kworks: AppleWorks 6 won't open my AW 5 files

Problem: AppleWorks doesn't "see" files you know are AppleWorks in the Open dialog box or AppleWorks 6 isn't a choice when you choose "Open With" for the document.

Normally, AppleWorks 6 has no problem at all opening AppleWorks 5 files. Many times, in the moving of the files from one computer to another, some identifying information of the file may have been lost. The most common cause of this happening is using a PC-formatted disk - a USB flash drive or Zip disk are the most common. This loss is almost always able to be overcome by adding the .cwk extension to the file name. If you add this extension to a known AppleWorks 5 (or 6) file & AppleWorks 6 can open it, you can easily add the extension to a whole folder of files using AppleScript.

For OS X 10.3.x: If you do not have an AppleScript icon in the menu bar in Finder go to HD > Applications > AppleScript & double-click Install Script Menu. This will add a number of AppleScripts easily accessed from the menu bar. Highlight all of the AW files in a folder > click on the AppleScript icon in the menu bar > Finder Scripts > Add to File Names > type .cwk in the box & click Suffix. Now you should be able to open any of these files in AW 6 by double-clicking on them.

To add the AppleScript menu in OS X 10.4.x: Go to Applications > AppleScript and launch the AppleScript Utility application. The option to "Show Script Menu in menu bar" is activated from there. (Thanks to Jim MacCormaic, for these directions.)

For earlier versions of OS X: Go to this page to get the AppleScript installer. The link is in the small yellow-highlighted text.