I loaded OS X Panther on my Mac G4 and found that many files previously saved as Word or Word Perfect files were inadventently converted to Unix executable files. When I try to read these in Word, it cannot recognize or translate the file properly. Does anyone know how to translate these files? Is there a filter or software program that does this?

I'll warrant the OS upgrade had nothing to do with the situation you find your text files in.

If they are just text files and not MS Word files then you should be able to open them with TextEdit.

If they are rtf documents you should still be able to open them from the "Open..." item in the TextEdit "File" menu.

Do you have one of the problem files that you are pretty certain does not contain sensitive information? Perhaps someone can examine it with your assistance and tell you what you need to do to resolve the problem.

Steven, in addition to what Flying_Meat said, can you list a couple of the affected files - their names (including extensions, such as .txt) and their permissions (if you're able to see that in OS X - i don't use it personally)?

Because I'm curious what you mean by text files being converted into executables... I don't think I understand entirely what you mean. How do you know they were "converted to executables" and were not simply corrupted somehow?

for oombera's curiosity:
That's what it looks like from the cli on OS X.

I believe that the files in question may be on a samba share where the resource fork can not be stored properly or may have been corrupted. I had a heap of reason files do this and solved the problem by just adding the correct extension. Add .doc to the end of your word files and it should be OK.

This may be incorrect reason for the problem but the solution worked OK for me