iWorks'09 AND updating to newest Os?

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Level 1

95 points

iWorks'09 AND updating to newest Os?

I have a dilemma.

iWorks '09 has features that I cannot do without, business wise. Especially numbers and pages.

I use it for my administration and am heavily dependent on it (unfortunately).

My original intention was to built all functionality inside Filemaker. Filemaker could do the job (even better: integration), but (lack of) time has been the issue here, so far.

So, for some time, I am looking how else to solve the issue.

My best solution so far would be a separate partition with my current OS (high Sierra).

problem is technical: I cannot seem to be able to create a partition.

Sollution would be to back-up and wipe the disk completely. This is a big job, of which I cannot estimate how long it will take or what the results would be - I cannot do without my work-horse (an iMac, fully tuned to my needs and way of working)

also, I want to compare features-lists of both versions (iWorks '09 vs the current versions, 10 I believe)

I have looked, but I cannot seem to find it

I must be honest: I haven't looked at the latest versions, and probably some issues have been resolved (I have seen posts that indicate some of it).

Still, I use a couple of features that I know will never be in the newer versions, let alone the look and feel of '09.

So I am looking for som serious advice.

I have build an administration (8 years, going on 9) for my company, which is heavily leaning on '09.

thank you for your time!

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 26, 2020 12:42 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ruggiero

Level 1

140 points

Jul 3, 2020 2:24 AM in response to Jo!

I can feel your pain as I am in the same boat. My solution is running an older version of MacOSX (el Capitan) in a virtual machine and having these indispensable applications installed there. This allows me to run iWork '09 parallel to the modern macOS without having to reboot into the other installation. Performance is good, just give the virtual machine enough memory. The only thing I sorely miss is the full integration of (in my case VMWare Fusion) the desktop of the virtual machine with the host. This feature is usually only supported for Windows guests. But anyway having a virtual machine with a compatible os running is my solution. There are at least three such virtualization products available, VMWare Fusion and Parallels are commercial and Virtualbox is open source and free.

Hope this helps

---markus---

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Answer 2

Peggy

Level 8

41,829 points

Jul 3, 2020 8:22 PM in response to Jo!

It's not a workable for many users, but what I've done to access programs that do not run on my current OS is to keep another Mac running an older OS & then access that Mac via screen sharing from my main Mac.

I actually have several Macs running various OSes but the one I access the most is a 2010 Mac mini running Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.8 as it allows me to use iWork '09 as well as even older PowerPC apps such as AppleWorks. I know that it has been possible to run OS X 10.6.x Server in a virtual machine but I don't know if that is still the case.

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Answer 3

Jo! Author

Level 1

95 points

Aug 23, 2020 1:47 PM in response to Jo!

Well …,

In respons to my own question and at the same time posing a new one:

I was under the impression that I would mis out a lot of functionality by transferring to the new iworks.

Turns out I was wrong:

- today I tested my templates in Pages old and new:

there is not a lot of difference as it turns out!

what I will miss is mail merge, but I can live with that: I did not use it very often … (it is handy though!)

I will have to get used to the formatting and the new way it sits on my screen, but I tink I can live with that.

- also Numbers old and new:

the main reason why I did not transfer was "categories". I was under the belief that this feature was missing.

As it now turn out to be, I is actually there!, … and more (filtering is quite handy!)

So, my new question would be: what els will I mis out when transferring to the new version?

I will miss the look and feel, that's for sure !!! I have used iWorks '09 well … since '09. that's a long time!

Anyone any wisdom in this?

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Answer 4

ruggiero

Level 1

140 points

Jul 4, 2020 2:08 AM in response to Jo!

Sorry, I was wrong with my statement. I did not explicitly test iWork '09 but other 32-bit SW. Just run some tests and found something interesting. Open or create a new Pages document. White window content but when toggling between outline and regular view the full content of the the document flashes for a fraction of a second. So it seems that the content *could* be displayed. Also printing to PDF seems to work (which is of no help here).

Will investigate further as my company relies on iWork '09 functionality that has been lost since (mail merge to just name one feature). Having a spare Mac to run legacy SW natively is no solution as I am travelling a lot.

---markus---

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Answer 5

Jo! Author

Level 1

95 points

Jul 3, 2020 12:47 PM in response to ruggiero

Hallo Markus,

thank you for your message.

I am very curious about your solution.

I have not tried to run a virtual system under VMWare, but I did try this under Parallels under a newer OS that does not run pages 4.3. I installed this under a partition, just to be sure. long story short: it did not work!

This was a huge disappointment for …pages and numbers dit not run as I expected.

I think that this is because it is a visual system, lacking some libraries.

So, I am very interested to hear from you how you went about this ánd also, did you try parallels and possible others with positive results. If yes, I really would like to know how!

thanks!

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Answer 6

Jo! Author

Level 1

95 points

Jul 13, 2020 3:47 PM in response to ruggiero

Hallo Markus,

thank you. I am certainly very open to hear about your research.

as I understood, 32 bit software does not run in 64 environment?

The suggestion from Peggy could be workable, though, I would prefer a more stable an d local solution where I can use my documents through cloud-solution (that works best for me).

I basically only need it for my administration and for new customers (document-flow), which does not work well in the newer versions.

A separate diskpartition on my diverse computers (different work-location) will prob. do the job.

… it is not ideal though!

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iWorks'09 AND updating to newest Os?

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