AppleWorks Question

[Frank Zwolinski]

Hello all,

I have several old interview transcriptions created in AppleWorks and I cannot seem to open them in any current word processors. The computer wants to access them using iWork but I do not own that software. Does anyone have an idea how I might open with out a purchase? And, I don't even know for sure that iWork will open the documents.

Thanks,
Frank

[dfilpus]

Re: AppleWorks Question

In my experience, the only reliable way to open Appleworks files is Appleworks. I have had some issues even with iWork. The last OS that will run Appleworks is Snow Leopard (10.6). Apple has had Appleworks available as a free download in the past. There should be installers on older systems disks. Apple still has the 6.2.9 updater on their support pages.
If you are Lion or later, I still have Appleworks running on my machine and can translate the files to more compatible formats. Let me know if you'd like me to do that.

[ttl]

Re: AppleWorks Question

You should be able to open AppleWorks WP files with Text Edit. There will be extraneous data and no formatting, but the basic text content should be recoverable.

[bmohr]

Re: AppleWorks Question

You might want to give the latest version of LibreOffice a try. It now supports a ton of old formats, including AppleWorks. I can't vouch for the quality of its AppleWorks importer, but in my experience it does a better job on old Word files than the current version of Word does. It also did a beautiful job on some old MacWrite Pro files that I'd given up on ever seeing again.

Once you've opened an old document in LibreOffice, you can re-save it in the format of your choice (OpenDocument, OpenOffice, Word, RTF, PDF, etc.).

-Brad

[Frank Zwolinski]

Re: AppleWorks Question

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the various responses; I chose to go the LibreOffice route, but I must say that the learning curve on that software was steep. I still cannot even figure out how to add Tabs to a WP document! If anyone out there is experienced with LibreOffice and willing to answer some questions on its use, I would appreciate them contacting me off line at <fzwolinski@santarosa.edu>.

Thanks again,
Frank

[kmgenealogy]

Re: AppleWorks Question

I use Apache OpenOffice - http://www.openoffice.org. They recently came out with v.4. This, too, like the LibreOffice program, is a free, open source office suite. Don't know if it supports Appleworks but it seems fairly easy to use. There is a PDF guide for their last v. - 3.4.1 - on their website. I use it mainly when I come across a doc. document that doesn't look that good on the Pages translation. So, I don't use it very much but am glad there is a free suite out there so I don't have to buy MS Office for Mac. No way can I afford it.

[Bob White]

Re: AppleWorks Question

......... chose to go the LibreOffice route, but I must say that the learning curve on that software was steep. I still cannot even figure out.......

Instead of trying to learn how to use LibreOffice, now that you have the text, just copy and paste it into the word processor that you normally use. No learning curve that way!

[bmohr]

Re: AppleWorks Question

Instead of trying to learn how to use LibreOffice, now that you have the text, just copy and paste it into the word processor that you normally use. No learning curve that way!

Agreed. For me, LibreOffice is just a glorified file format converter.

[George Chapman]

Re: AppleWorks Question

Hello all,

I have several old interview transcriptions created in AppleWorks and I cannot seem to open them in any current word processors. The computer wants to access them using iWork but I do not own that software. Does anyone have an idea how I might open with out a purchase? And, I don't even know for sure that iWork will open the documents.

Thanks,
Frank

Pages is very inexpensive on the App Store and will open the document, assuming its not to old, with no problem.

[Bob White]

Re: AppleWorks Question

Pages is very inexpensive on the App Store and will open the document, assuming its not to old, with no problem.

Pages will not open AppleWorks files. Age has nothing to do with it. Storage format has everything to do with it. Pages does not "know" the AppleWorks storage scheme.

Having said that, I feel that Apple made a large mistake by not including the ability to do so.

[Frank]

Re: AppleWorks Question

Pages will open AppleWorks word processing documents.

However, Pages won't open an old AppleWorks "drawing," "painting," or "database" documents.

This article has some advice...

http://www.macworld.com/article/1160843/last_appleworks.html

[Bob White]

Re: AppleWorks Question

The article is two years old and based on Lion. Mountain Lion or a Pages update may have "lost" the capability.

I tested this while helping a neighbor with some old AppleWorks word process files about a month ago. I am by no means a final authority; I'm just basing what I said on my experience.

[ttl]

Re: AppleWorks Question

I believe the answer is that if your AW (WP) files were saved with the last version of AppleWorks, Pages can convert. If they were saved with an earlier version, not so much.

Compulsive software updaters have an advantage in this case.

[SVass]

Re: AppleWorks Question

I believe the answer is that if your AW (WP) files were saved with the last version of AppleWorks, Pages can convert. If they were saved with an earlier version, not so much.

Compulsive software updaters have an advantage in this case.

Try Libreoffice which is free.

[Frank]

Re: AppleWorks Question

The article is two years old and based on Lion. Mountain Lion or a Pages update may have "lost" the capability. I tested this while helping a neighbor with some old AppleWorks word process files about a month ago. I am by no means a final authority; I'm just basing what I said on my experience.

My experience is different. Today I opened my copy of Pages 09 (version 4.3, the latest) in Mac OS 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion). It opens my old AppleWorks documents created all the way back to the year 2001. When I try to open an AppleWorks document from the year 2000, it says something about an "unsupported version of AppleWorks." I don't remember what version of AppleWorks I was using in the year 2000.

I have several old interview transcriptions created in AppleWorks and I cannot seem to open them in any current word processors. The computer wants to access them using iWork but I do not own that software...

Based on my comments above, I'd recommend Pages (for $20) if your old AppleWorks documents were created after 2000. If you're not sure, you could send one to our help email address and we'll let you know if the latest Pages will open it successfully. If it does, then $20 would probably be a good investment to bring those old transcriptions up to date. (In addition, Pages is a pretty good app, imho.)