is it too late since I have taken it out?

TIA

Sue

Open up the cd on your computer and be sure that what you saved is there.

Yes, everything is there.

Sue

Okay..there is one more step....as you have it now, it will show up on your own computer.

After you do what I said,put it back into your CD drive...go to "my computer" and to your CD drive and you will see it there. Click on it...To the left of that, you will see a little box that says "write these files to CD"

click on that step and a wizard will come up...you name your file and then follow the prompts from there and then it will show up on your friends computer...this is how you finalize it...try it with the one you just did..it's there just waiting to be finalized.

As for formating...most discs you buy are formated. If you don't get a pop up telling you to format, you are fine in that respect..

Maybee, I'm saving this and will get back to it later. Too late tonight.

Thanks for all your help.

Sue

I have to disagree here. Finalizing is what is done on CD-R disks, I don't recall ever finalizing a CD-RW disk since the purpose of CD-RWs are to be reusable. Finalizing will render the disk unwritable in the future.

CD-RWs can be tricky. They're not always compatible between cd drives. Also, CD-R disks don't always have to be finalized. It depends on the hardware being used. Once a disk is finalized, you cannot add any more to it. However before that you can and in a sense use it like a CD-RW. Again, it's not a clear issue.

Sue, I'm a little unclear on what you're trying to do. Saving it to a disk certainly isn't just because you ran out of ink, at least I HOPE not! Are you trying to have someone else print it for you? If so, you could use a USB "flash" type drive if you or they have one. I think everyone should have a couple of those around anyway. They're the modern day "diskette". Another option is to email the file to get it printed.

Also, if you're looking to have another person print it for you, be sure they have WordPerfect or a conversion program. Or you could print it to a .PDF and then they could open that if they have a program that will open .PDFs.

Back to saving it onto CD. If you have XP or Vista, you should be able to just drag and drop it onto the icon for your CD writer drive, or click the save and save it to that drive. It should walk you through writing it to the disk. Once written, I'd suggest you rename the file on the drive, for instance rename it from "document.wpd" to "document1.wpd", then try to open the document on the CD. The reason for renaming the original file is if it was just a link, it would open the file on the drive rather than on the disk and this would be a double check. You could then name the original file back to the original name if you desired. HOWEVER, again, this does not guarantee that the disk will be readable on another machine. Things have improved over the years, but right now, CDRW is a relatively "old" technology and not being developed.

BTW, jemdandy's comments are good to help make it more likely to be read on different machines.

Hope I haven't thoroughly confused you!

Me again, again.

Cynic,
I did start to put a document on a disc because I ran out of ink. Here's the Reader's Digest Version of what happened. We have a monthly newsletter here at the Retirement Community and I had written an article about how I found this place. I needed to get it to the editor by the 10th. It would then go to the (professional) printer. It ended up being about 5000 words, and I ran out of ink when I was printing it off. I got the bright idea that I would put it on a disc. . . ..and thereby hangs this tale.

In the past I had thought about getting a thumb drive, but just never did. I had some CDs so off I go thinking I would learn something new. I always use WordPerfect, but now I guess that might have been a problem, although since the printer is a local business they probably can handle whatever they get.

I did a lot of web searching during this time and I learned something else. My pc is a HP Media Center, WINXP SP2. On one site I read that with that machine I can burn a cd and it will just do whatever needs to be done.

In the interest of time, I went to WalMart and got the ink cartridge, and now it is printed and in the hands of the editor. Thank goodness!

I'm saving this whole thread and someday I'll try again and actually learn how to burn a CD, or better yet, get a couple thumb drives. I miss those old "floppies."

So you didn't thoroughly confuse me, I started out that way!

BTW, I miss you over at CompHelp.

Thanks to each of you for helping this old lady, who never wants to stop learning.

Sue

If you're anything like me in that respect, I enjoy learning new things!

And thank you Sue for the kind words. I miss a lot of people over there! Once in a great while I take a quick look to see what's going on but it isn't too often.

Happy computing!

Oh, just a tip for future reference: If you're saving a document like this for someone else to use and if you're not sure what type of software they have, use File/SAVE AS and save it as either a text file or as a rich text files (.RTF extension). They should be able to open that on most any machine then.

Hey, I miss you over there also...

But...can we ask you questions "here"?

Cynic,thanks for the tip, keep them coming.

I would love to see a "reunion site" for those of us who were so often there in those days. It was a special time.

Sue

I miss Cynic too

Thank you all. Feel free to ask away anytime. Glad to help whenever I can. Be warned, as you know, you may get a little "lecture" from me!! ;)

The "Conversations" side is a good spot for a reunion. I check that occasionally too but admittedly not too often.

OK, my best tip is my best advice: Back up important items OFTEN!! What to back up? Something that would impact you tremendously if your computer was stolen tonight. I've had two computers stolen from me and the one time they even took my backup tapes! So secure those backups too. They're as valuable as the data on them. For some, not much, for some, their life!

It's part of the big two rules of computer life. 1) Never spam; and 2) Always back up!