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Q: How to import AppleWorks files into iWork?

Can AppleWorks files be imported into iWork?

MacBook Pro Core Duo 15", Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 10, 2013 7:36 PM

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Q: How to import AppleWorks files into iWork?

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  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Aug 10, 2013 7:40 PM in response to AHR
    Level 9 (53,887 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 10, 2013 7:40 PM in response to AHR

    AppleWorks 6 word documents can be opened in Pages

     

    AppleWorks 6 spreadsheet documents can be opened in Numbers

     

    Allan

  • by Roger Wilmut1,Solvedanswer

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Aug 10, 2013 11:37 PM in response to AHR
    Level 9 (78,367 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 10, 2013 11:37 PM in response to AHR
    • Word Processing documents can be opened directly in Pages (AppleWorks 6 only), though Panergy Software'sdocXConverter v3.2 ($19.95) can convert Appleworks 5 and 6 Word Processing documents to RTF (though it has been reported that it can only handle documents which contain only text, not those which include images or frames); and the latest version of the free LibreOffice has announced that it can open AppleWorks 6 Word Processing documents: it does appear to be able to handle at least some embedded images.
    • Draw Documents can be opened directly only in EazyDraw (the more expensive version from their website, not the cheaper one from the Mac App Store, and you will need v4.0 'Retro' not the most recent version) or Intaglio (though this appears not to be able to handle very complex drawings). However Draw documents can be copied into WP documents and then opened in Pages - more details here.
    • Spreadsheets can be opened directly only in Numbers.
    • Presentations can be opened directly only in Keynote.
    • Nothing will open Paint or Database documents.

     

    If you have upgraded to Lion/Mountain Lion and have AppleWorks documents you cannot open, then you should be able to install Snow Leopard on an external hard disk and start from that (provided that the Mac did not come with anything higher than Snow Leopard originally installed); and success has been reported in running Snow Leopard under emulation in Parallels - the method is described here: it seems complex; however Snow Leopard Server is available in the Apple Store (by telephone) at a reduced price (at the time of writing) and this makes the process a lot easier. I haven't tried either method: use at your own discretion. You can then run AppleWorks as an emergency measure.

     

    There is a detailed article on 'Abandoning AppleWorks' here:

     

    http://rfwilmut.net/aw

  • by MlchaelLAX,

    MlchaelLAX MlchaelLAX Aug 12, 2013 4:13 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 4 (2,256 points)
    Aug 12, 2013 4:13 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Roger Wilmut1 wrote:

     

    ...and success has been reported in running Snow Leopard under emulation in Parallels - the method is described here: ... Snow Leopard Server is available in the Apple Store (by telephone [1-800-MY-APPLE]) at a reduced price (at the time of writing) ... You can then run AppleWorks as an emergency measure.

    Appleworks in SLS.png

                                  [click on image to enlarge]

  • by Kerby Rials,

    Kerby Rials Kerby Rials Mar 20, 2014 4:35 PM in response to AHR
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2014 4:35 PM in response to AHR

    I have old .cwk AppleWorks documents that I created using AppleWorks on our Windows computer. They won't open using Pages on my mac, but I found that I can open them using Nisus Writer Pro as a text file. The text is there (pretty much formatted) with only some junk in front of it and at the end that I have to delete. But it saved my files. I copied and pasted it into another word processor. To get it to open with another app control-click the file icon, and then select the program you want to open it with.  As I said Nisus Writer Pro let me open it as a text file, but Pages would not. There may be other programs that do the same thing and would save you $$ by not buying Nisus Writer Pro.

  • by Barry,

    Barry Barry Mar 20, 2014 6:29 PM in response to Kerby Rials
    Level 7 (32,537 points)
    iWork
    Mar 20, 2014 6:29 PM in response to Kerby Rials

    Hi Kerby,

     

    Those files should also open in Text Edit, supplied with your Mac. With word processing files, you will get the text, with the meta data and formatting codes above and below the bare text.

     

    Text Edit will also open at least some of the other AppleWorks file types, but you'll have much more difficulty extracting useful information from those.

     

    Also, try opening them with Libre Office. I haven't seen any reports specific to Windows produced AW files, but in theory, at least, these were cross-compatibe with the ones produced by the Mac version.

     

    Regards,

    Barry

  • by fosnola,

    fosnola fosnola Mar 21, 2014 12:31 AM in response to Barry
    Level 1 (126 points)
    Mar 21, 2014 12:31 AM in response to Barry

    Hello,

    Also, try opening them with Libre Office. I haven't seen any reports specific to Windows produced AW files, but in theory, at least, these were cross-compatibe with the ones produced by the Mac version.

     

    even if the two formats are very similar, I have seen some slight differences: in some structures, some numbers seemed to be stored in little endian instead of big endian.

     

    I tried to check for such potential endian reversal and I suppose that LibreOffice will open most Windows word processings files "correctly", but I have very few files from Windows to test, so...