Roger may be right regarding the ASCII converter malfunctioning, but from your expanded description, I'm not convinced that the ASCII converter has been invoked.
You seem to have found a solution to the problem of importing this data into a file readable by Bento. If so, what follows may be of academic interest only. If that solution doesn't work, what follows may prove useful in finding a solution.
Regards,
Barry
+Here it is:+
+1. The document "My Database DB" is open in AppleWorks+
+2. I go File > Save as...+
+3. The Save dialogue opens.+
*4. Click Save as ASCII*
There is no place on the dialogue labeled "Save as ASCII" where one can click.
The only place the words "Save as:" appear on the dialogue is beside the box containing the name under which the document will be saved. Do you mean that you enter "ASCII" into this box, then click the Save button at the lower right of the dialogue? If so, that will save your document as an AppleWorks file, with the name ASCII, not as a (tab delimited) ASCII Text file.
Saving an AW database document as ASCII requires at least two steps (4c and 4d; the other two are optional):
4a Enter a new name for the file in the box labeled "Save as:" at the top of the dialogue.
4b Use the sidebar and file list window (if showing) or the popup menu immediately below box labeled "Save as:" to choose a location for the file.
*4c Use the popup menu at the lower left to change the File format from AppleWorks to ASCII Text.*
*4d Click Save*
+5. Go to Desktop+
+6. Open saved file+
*8. File is a blank spreadsheet document.*
If a progress bar appears in a small window, then the file opens to a spreadsheet document in AppleWorks, that's an indication that the file
was converted to ASCII Text, and that AppleWorks, noting all the tabs, thinks it is a text copy of spreadsheet data.
The spreadsheet may look blank, but I suspect it does contain data. Try this:
Click on a cell to select it, and check for any content in the entry bar at the top of the spreadsheet. Watch the entry bar as you tab across a row. If any of your data shows up, it's likely that the translation error is that the text colour has been changed to white. This will affect the display in the cells, but not in the entry box.
You can also check this by clicking the empty box at the left end of the header row (to the left of the "A") to Select All the cells, then go Format (menu) > Text Color > and choose any strong colour. Then click any cell to release the selection of All cells. Any date contained in the cells should now be visible.
+9. Drag this file to text Edit+
+10. New file appears+
+11. Open new File+
Do you really mean that (another) new file appears, which you then open? Or does the file that you drop on the Text Edit icon cause Text Edit to launch and open the file?
+12. New File contains garbled text.+
Does the garbled text start like this (specifically, does it include "BOBO" near the beginning?
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