Q: identifying appleworks files

Have you tried using ⌘ F on your documents folder & searching for executable as kind?

But the lack of export options in AppleWorks is usually due to the app not being able to find the translators. This happens if the application has been moved from the folder containing the translators. See the second part of my user tip, AppleWorks has stopped working correctly.

I copied a folder of known AppleWorks files without the .cwk extension from an old iMac running Tiger to my Mac Pro running El Capitan &, unfortunately, the above technique did not work. There used to be a way to search for files by creator. I do know the creator for AppleWorks & ClarisWorks files is BOBO. I don't see that as an option in Tiger, OS X 10.4.11. It may be a Classic OS thing.

Hello,

maybe you can try the method given in http://www.macworld.com/article/2848770/how-to-open-your-clarisworks-documents-f or-a-stroll-down-memory-lane.html; i.e. at least on my computer, it is able to find many AppleWorks and ClarisWorks files...

Leo Bloom wrote:

 

Although to go back to my original question, the answer seems to be "I can't" - the files are, for some reason, Unix Executable Files - any Apple (or Claris) Works identifier seems to have been lost along the way.

If the finder does not find them, this probably means that the files have lost their metadata information, you can check that by using mdld on a file https://www.macissues.com/2014/05/12/how-to-look-up-file-metadata-in-os-x/

If this is the case, it is still possible to create some AppleScript which try to detect AppleWorks files by reading the data fork ; old appleworks files contain some such scripts ( but they must probably be modified ).

Note:

- I also try to maintain an AppleScript application which try to do something similar, try to find the creator of a file or a list of file in a directory, mwawFile accessible in https://sourceforge.net/projects/libmwaw/files/?source=navbar , so it may help to create your list (at least if Gatekeeper OS X: About Gatekeeper  - Apple Support accepts to launch it, ...)

Hi Leo,

"the files are, for some reason, Unix Executable Files"

That just means they do not have an externally visible extension. OS X sees a file name with no extension and interprets that as meaning a .exe file.

Yvan  Koenig wrote a script a few years ago that identifies the type of AppleWorks document saved in a file. You can find it in his box account

Open the July, 2013 Scripts for appleWorks folder. "What kind of AppleWorks file" is the third or fourth one in the list.

Regards,

Barry

You can find all AppleWorks *.cwk files using the following Finder search construct. It says find all Office type files but only display those with the cwk extension. It works for my AppleWorks file collection.

kind:Office +cwk