converting or opening CWK drawing files

Question

Level 2

291 points

converting or opening CWK drawing files

Maybe I am missing something here, but why is the .cwk drawing format about the only file type that won't seem to open or export to any other file format? Honestly, as much as Apple would like us to use their Appleworks application at all time (and I support their attempts in principle), there are always times when one needs to be able to send the raw information of a file to another person using another application and work with the information.

So, I have a very important file I need to open and I don't have either a new mac or Appleworks on my Titanium at present. Somehow, I need to open this file and be able to work with the raw data, not just the finished drawing. I have Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Office, all the usual suspects. I HAD Appleworks back in the day when I used a G3 Powerbook on OS9, but since their Database capabilities weren't relational, I moved to Filemaker and didn't see the need for it since.

Any chance someone can assist me in how to import this file into a workable and editable format? It seems incredibly silly (and very shortsighted of Appple if I may say so) that I can't do a thing with it.

thanks

Titanium G4 800 mHz, Mac OS X (10.3.9), 60 gig drive, 1 gig RAM

Posted on Jul 23, 2007 10:38 AM

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Answer 1

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jul 23, 2007 11:00 AM in response to sean-o-mac

Hello

Simple responce.
At this time there is no other application able to open a Draw AppleWorks document.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 23 juillet 2007 20:00:06)

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Answer 2

sean-o-mac Author

Level 2

291 points

Jul 23, 2007 11:05 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Thanks for the reply.

Well...

...wow, don't know what to say.

Why does anyone bother to use this Application then? In this day and age, its the FLEXIBILITY of file formats that encourage people to use certain applications, not the other way around.

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Answer 3

Peggy

Level 8

41,601 points

Jul 23, 2007 6:26 PM in response to sean-o-mac

AppleWorks draw documents can be saved (exported) in quite a few formats. If you don't have all of the choices I show in the screenshot below, it may be that you have moved the AppleWorks 6 application &/or the AppleWorks Essentials folder containing the translators (among others) & they can't "find" each other. They both belong in a folder named AppleWorks 6.

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Answer 4

sean-o-mac Author

Level 2

291 points

Jul 24, 2007 5:27 AM in response to Peggy

Thanks for clarifying, but I do have one question about your answer on the topic. It looks to me like all the file 'types' that you can 'save as' outside of the Appleworks/Claris application family have (QT) after it. Would I be correct in presuming that this is to imply Quicktime? If so, then what its exporting is not the raw file, but an embedded 'photo' of the final image correct? I need to be able to work with the file, not just copy and past the whole thing - something I believe I mentioned in my first post.

Please let me know if I am correct or not about this. I have already figured out how to open these files in Photoshop, MS Word and Graphic Converter, but without being able to edit the information in the files its still pretty much useless to me and begs the same question - why would anyone bother?

thanks

Titanium G4 800 mHz Mac OS X (10.3.9) 60 gig drive, 1 gig RAM

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Answer 5

Peggy

Level 8

41,601 points

Jul 24, 2007 6:23 AM in response to sean-o-mac

AppleWorks draw documents are only editable in AppleWorks, any translated file is not. AppleWorks 6 requires QuickTime to be installed & my understanding is that QuickTime is somehow used in the translation, hence the (QT).

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Answer 6

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jul 25, 2007 10:34 AM in response to Peggy

Hello

Peggy is right.
AppleWorks uses the pieces of code available in Quicktime to translate its editable Draw files into non-editable pictures files.
My hope is that when iWork will be finished Apple will offer a translator translating AW Draw docs into Pages ones.
After all, it's not a huge task for professional programmers.
I'm not such a guy and I was able to made an AppleScript which builds drafts of such translated files.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 25 juillet 2007 19:33:50)

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Answer 7

Aug 4, 2007 5:57 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I think what the original poster was saying was:

.cwk Drawing files that were originally created in older

versions of OS9 appleworks WON'T OPEN AT ALL. (in osx version 6.2.9)

There seems to be a bug, you can browse to the files and it sees them, but they don't open, HELP!

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Answer 8

Barry

Level 9

59,861 points

Aug 4, 2007 10:43 PM in response to MMMmmm...

+"I think what the original poster was saying was:

.cwk Drawing files that were originally created in older

versions of OS9 appleworks WON'T OPEN AT ALL. (in osx version 6.2.9)"+

Nope. Different problem, as can be seen from Peggy's reply to your separate post, MMMmmm...

The issue for the OP in this thread o other application will is that no other application will open AppleWorks Draw files as editable vector graphics files, nor can these files be exported from AppleWorks in a form that will allow them to be opened as editable vector graphics files.

Regards,
Barry

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Answer 9

graxspoo

Level 1

0 points

Aug 6, 2007 10:56 PM in response to sean-o-mac

Hey, I may have a solution:

1) Print to PDF.
2) Open the PDF in a draw program that supports PDF import.

I just did some searching, and I found one that seems to work pretty well:

http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/

I don't use Freehand or Illustrator but maybe they can do something similar.

-> Honestly, as much as Apple would like us to use their Appleworks application at all time <-

Actually, Apple has pretty much discontinued AppleWorks, and would rather you be using iWork now. We should be making tracks away from AppleWorks as quickly as possible.

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Answer 10

thom-22

Level 1

40 points

Aug 7, 2007 6:24 PM in response to graxspoo

Thanks for the info on Intaglio, that's exactly what I came here looking for. AW Draw elements seem to copy and paste pretty well into Intaglio, but you do need to change a preference to get this to work. I haven't tried the PDF import/export yet. After I get my AW spreadsheets into Excel, I'll worry about the draw docs.

Are there any independent websites with tips on migrating from AppleWorks? Something like a "support group" to help help with the inevitable withdrawals? 🙂

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Answer 11

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Aug 10, 2007 3:22 AM in response to thom-22

Hello

I'm trying to persuade Apple to build an importer able to import AW6 draw docs into Pages.

It seems that it is not a huge task.

In an AW draw doc we may have:
- blocks of text which Pages may recognize
- blocks of bitmap pictures which Pages may recognize
- blocks of draw pictures which Pages may recognize
- tables which Pages may recognize
- blocks of spreadsheets which Numbers may recognize and which may be imported as tables.
Of course I wish that Pages soon evolve so that it may import Numbers's spreadsheets as spreadsheets blocks.

Of course, if we are numerous to ask for this feature the chance to get it would be higher 😉

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 10 août 2007 12:20:26)

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Answer 12

Peggy

Level 8

41,601 points

Aug 10, 2007 1:26 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I plan do to that. It would seem the page layout mode of Pages 3 is just like AppleWorks draw - a blank electronic canvas to put things on.

The other thing I am going to leave feedback about is the lack of database functionality. I could live with Numbers also serving as a database if there was the ability to create layouts as we can in AppleWorks & we must be able to merge from the database (whether it is Numbers or a fourth program). Since the layout module in an AppleWorks database is the draw environment, the page layout mode in Pages might work for that.

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