Necessary to "Update" old illustrator files?

Question

I have tons of files created in old illustrator 6.0 and now that I have a newer version of illustrator, specifically CS2, loaded on Mac OS X it's calling all of my illustrator files "Text Files."
It says, "This file contains text that was created in a previous version of Illustrator. This legacy text must be updated before you can edit it." It asks you to either Choose Update or OK to update later.
Should I take the time to update all of these files now? I'm just archiving them. I have thousands of files and it would take time to open them all and update each one. If I don't update now though, will I be stuck later in years to come, with files that won't open at all, as operating systems progress, etc?
2) If I open a file, hit update and then hit save or save as, Logo A for instance will be renamed Logo A [Converted].ai - My question is should I just leave the brackets and the word converted or should I get rid of it?
3) Also, if I open a file, hit update and then hit save or save as it goes to "illustrator Options". In this dialog box it defaults to "Use Compression". Should I just leave it checked or deselect it? (I'm scared of the word "compression" as I just spent the last several days decompressing old Disk Doubler files using an OS 9 emulator. I was lucky to be able to do this.)
4) In this Illustrator Options dialog box it always gives me two warnings for these old files - The Document Raster Effects resolution is 72 ppi or less. What does this mean? Should I try and change it? If so, how? The other warning is "only fonts with appropriate permission bits will be embedded. What does this mean?
Please keep answers as simple as possible. Thanks so much.

Answer 1

Lala,
Most of this just boils down to personal preference and/or common sense.
I have tons of files created in old illustrator 6.0 and now that I have...CS2...Mac OS X [is] calling all of my illustrator files "Text Files."...Should I take the time to update all of these files now?
That's just a file-association issue on the OS, mostly for icon and doubleClicking-to-open. It doesn't mean you can't open the file in a later version of the creating program. Here's the main thing: Can you still directly open AI 6 files in the current version of AI (CS5)? If yes (as I suspect), then whether you update all these files before archiving them or not is just a question of what you consider most convenient. Do you prefer to have all your archive files already updated to current-version AI, or do you prefer to update them on an as-needed basis?
Personally, I opt for the as-needed route. I also have thousands of archive files. But I'm not going to open and resave them all (and mess with replacing legacy fonts, etc., etc.) with every new version of the host program. One could make a career of that. (And Illustrator is far from the only program I use.) In my case, the majority of those legacy files will never be needed again. Although I keep good backups, I always make it a point to make sure my clients know I am under no obligation to indefinitely archive my working files for their completed projects. (Anyone who takes on that liability, without being in that business and charging for it is flirting with disaster.) I provide the customer copies of what is necessary for the reproduction and uses he has contracted for, and he bears responsibility for redundant backup security of the files provided if he deems it necessary.
I'm just archiving them. I have thousands of files...will I be stuck later in years to come, with files that won't open at all...?
As long as the current version still supports the legacy format, it still boils down to whether you want to have all your archive files already updated or update them as-needed.
Now, eventually a new version of the host program may completely break backward file compatibility with a legacy format. That actually happened once in the history of FreeHand when a major modernization of the program was done. If a FH user at that time chose not to update their legacy files, then they would have to do a 2-step update, first using the latest version that did maintained the legacy compatibility, then to the current version. Even then, I did not convert all my archives (especially those for long-inactive accounts.)
The potential larger issue in that kind of scenario would be whether the "middle step" version of the host application will still run on the current-version OS. No one can predict that years and years in advance.
(Aside: For that matter, what assurance do we have that the next computer technology that everyone flocks to--say, organic computing with true artificial intelligence--will not break compatibilty with every existing PDF, CD, DVD, hard disk, VHS tape, Flash drive, Zip drive, Syquest disk, SCSI device, and AI file on the planet? On the other hand, I'm still able to use FH11 without a hitch on Windows Vista--haven't tried it yet on Windows 7. I'd love to try a copy of Windows FH 8--that was a clean drawing program--but only have a Mac version.)
It says "This file contains text that was created in a previous version of Illustrator. This legacy text must be updated..." It asks you to either Choose Update or OK to update later.
Fairly recently (much more recently than version 6), Illustrator's very archaic text objects were updated to a...well...less archaic structure. For backward compatibility, Adobe included a "conversion" routine to give you the option of updating the older text objects. Understand, you can still open, work with, and even re-save the file with the legancy text objects if you have need to. So again, do you really want to do this to all your archive files?(Understand, the reason for the warning in the first place is that the changes affect spacing and therefore potentially line wrapping, and other type-specific things; so if you are truly "updating" the file, i.e.; making it Johnny-on-the-spot, ready-to-go print-ready, you may have some re-typesetting to do. Do you really want to do that on all your legacy files right now?)
Logo A for instance will be renamed Logo A [Converted].ai ...should I just leave the brackets and the word converted...?
That's also just up to you. Makes no functional difference. Appending the word "converted" is intended as a mere file naming convenience. (FileMaker does the same thing by default, for example, when opening an Excel spreadsheet and thereby converting it to a FileMaker database.) For one thing, it lets you save the new file to the same directory as the original file without overwriting it. (In the FileMaker scenario, I always delete the "converted" because the .xls and .fp7 file extensions themselves are going to prevent accidental overwrites. In Illustrator, I never keep the multiple-version files anyway, so I also delete the "converted".)
... it goes to "illustrator Options"...defaults to "Use Compression". ...I'm scared of the word "compression"...
I'm not "afraid" of compression, but I never use application-specific file compression. It just creates other inconveniences in collaboration with others. For example, for many years Corel has provided the option of saving Draw files as compressed or not. It is a very common ocurrence for an AI user to receive a Draw file they should be able to open but can't, just because the Draw user forgot to not save it with compression (or didn't know better).
Yeah, Adobe's marketing might like to think I and everyone else in the world uses only its products, but the real world (thankfully) still isn't that close-minded.
The Document Raster Effects resolution is 72 ppi or less. What does this mean?
See online Help for what Document Rster Effects setting is all about. You need to understand it; but it doesn't really have anything significant to do with the question of updating legacy files. 72 ppi is the default, so if you update a legacy file from a version that predates raster effects, that's the setting the new document is going to get. But since there were no raster effects in the old file, it has no real bearing. But that setting is something you should be familiar with regarding any file you are sending to print, regardless of when.
The other warning is "only fonts with appropriate permission bits will be embedded. What does this mean?
You're getting this when converting legacy AI files? An EPS or PDF file may have embedded fonts, but (correct me if I'm wrong) not an AI6 file, unless the "Save with Acrobat compatibility" option was available in AI6.
At any rate, that's nothing new. Some programs can try to embed fonts in a file to facilitate remote printing and display (but not editing) without having to do the old-world "bundle for output" routine. If you happen to be the typeface designer, of course, you may not be too happy about that. So such features have had to provide the typeface foundry an opt-out. Some typeface vendors are almost as piracy-paranoid as Adobe--much to the dissatisfaction of their legitimate customers. So there is a setting in font files that the font creator can set to disallow embedding of the font. One example of particular distress to me is ITC Officina. Nowadays, I make a point to never purchase fonts that can't be embeded in a PDF. So ITC (or whomever actually owns the thing now) has at least one unhappy legitimately-licensed customer who has stopped using one of his favorite fonts and won't buy an updated version unless and until this nonsense is corrected. Again, it's really a non-issue re file version updating. You can't do anything (well, anything practical) about a font that doesn't allow embedding anyway. The warning is just a "reminder"; it's a standard alert whenever saving a file in a format that tries to embed fonts.
JET