Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your MSW file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert MSW to another file type
To convert MSW documents to another format, you need SIL Toolbox or other Database software.
Convert a file to MSW
To convert other file formats to the "Multi-lingual Scholarly Workstation" file type, you need software like SIL Toolbox or a similar tool.
About MSW files
The .MSW file extension is a notorious example of format collision, used by multiple entirely unrelated applications. Most commonly, it acts as a linguistic analysis database file for SIL Toolbox (formerly Shoebox), known as a Multi-lingual Scholarly Workstation file. However, it is also widely used as a structural analysis model file for Bentley Microstran, an early document format for Microsoft Word utilizing the Microsoft Compound structure, or even UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy data from Varian (now Agilent) scientific instruments. You usually need to convert these files because they are locked into obsolete or highly specialized legacy software. For example, SIL Shoebox databases are proprietary and cannot be easily queried in modern database managers. Microstran structural files require expensive software licenses to open. Early Microsoft Word files are often completely rejected by modern word processors for security reasons. Depending on the specific file origin, your best conversion targets vary. Linguistic databases should ideally be exported to CSV or XML for modern preservation. Structural models are best converted to DXF or DWG for CAD interoperability. Legacy documents should be pushed to DOCX or PDF. However, a direct file-to-file conversion is often impossible without the original authoring software. This file format is difficult to open or convert because standard converters have no idea which of the nine possible formats your specific .MSW file actually is. Often, only the original software can properly read or export the data. But there is a pragmatic workaround. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MSW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert MSW file to PDF, JPG, PSI, INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML or TOML, you can use SIL Toolbox or similar software from the "Linguistic Analysis Database" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to MSW, try SIL Toolbox or another comparable tool in the "Linguistic Analysis Database" category.
The MSW Converter Story
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 MSW converter.