I have been given a 31/2" floppy disk on which there are two files but
my PC (XP home) can not open them. In properties they are described as
"File".
They were written originally on a Olympia Carrera electronic
typewriter.The owner has many, many more files on floppies which he
wishes to open on his Compaq PC also XP. Can you tell me which program
will open these files,please, in their original or near original
format. I can see the text in a Notepad window but the thought of
removing the extraneous characters id too much work.

This program might be helpful:

http://www.acii.com/wpt.htm

Here's a utility that strips non-ASCII characters from all the files
in a certain directory:

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000033932

Hello Methc,

If the previous suggestions did not help, your best bet may be to send
the floppies to a data recovery (or file translation) service. I found
one in England, LPS:
  http://homepages.tesco.net/~dremars/
Select Data Conversion, then the link labeled "disk formats" for a
list of the types of files / floppies they handle. There are several
Olympia products listed but not the Carrera (though it may be
compatible with one of the versions listed).

If you do this - I suggest sending a sample; perhaps by email to see
if the company can service your needs.

  --Maniac

Try opening up notepad, then goto file>open. Under "Files of type"
select "All files", then find your file and open it.