Extract text from Alchemy documents (ALD)
To convert ALD documents to another format, you need OpenText Alchemy or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "Document Archive & Label Data" file type, you need software like OpenText Alchemy or a similar tool.
The .ALD file format primarily serves two completely different but equally frustrating legacy systems: Alchemy Document Files and Microsoft Dynamics AX Application Label Data.
When used as an Alchemy file (originally by Captaris, now part of OpenText), it functions as part of a multi-file database alongside DAT and PRO files. These files were heavily used in the 1990s and 2000s to back up scanned documents to CDs and DVDs. The major disadvantage is that this format is strictly proprietary, obsolete, and practically inaccessible on modern operating systems without the original, expensive retrieval software. Users generally need to extract the underlying images and convert them into standard PDF or TIFF formats.
Alternatively, an .ALD file can be a label data file for the discontinued Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system. These files contain localization strings, system messages, and form labels. Because Dynamics AX is end-of-life, editing these translations requires extracting the plain text or converting the data into a CSV or XLSX file for use in Excel. In rare instances, .ALD is also used as an ALW document layout file by Adobe FrameMaker.
Standard online converters fail to open these files because they don't understand the unique index pointers (ALI) or the legacy multi-file backup structures. Just drag and drop your .ALD file into convert.guru. Our engine will identify the file format, inspect its structure, and show any readable text or internal content. If our analysis detects an embedded image structure or plain-text labels, viewing or conversion to common formats may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your ALD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted FOD, GUL and FW3 files.
If you want to convert ALD file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use OpenText Alchemy or similar software from the "Legacy Document Storage & Localization" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to ALD, try OpenText Alchemy or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Document Storage & Localization" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ALD converter.