If you have old .inp files from InPage, such as articles, books, school papers or office letters, you may find you can no longer open them. Maybe you have a new computer without InPage, or copying the text gives you strange symbols. The text is still in the file, and you can get it out in a few seconds.

Why old InPage files are hard to open

InPage was the standard software for Urdu publishing in Pakistan for many years. Its older versions, before InPage 3, stored each Urdu letter using InPage’s own private code instead of Unicode, the international standard every modern computer, phone and website uses.

So when another program opens the file, or when you copy text out of old InPage and paste it elsewhere, it doesn’t know which code means which letter. You see symbols like Ã, Ç or boxes instead of Urdu.

The quick way: convert it in your browser

1. Open our InPage to Unicode converter.
2. Choose your .inp file, or several at once, or drag them onto the page.
3. Click View to see the Urdu text, then Copy Urdu or Download .txt.

The file never leaves your computer; the conversion happens inside your browser. You don’t need InPage installed.

What you get, and what you don’t

You get the complete text with correct Unicode Urdu letters, diacritics, punctuation, Urdu digits and paragraph breaks. You don’t get the formatting: fonts, colours, columns, images and tables stay behind. For most uses, such as republishing an article, editing a document or searching old text, the text is what matters.

Putting the text back into a document

• Word: paste, set right-to-left direction, and choose an Urdu font. Our Urdu in Word guide explains each step.
• Google Docs: paste, then use the right-to-left button in the toolbar.
• A website or blog: paste into your editor. Unicode Urdu can be found by Google, unlike scanned images of pages.
• Modern InPage: InPage 3 and newer accept Unicode text when pasted.

Saving your archive for the future

If you have many old InPage files, convert them all and keep the .txt copies alongside the originals. Plain Unicode text will open on any computer for decades to come, with no special software.