Converting Old Saved Cases to the New Format

The 2006.2 and later versions of the calculator use a slightly different format to store information in saved cases (.pia files). The new format adds another space to earnings amounts so that the maximum wage amount that can be entered is larger. The calculator will no longer be able to read some saved cases as a result. This page describes how to fix your old saved cases so that the new calculator can read them.

Since the calculator saves information as normal text, you can fix your old files using a text editor. Open a saved case in a plain text editor such as notepad. You will see lines of text that look like this:

01123450001001011940
031022002
0619602001
22   4800.00   4800.00   4800.00   4800.00   4800.00   4800.00   6600.00   6600.00   7800.00   7800.00
23   7800.00   7800.00   9000.00  10800.00  13200.00  14100.00  15300.00  16500.00  17700.00  22900.00
24  25900.00  29700.00  32400.00  35700.00  37800.00  39600.00  42000.00  43800.00  45000.00  48000.00
25  51300.00  53400.00  55500.00  57600.00  60600.00  61200.00  62700.00  65400.00  68400.00  72600.00
26  76200.00  80400.00

The lines that need to be changed are the ones where your earnings are listed. In this case, these lines start with the numbers 22-26. To fix them, add an extra space in front of each earnings amount. This changes the width of the earnings amount from 10 characters to 11 characters. In our example case, the new version will look like this:

01123450001001011940
031022002
0619602001
22    4800.00    4800.00    4800.00    4800.00    4800.00    4800.00    6600.00    6600.00    7800.00    7800.00
23    7800.00    7800.00    9000.00   10800.00   13200.00   14100.00   15300.00   16500.00   17700.00   22900.00
24   25900.00   29700.00   32400.00   35700.00   37800.00   39600.00   42000.00   43800.00   45000.00   48000.00
25   51300.00   53400.00   55500.00   57600.00   60600.00   61200.00   62700.00   65400.00   68400.00   72600.00
26   76200.00   80400.00

You also have to change other lines which have earnings amounts in them. Enter extra spaces in front of earnings amounts on lines starting with the numbers 22-37, 61-68, 84, or 87-94. Save the file and reopen it with the new program. The calculator should now be able to open your saved case.

We have a command-line utility that can make new versions of your saved cases. To run it, put the program in the same directory as the saved file and then change to that directory at a command prompt. The program takes two arguments at the command line: The name of the old saved file and the name of the new saved file. Type the following command.

convertFile old.pia new.pia

Substitute the name of your old saved file for "old.pia" when typing that command. If your file's name includes spaces, put quotes around the name when your type it. The program will create a new file named "new.pia" which you can open with the calculator.

The mac Terminal program for OSX is UNIX based, so you have to type something slightly different to run the utility program after setting things up as in the above instructions. Type the following instead.

./convertFile old.pia new.pia

That will create a new file named "new.pia" with correct spacing from the old file named "old.pia." The only difference is the "./" at the start of the command

Due to differences in how Macs handle saved files, you will have to do one more thing to convert your saved files. After creating a new file, you will have to open it with the program and resave it. To open the new file, select Open from the File menu. A window will appear that allows you to select a file to open. At the top of this window will be the text "Enable" next to a selection menu. Change that selection menu to say "All Documents." You can now select and open your modified saved file. After opening it, select "Save As" from the File menu to save it with a different name. Now you have a saved file in the new format.

You can download the command line utilities for Windows from the following links.

You can download the command line utility for Mac OSX from the following link.