I use a program called "calibre", to convert e-book files of one type to another, say a Kindle file type to a Nook file type. Calibre is a free progam. If I download an e-book that is in PDF format I need to convert to an EPUB file that my Nook requires. It has a dozen or more file types that you can choose from. So I downloaded the NC fuel file and converted it to a RTF file using the "calibre" program. The new file was printable and could be edited but the tables were screwed up. On a lark, I converted the NC fuel PDF file to another pdf file. Lo and behold the new pdf file was printable and all the safe guards were gone. Steve

CNET is owned by CBS. It's a completely legit site, but it allows its customers to bundle unrequested and often unwanted other types of software to accompany a requested download. I agree with both preceding comments, you can pick up hitchhikers and setting changes you might not want if you're not careful. (That can happen with many straight downloads too. Apple tries to take over your PC when you download Itunes). You can also avoid any undesired outcomes if you click carefully and opt out of most choices you're given.

Now even I had to look up an acronym - SIL. ;-) Ok, so you have MS Works XLR & WPS files. The problems you are having - or going to have - is that Works is old, and the Office XP Pro your SIL gave you is also old, being actually Office 2002, version 10 of Office. If you don't have too many files, I think your best bet is to try an online file converter. Zamzar claims to be able to open and convert Works files. http://www.zamzar.com/ Save : XLR (spreadsheet) files to xlsx WPS (word) files to docx If you don't want to buy a new version of MS Office, try installing LibreOffice - the newer version of OpenOffice - and it will open xlsx and docx files [ If you want to stick with your SIL's MS Office XP Pro, then convert those files to xls & doc files, respectively. That version of Office is very old though. ] There are other ways of handling this, but probably if you you're going to try anything else, your best bet would be buy MS Works off Ebay or Amazon for $10 or so, open and convert all the files. Btw, you can't even open a .doc file in Office XP Pro ?? That's not a good sign - probably a sign of corruption. Btw #2 - When you say you can't open files, I take it they are on your current hard drive, and not within some compressed backup folder. That is, not within a zip file or the like. Re your backup cds : Can you load one of them, then rummage around in their files and tell us what you find ? (as in, names of files and extensions ?) Most likely they are proprietary formats, but if we know what they are, we could perhaps tell you how to retrieve them. Last, anyway you can get the hard drive back from the repair service ? Probably not, but it would be a second source of backup files. Let us know how it all works out.

You can do this from right within Word. Within your document do the following: - go to Tools - click on Protect Document - a menu will come up with 3 option. click on Forms - You'll have to enter a password, click ok, then re-enter the password again. Now if you want to edit the document, you'll have to "unprotect" the document by doing: - Click on Tools - Click on Unprotect - Enter the password Now you can edit. Remember if you forget the password, there's no way of being about to edit the document. I use the protect feature all the time, and I keep the same password on every document so that I am never second guessing what password goes to what document.