Opening My Passwords

[jennyjoan]

I keep the above in either documents or desktop and update them every now and again. However went to open them and I am getting this

Abiword cannot open .....passwords.abw. It appears to be an invalid document.

I have never had any bother before. This is a first.

[youngmafbog]

Please stop this practice. It is the worst thing you can do for security. And have you put it in a file called passwords?

Use a password manager like LastPass. Some are free or you can buy a subscription like I do for the family. Its around $70

[youngmafbog]

And if you do store valuable documents on a machine - back them up to a USB or secure cloud something.

[Buenchico]

Try installing LibreOffice.
https://www.libreoffice.org/
Then open its Writer program and try to open the .abw file with that. (LibreOffice Writer is meant to recognise such files). If it opens, go to File > Save As and save the file into a more common format, such as .doc.

[jennyjoan]

thanks Chris - won't let me download unless I donate -

[youngmafbog]

//If it opens, go to File > Save As and save the file into a more common format, such as .doc.//


Noooooooo. No passwords in files.

And it should let you download without donating. It does it in the background so you may find its already in your downloads folder.

[jennyjoan]

ok have changed my browser to allow the libre to download but it has been circling for 15 minutes at the moment - is that normal

[jennyjoan]

had a nosey there on the Edge browser - looks the same ie doesn't have appeared to have downloaded

[Buenchico]

This is the correct download link, Jennyjoan, (for Windows machine running a 64-bit operating system, as just about all Windows computers do now anyway):
https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/dl/win-x86_64/7.2.6/en-GB/LibreOffice_7.2.6_Win_x64.msi

[elliemay1]

Just wondering, if it's easier, why not just write them down in a notebook jenny

[Blubster]

I use KeePass (free) on my main PC and keep a copy on another drive just in case of problems

[jennyjoan]

well have been able to download the libreoffice successfully but don't know what to do next. I tried to copy the passwords into the libreoffice icon but still said "cannot open".

[jennyjoan]

do I need to type the passwords all over again on the libre

[Buenchico]

Open LibreOffice.

In theory simply using File > Open from there should work but I'd rather have the 'Writer' part of LibreOffice on screen first. So click on 'Create Writer Document'.

Then go to File > Open and navigate to the location of passwords.abw, double-clicking on it when you get there.

If it opens, then go to File > Save As and choose a suitable file type from. (If you want to then try opening the file you've saved in Abiword, I suggest trying 'Word 97-2003 (*.doc)' or possibly either 'Text (*.txt)' or 'Rich Text (*.rtf). It might be best to give the file a slightly different name (e.g. 'passwords2') so you can easily tell which file is which.

If passwords.abw won't open in LibreOffice Writer, you might be stuck! All I can then suggest is to try opening it in Notepad or Wordpad. (They're both available from your Start menu, under 'Windows Accessories'). If you can get to a valid document via one of those programs, you can then resave it, as 'passwords2', into one of the formats I've mentioned above.

[Atheist]

Buen; I've installed Libreoffice and opened the file with my passwords. When I 'Save as...' what format should I choose (the original file was MS Excel)