AMOS Text Output Work Around

 

A known issue exists with AMOS 20 and later when using Staff and Student desktop PC’s. When attempting to create a text output file, AMOS gives the error:

“This output file is in an obsolete format.  It can be viewed. However, some features of the output viewer will be unavailable.

Unfortunately there is no fix for this issue as it stands.  We developed a stand-alone PC build with Information Services for the SP801 exam but the Staff and Student desktop builds currently, always create the error message that you see above.

We do have a couple of work arounds that enable you to create, view and save your output files however:

Option 1:

When you get the error message click OK, you then get an option to save the file.  Save the file to a location you can find again in a moment, somewhere like the desktop for example.

Now click close in the error message window and click on the red cross to close the AMOS output window.

Open MS Word. Go to File and Open. Browse to the location that you saved your output file. Ensure the file type you are searching for is set to All Files (*.*) or you wont be able to find your output file.  Click Open.  It should open into MS Word quite happily.

I would advise now saving the file as a .docx Word document so you won’t need to go through that every time you open it.

Option 2:

As before save your file to a location you can find again in a moment.  This time we will change the file extension from .AmosOutput to .html this is a little more involved but has the advantage of keeping all the features that AMOS creates within the Output file. This is because the .AmosOutput file extension is really just a fancy .html document.

First, it would be useful to able to see the file extensions of all your files, this Microsoft article will help you to show or hide Windows 7 file extensions: http://bit.ly/18aUAFN

Next, you need to find your Output file.  You should now be able to see the .AmosOutput at the end of the file name.  Right click on the file and select Rename. Delete the part that reads .AmosOutput and replace it with .html

You can now open your Output file in Word, a Web Browser or any other html compliant piece of software.  By default the file will open in your default Web Browser, to open in another program you must right click, select Open with… and browse to the new program.

 

We realise that this situation is not ideal and apologise for any inconvenience.  Hopefully the above work arounds will relieve some of your frustrations.  At the moment AMOS is not officially supported by IBM on a virtualised Windows environment, which is what we run here at the University, this leaves me unable to give any sort of time frame on when a permanent solution will appear.

 

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