Serif PagePlus

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File Format
Name Serif PagePlus
Ontology
Extension(s) .ppp, .ppx, .ppb
PRONOM fmt/671, others
Released 1991

PagePlus released by Serif is a desktop publishing application for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Serif was created with the merger of SPC and Allegro New Media in 1997.[1]Serif has depreciated the PagePlus software in favor of the new Affinity titles, final version was X9.

Contents

File Information

PagePlus PPP files are incompatible with the new Affinity Publisher & Designer software.[2] PagePlus uses extensions PPX for templates and PPB for Book publications.

File Version Information

  • Versions 1-3 Binary format
  • Versions 4-X2 OLE2 container format[3]
  • Versions X3-X9 ZIP container format
Version Extension Year Container PRONOM
PagePlus Generic PPP OLE fmt/671
PagePlus 1-3 PPP 1991 Binary fmt/1537
PagePlus 4 PPP 1996 OLE fmt/672
PagePlus 5 PPP 1997 OLE fmt/673
PagePlus 6 PPP 1999 OLE fmt/674
PagePlus 7 PPP 2000 OLE fmt/675
PagePlus 8 PPP 2001 OLE fmt/676
PagePlus 9 PPP 2003 OLE fmt/677
PagePlus 10 PPP 2004 OLE fmt/678
PagePlus 11 PPP 2005 OLE fmt/679
PagePlus 12 (X2) PPP 2007 OLE fmt/680
PagePlus Home/Office PPP OLE fmt/681
PagePlus SE PPP ZIP fmt/1536
PagePlus X3 PPP 2008 ZIP fmt/1529
PagePlus X4 PPP 2009 ZIP fmt/1530
PagePlus X5 PPP 2010 ZIP fmt/1531
PagePlus X6 PPP 2011 ZIP fmt/1532
PagePlus X7 PPP 2013 ZIP fmt/1533
PagePlus X8 PPP 2014 ZIP fmt/1534
PagePlus X9 PPP 2015 ZIP fmt/1535

OLE2 vs. XML Based Format

PagePlus X3 uses a new XML based format using root tag <SerifXML>, enabling PagePlus versions from X3 onwards to open documents made in later versions.[4]

Compressed Internal Objects

Some objects inside the PPP OLE2 file may be compressed. In version 9.03 for example, the file titled 'contents' is compressed, with the following file header suggesting this:

20 00 00 80 43 6F 6D 70 72 65 73 73 69 6F 6E 46 69 6C 65 00 EE 11 00 00 79 47 00 00 02 00 02 00

Which translates to:

...€CompressionFile.î...yG......

The existence of these compressed objects makes it difficult to penetrate the file type to retrieve information such as the user content. This may be considered a preservation risk without further information from a specification or a reverse engineering exercise.

Sample Files

Software

See Also

References

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/19971009140839/http://www.spco.com/SPC/2597.htm
  2. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/92455-open-or-import-pageplus-ppp-files/
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/19961129221613/http://www.serif.com/products/PagePlus_h_Office.html
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20090212181246/http://serif.com/pageplus/pageplusx3/whats-new
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