Q: Sometime ago I made an address book using Apple Works.  I no longer can open the Apple works.  How can I access the address book so I can recover all those important addresses?

If this is an AppleWorks database, as it sounds to be, nothing will open it except AppleWorks. If you drag the file onto TextEdit you will see the contents but all the programming codes will show as garbage and the data, though it's there in text form, may be in a weird order. However that's the only way you can open the file, other than finding a way to run AppleWorks and exporting the file as an ASCII file, which you can then open in a spreadsheet or a database application.

If you have a Mac which originally came with Snow Leopard you could install that on an external hard disk and boot from that, and run AppleWorks on that. Alternatively it's possible to run 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.

Roger Wilmut1 wrote:

 

...Alternatively it's possible to run 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.

I rarely recommend installation of Snow Leopard into Parallels in favor of installation of Snow Leopard Server, which is so much more easy to install.  Only in a few rare cases do I even bring it up...

Yes, that's a valid point. I've amended my page from which I drew the above paragraph. I assume this is your recommended page for the method? -

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=17285039&postcount=564

I've amended my wording to read:

Success has been reported in running Snow Leopard Server under emulation in Parallels - the method is described here: Snow Leopard Server is available in the Apple Store (by telephone) at a reduced price (at the time of writing) and is preferable to using ordinary Snow Leopard which is quite tricky. I haven't tried this myself: use at your own discretion. You can then run AppleWorks as an emergency measure.

Well done!