How to make previous version documents(CS1 and CS3) without extension readable in InDesign CS5

Question

I have some previous version documents of CS1 and CS3  on Mac  which have been saved without any extension e.g 300, CS3doc etc.
When I open such documents in InDesign CS5 they appear to be unreadable .  Only on  selecting 'All documents' filter  I am able to open those documents.
I want to make all such documents (which are without extension) readable with 'All Readable Documents ' also .
How I can do that, please  help me !!!!!

Answer 1

The first thing I'd do is make sure the issue is really what I suspect it is - i.e. I suspect your extension-less documents don't have the proper type and creator.
If you fire up a Terminal window, you should be able to use the GetFileInfo command to check one of the files:
Assume 'sampleFile' is sitting on your desktop, you'd do
GetFileInfo ~/Desktop/sampleFile
(not sure when/whether GetFileInfo is installed on a Mac - I think it used to be part of Apple's developer tools, but on my Snow Leopard it resides in /usr/bin)
Check what it says for 'type' and 'creator'.
If these are not correct, we've confirmed that that's the reason why they don't show up in your file dialog.
If the issue is type/creator related, I can think of the following options:
a) Change your code to accept ANY file type/extension - I suspect this would work (not tested!):
openFileDialog->AddType( '????' );
If memory serves right, '????' should be accepted as a wildcard.
b) correct the file types BEFORE they are viewed in the File Dialog - for example, if these files are in a very specific folder somewhere, you might be able to scan the folder, and correct their type and creator (e.g. iterate through all extensionless files in folder 'xyz' and change their type and creator). A lot depends on how those files get there, and whether they are tied to a specific folder or not - are they 'old' files, or are they being generated in some workflow? If they're all over a user's system or all over a file server, such pre-scanning and cleaning up file types approach will be a no-go.
Cheers,
Kris