Word conversion filter for Wordpas?

( i dont have office or word)
I have run into problems opening things on cd's in wordpad.There were several
documents on installation cd's I have easily read in the past, that suddenly when I try
to open them I recieve an error "unable to losd conversion filter" with a few varuations
of that message depending on which document I am trying to read. I know wordpad
reads "Word" documents but it has stopped reading them all, and I am ready to try
installing the "word" 97 convertor in order to try to solve this. Is this the right thing to
do? will these converters be the thing that the errors were taking about? Does this
error I get in wordpad mean that word pad needs updating? I am on 98 1st ed. Using
what MS calls word 6.0 ( thats what the files my wordpad say they are)The other
errror I am getting openinmg some files is "unable to load conversion filter, this
document contains double byte charachter" and blah, blah blah.USUALLY IT GORS
AHEAD AND OPENS FOR ME ANYWAY, Sometimes "not"

The converter should do the trick.
MS changed document format on release of 97 version and most of the standard file viewers have problem with this. That would most likely be the cause of errors messages.

One program that works really well for viewing this and almost any type of file is Quick View Plus
http://www.inso.com/qvp/