I own a Macintosh G4 using os9.2.2.
This is an example of a class of questions.
Here is the name of a file:  "America Online v5.0 Guide" .  It comes
with America Online for the Macintsh
Its type is poco
Its creator is reno
How can I realize this file in text and then print it out?

Hi David!
  
This is a guide file for use with "Apple Guide" and it can only be run
from within AOL. You should get an error message if you try and open
the file.
  
However, it is possible to extract all the text contained in the file,
as I have just done!
  
I found a word processing program called "Scorpio" that can extract
text from any Mac file.
  
"...it lets you convert ANY Mac file into a word processing document!
Just drag the file to Scorpio, and it will extract text from the file
and create a new document ready for use! Works with ANY file on your
Mac, even damaged files!"
http://www.pure-mac.com/textword.html#scorpio
  
To download Scorpio, click on "Direct Download".
After it's been downloaded and unstufffed, click on "Scorpio
Installer" to install the program. Launch the Scorpio application and
then open "AOL v5.0 Guide" by going to "File" > "Open...", or dragging
the file to Scorpio. When I tried this the first time, I got an error
message saying the application needed more memory to open the file. I
highlighted the Scorpio icon, pressed Apple+I, selected "Memory" from
the drop-down menu, and increased the "Preferred Size" to 10000k. The
"AOL v5.0 Guide" file then opened fine.
  
You can then print off the text by going to File > Print...
  
I hope this works for you. If you have any questions prior to rating
answer, please let me know.
  
regards,
JACKBURTON-ga
  
  
---------------------------
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An even better solution would be to use a program called "Guideworks
Translator", which can convert Apple Guide files to HTML formats.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out where you can download
it from, but I will make some enquiries to see if I can get hold of it
for you.
  
JB

Hi David,

I don't have AOL 5.0, however I do have iMovie and noticed it has
Guide Files which can only be opened from iMovie.  I tried Scorpio to
open my iMovie Guide Files but saw only a small chunk of text.

Noticing that the Guide Files are just Help Files, I remembered
reading that Help Files are just HTML Files.
Source: http://developer.apple.com/macos/help.html

Anyway, if you look in System Folder->Help
you should see a file called "Help Center", the one with a Question Mark.
You can open that file in any  Internet Browser and print your AOL5.0 Help File.

Hope that helps.

Good tip, Googleexpert!
  
Unfortunately, you can't open the AOL5 guide file that way :(
  
It has some interactive features that only work with the AOL software
and can only be used when you are using the program. It seems only the
"Help Viewer Documents" (the white guide files with a blue question
mark) can be opened in a browser, but not the grey ones.

Thanks jackburton,
I found "Guideworks Translator" but could not open any Guide files for
some reason.  Maybe because I'm running OS X currently.

The Program is available at:
http://mirror.services.wisc.edu/mirrors/apple/stairways/old_versions/other/guideworks-translator.sit

Search Strategy:
guideworks .sit

Nice one, Googleexpert!
  
I downloaded the program and discovered that the AOL5 guide file can't
be opened with guideWorks Translator. <sigh>. Sorry, David!
  
guideWorks Translator can only translate Apple Guide content (i.e
"Help Viewer Documents"); it can't convert the grey coloured guide
files.
  
Seeing as the Help Viewer documents are essentially HTML files (as my
colleague pointed out), and can therefore be opened in any browser,
then guideWorks Translator is not really so useful as it does pretty
much the same thing!
  
So David, if you really want to extract the text from the AOL5 guide
file, you can do so with Scorpio, but the text will also include
programming code.
  
Hope that helps! :)