Huge black spot over my pagemaker files

PageMaker 7.0 was released in 2001 and according to Adobe the last OS where it would work in is Windows XP. Both PageMaker and Windows XP are officially unsupported. If you are on a newer Operating System, that could be the problem. Either way, InDesign is the replacement of PageMaker. InDesign will be able to open your PageMaker files just fine.

Try re-creating the preferences of your pagemaker software by following the mentioned steps: (Steps are mentioned considering you have Windows XP installed)

1. Close PageMaker id its running

2. Open the Program Files/Adobe/PageMaker 6.5/Rsrc/Usenglsh folder.

3. Rename thefollowing files (for example, to Pm70old.cnf):

-- Pm70.cnf

-- Pm70filt.cnf

-- Pm70ppd.cnf

-- PStyles.cnf files

4. Start PageMaker. It will re-create preferences files.

If the problem continues, the preferences files is not the cause. To restore custom settings, delete the new preferences files and restore the original names of the previous preferences files.
See if this works and reply back.

I'm afraid you have a problem. Windows 6.5 doesn't run well on Windows XP, and PageMaker 7.0 can't be installed on Windows Vista at all and there is no patch for it, so most likely, your PageMaker 6.5 won't run on Windows 7. Sorry. :(

I'll research a little more and post if I find anything different, but I'm pretty confident that it won't run.

Hi. You'll be better off downloading and installing the tryout for Adobe Indesign than PageMaker. InDesign is the improved version of PageMaker and it can open your old PM7 files. With your current PC specs, you can definitely run that software.

This could be a couple of things, but primarily what jumps out is the file is corrupt. This might be unrecoverable. I would strongly suggest to first try someone who may have a copy of PM7 to try and open it. (Also, Indesign will open PM files, but not save them as pagemaker files, they will become Indd files).
The other thing could be that the file has embedded images that take up a lot of memory and this is leaving the computer short to run, where the application fails and crashes. Try shutting everything down and leaving just PM running to give it maximum memory access. I've encountered this before with a file that contained a very complex vector art file with lots of paths. If you have no other option, remove all the images that the file is using so it only renders screen dump images and does not have the originals to work from. If the images are embedded in the file; while PM is running, but the file is NOT open, set PM's preferences so that the display properties (under Edit/Properties) is set to "Grey Out". this will put grey boxes in place where all your images should be and you will be able to delete the offending image then.
Good luck, Please let us know how you go.

You should be able to open PM7 and then open the file then select Print the use the Adobe PDF printer.

pleas Install pagemaker 7.00

Can't be done in PageMaker 6.5, or in any version of PM. PageMaker is a page layout program. One thing you CAN do is, print the file to EPS, and open/rasterize in Photoshop. Then you can save as a JPG.

Pagemaker 6.5 is designed to be used with Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4, therefore in order to run it in Vista I'd suggest to run your Pagemaker 6.5 using Compatinity Mode --> Go to your Desktop --> Right click on the program icon--> properties-->Compatibility--> select one of the versions above

This is from Adobe InDesign (CS3) Help module:
Convert PageMaker documents InDesign can convert document and template files from Adobe PageMaker 6.0 and later. When you open a PageMaker file, InDesign converts the original file information to native InDesign information. InDesign files are saved with an .indd filename extension.
For more information, see the PageMaker Conversion Guide (PDF) at www.adobe.com/go/learn_pmconv. Before opening the document in InDesign, you may want to do the following:

• If the PageMaker file or its linked graphics are located on a network server, floppy disk, or removable drive, it may not open as expected if an interruption in data transfer occurs. To prevent data transfer problems, copy documents and their links to the hard disk, preferably in the same folder where the PageMaker publication is stored, before opening them in InDesign.
  
• You may want to use Save As in PageMaker to clear unnecessary hidden data.
  
• To ensure that all links are maintained, copy all linked files to the same folder where the PageMaker publication is stored.
  
• Make sure that all necessary fonts are available in InDesign.
  
• Repair broken graphics links in the PageMaker publication.
  
• If you have a problem converting a large PageMaker document, convert portions of the PageMaker file separately to isolate the problem.
  

If you cannot open a corrupt PageMaker document in PageMaker, try opening it in InDesign. InDesign can recover most documents that PageMaker cannot open.