Question

When I get Paratext 9, will the files from my 6.1 version be compatible?

Answer 1

It's possible that the Scripture Text SFM files might be compatible if they used USFM instead of SFM and are in Unicode format. The other files are not compatible.

You could try create a new PT9 project and import the SFM files into that project and see what you get.

Otherwise, you would need to find Paratext version 7.0 which I think allowed you to migrate to 7.x format and then get Paratext 8.0 to migrate to the 8.0 / 9.x format. I would expect it to be difficult to find those earlier versions, though.

Comments

You can contact [email protected] if you need help finding the install files for earlier versions of Paratext.

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I don't think it is worth installing older versions of Paratext.  You won't be having much extra data to preserve, unless Paratext 7 preserved your key terms choices, but even then, the key terms lists have changed a lot since then.

Just create a new project in Paratext 9 and import the Paratext 6 files as text.  You may need to verify that each file in Paratext 6 contains the correct \id ABC line at the top.  You will also need help importing if the books are set to be one file per chapter.  Otherwise, the import should be straight forward, and you will have to fix the markers it doesn't recognize with search and replace.

Answer 2

Another option for getting files from older versions of Paratext (prior to version 8) into Paratext 9 is to make a backup of the project in the older version and then restore that backup in Paratext 9. This should restore not only the text, but also the basic settings. You can look in help for "How do I restore a Paratext backup?"

As has been noted, you may still have issues with markers and encoding that will have to be resolved.