Do I HAVE to change the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess to get this component to work?

One more question then We just moved our site from Cubecart to Joomla. I picked the top 33 links that Google Analytics says is the most visited, I assume they are bookmarked by people or linked to from another site. So the Cubecart link is something like www.domain.com/index.php?_a=viewDoc&docId=209 and the page in Joomla is now www.domain.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=174:northern-cardinals&catid=10:birds. I just want the Cubecart URL to redirect to the Joomla URL when someone follows their old Cubecart bookmarked link. Is this the right component for that? I tried the Cubecart link in the From and the Joomla link in the To, but it isn't working. It doesn't say I have any hits either, even though I have visited that link many times in testing. Any help?

I started with the Joomla native redirect component, but my company does not like to change the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess. Something about it being insecure, so I had to ditch that option. I will find another method. Thank you!