Patent US 5,652,876

A method in a computer system enables the translation and opening of a document which was created by an application program no longer resident in the computer system. The method begins by identifying the file format of the target document, Subsequently, all computer resident applications capable of opening the document are identified and translation paths from the document to the accessible application programs are calculated. Each of the available application programs and corresponding translation paths are listed in order of fidelity, with an indicia identifying the preferred path. One of the translation paths is selected and the document is translated into the acceptable format. Following translation of the program, the application is launched and the newly translated document is opened.