Oaktech Posted October 22, 2019 Posted October 22, 2019 One of my schools has gone to Win10 this summer and apparently they've written all their KS2 computing plans based on the use of TextEase. They have TextEase 2000 which is 32bit only and doesn't run. Has anyone got a KS2 friendly alternative for TextEase, particularly databases?
mavhc Posted October 22, 2019 Posted October 22, 2019 Might be worth checking with RM to see if you can still get Textease Studio CT. Seems super dead though, pity. Need to do bi-annual surveys about what software is in use.
Oaktech Posted October 23, 2019 Author Posted October 23, 2019 I've only just taken over this school, and it's a bit of a seat of the pants time as we've gone windows 10 and not installed anything back onto them. I've found Just2Easy which covers all the bases, but is slightly pricey. Waiting to see what the purse strings reckon. https://just2easy.com
sted Posted October 23, 2019 Posted October 23, 2019 i sure ive got textease 2000 working on 64 bit windows 10 before iirc it just the installer that dosent work iirc if you install it from a batch file its ok (its been a while though)
Redbumperman Posted March 28, 2021 Posted March 28, 2021 That's interesting, Sted. I've had textease working on my Windows machine for donkey's years, even after a Windows 10 64-bit upgrade. I've just re-installed Windows 10 because of speed problems, and now I can't get Textease to load from DVD. It's a 16-bit version, and I don't know what version my original installation was. I have hundreds of textease files that I use regularly, and I'm stuck for a solution. I'm just making a flashdrive installer of the 32-bit Windows-10, and will try that, but if you have a better idea I would be very grateful to hear from you.
mavhc Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 64 bit Windows doesn't run 16 bit code, whereas 32 bit windows does. Installers were often 16 bit so they could install on 16 or 32bit OSes. Win 3.1 or Win 95 in the same installer! If that's the case not sure how you got it on a 64 bit computer in the first place though.
3s-gtech Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 Install it on a 32 bit machine, then copy the Program Files (x86) folder and if necessary any registry entries across. Sometimes you can pull them out of the installer with 7-zip but that would be less likely here.
JATSO Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 One of my schools has gone to Win10 this summer and apparently they've written all their KS2 computing plans based on the use of TextEase. They have TextEase 2000 which is 32bit only and doesn't run. Has anyone got a KS2 friendly alternative for TextEase, particularly databases? I think the name of it sums it up really "2000", a piece of software that has been around 20+years. Spent so much time with it about 2000-2015 I was glad to see it gone when I finally convinced them they need to move on from some of the old software they were having me troubleshoot, don't get wrong I like a challenge getting some this software working, but really is it best use of a technicians time.
Redbumperman Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 Thanks or your help, MAVHC and 3s-gtech. JATSO: Textease was a superb piece of software, so it's no wonder people have been clinging on to it for so long. (Many people hated it as it was so unlike any other wordprocessor of its time.) Many schools will have thousands of textease files, and would be at a loss with no software to run them.
JATSO Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 Thanks or your help, MAVHC and 3s-gtech. JATSO: Textease was a superb piece of software, so it's no wonder people have been clinging on to it for so long. (Many people hated it as it was so unlike any other wordprocessor of its time.) Many schools will have thousands of textease files, and would be at a loss with no software to run them. The school here has a archived copy Textease Studio Plus V5.98.6, I have just installed it on Windows 10 64bit Ver 20H2 no issues. Its still old bit like me so its not just yet:D
Redbumperman Posted March 29, 2021 Posted March 29, 2021 Thanks for that, JATSO. There's still hope, then (and maybe for all us oldies!) I'll have to get in touch with the school where I used to work and see if they can do anything for me.
mikemcsharry Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 I've only just taken over this school, and it's a bit of a seat of the pants time as we've gone windows 10 and not installed anything back onto them. I've found Just2Easy which covers all the bases, but is slightly pricey. Waiting to see what the purse strings reckon. https://just2easy.com Just2easy is the good folks that actually wrote text ease if that info is any use.. Have you tried installing it on a seperate disk partition? Some of this older software liked to write to the root drive
Redbumperman Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 Thanks, Mikemcsharry. This is all useful info. Maybe I could get some info straight from the horse's mouth by contacting just2easy.
mikemcsharry Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 Thanks, Mikemcsharry. This is all useful info. Maybe I could get some info straight from the horse's mouth by contacting just2easy. I’ve spoken to one of the folks there and he’s asked me to give him the link to read this thread, as he’s not a member here. Absolutely nothing promised, but he will have a look at the thread. My thought... set up a PDF printer, print from textease, then open the PDF with word and save it? That might be handy for a few, but lots might be a bit numb.
Redbumperman Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 It would be great to speak to him if only to congratulate him on helping create such a wonderful piece of software and ask how it was allowed to become obsolete. I'm not a computer expert, so I didn't understand the PDF printer idea. But I am really determined to get Textease up and running normally again, so will pursue all other avenues first. Many thanks once again for your help!
JATSO Posted March 31, 2021 Posted March 31, 2021 Just2easy is the good folks that actually wrote text ease if that info is any use.. Have you tried installing it on a seperate disk partition? Some of this older software liked to write to the root drive In the past to get round software that needed to write to the root drive I used to dump it into the public profile in folder called software, worked most of the time but was a manual install rather than a deployment.
mavhc Posted March 31, 2021 Posted March 31, 2021 Never put content into a program with no way to get it out again
mikemcsharry Posted April 1, 2021 Posted April 1, 2021 Me again.. I've found that RM have allowed a company to re-launch a Textease product on RISC OS (works on raspberry PI and RISC emulator on Windows). Robert Sprowson at Elesar may be able to give you more info., I've just been chatting with him - a really nice bloke who knows his way around RISC stuff. If anyone wants to contact him [email protected] I've also suggested that Robert joins this group so he can answer things directly with you. 1
Redbumperman Posted April 1, 2021 Posted April 1, 2021 Thanks Mike. I heard about the RISCOS release yesterday from another source. Good to hear that using it with an emulator is an option. It would be good to chat with Robert to see how that would work in practice.
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