files created in Oct 2005 won't open

[Bernard Cooperman]

Hi:

I'm presently using Mellel 2.2.5.1 (build b2) on a MacBookPro OSX.4.11. I wanted to open a couple of files created 3 years ago in Mellel. I have two copies of the files on my computer. Neither will show their contents. The icon beside them is a greyed-out screen with the letters "exec" in green in the upper left corner. When I open the files I get the following in the Mellel window:
typedstreamÅËÑ@ÑÑÑNSMutableDictionary

[morgenthau]

Are you sure those files are a Mellel format? From what you're saying it sounds more like they are binary files...

[Bernard Cooperman]

They're definitely Mellel by origin. The question is whether I can still extract the Hebrew from them. When I open them in Word (for the Mac) as Text Only, the English can be read (even if it's messy) but the Hebrew is indecipherable.

[gpolberd]

Hi Bernard,

This is something of which, I believe, the developers, Ori and Eyal Redler, should be informed, because it points to backward compatability issues. They can be reached at support@redlers.com.

[Mart°n]

Hi:
The icon beside them is a greyed-out screen with the letters "exec" in green in the upper left corner.

Maybe the .mell extension got lost or have never been attached to the files so Mellel doesn’t recognize those files as Mellel files and therefore refuses to open them correctly. To resolve this, open the “information” window in the Finder (right- or control-click a file, and from the contextual menu choose “Information“ or select a file and click “File > Information“ from the menu bar or simply hit CMD+I)
Inside the information window there should be a section labeled “Name & Extension” or “Name and suffix” where you could add the .mell extension to the file name. Once done this, the files may work as expected.

[Bernard Cooperman]

Following advice by one reply, I wrote directly to RedleX and Eyal responded quickly (as always). He posited that the extension had been lost (which was not so) and requested I send him a sample file (which I did). He reported back that the extension was "not 100% kosher", renamed it, and sent me back the file which now worked perfectly.

When I went back to other files to rename them, I found that I could rename them only by doing ALL of the following steps: removing the file from the folder it was in, then renaming the file in Roman (i.e. English) characters (all the files originally had at least some Hebrew characters in their names), and adding the extension .mellel (which would then be rejected) and then replacing the extension with .mell . I have no idea why all these steps were necessary, but that seems to have solved the problem. It may be significant that the folder was also named with Hebrew characters. I hate to give up on using Hebrew characters to name my files and folders.

[gpolberd]

Thank you for this response, Bernard. I wouldn't have known that using non-Roman characters would impact whether one can open a file. I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm glad you were able to fix it!

[Ori Redler]

Following advice by one reply, I wrote directly to RedleX and Eyal responded quickly (as always). He posited that the extension had been lost (which was not so) and requested I send him a sample file (which I did). He reported back that the extension was "not 100% kosher", renamed it, and sent me back the file which now worked perfectly.

When I went back to other files to rename them, I found that I could rename them only by doing ALL of the following steps: removing the file from the folder it was in, then renaming the file in Roman (i.e. English) characters (all the files originally had at least some Hebrew characters in their names), and adding the extension .mellel (which would then be rejected) and then replacing the extension with .mell . I have no idea why all these steps were necessary, but that seems to have solved the problem. It may be significant that the folder was also named with Hebrew characters. I hate to give up on using Hebrew characters to name my files and folders.

The "only roman" think is, sadly, a limitation in OS X -- Mellel, of course, don't mind this at all.

[jannuss]

I wouldn't have known that using non-Roman characters would impact whether one can open a file.

I have lots of ".mellel" files with Hebrew names and some with mixed Hebrew/English names -- no difficulty opening them with Mellel 2.5 and OSX 10.5.5

Also, no difficulty opening old ".mell" files with Hebrew names and mixed Hebrew/English names whether the folder name is English or Hebrew.

Janet