Q: will AppleWorks be able to run on Lion?

Good question.  The latest edition of "Tidbits" reports a rumor that Lion will not support Power PC applications.  System Profiler identifies Appleworks, as well as Quicken 2007, as Power PC apps.  I would hate to loose these two programs.

No Rosetta means no PPC apps - AppleWorks, Quicken (except Quicken Essentials) & many, many more.

The word seems to be that any program that is not universal based will not run.  As Peggy says, AppleWorks, Quicken and many other apps will no longer be useable.  One way to check which programs probably won't run under Lion is to click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner, then click on "About This Mac" and click on "Applications."  If it shows Universal or Intel, the app probably will work.  If it shows PPC or Classic, they will no longer run under Lion.  I found this advice from SmallDog.com.

chipperz wrote:

 

One way to check which programs probably won't run under Lion is to click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner, then click on "About This Mac" and click on "Applications."  If it shows Universal or Intel, the app probably will work.

In fact, click on the Apple icon, choose 'About this Mac'. Click the 'More Info' button to open System Profiler (or you can open that directly from Applications/Utilities).

In the sidebar, expand 'Software' if necessary then on 'Applications'. Allow time for it to populate. Click on the 'Kind' column header to sort by kind, and look for 'PowerPC': these (or 'Classic') will not run on Lion.

if the OP is thinking of upgrading to Lion he may find my article on Abandoning AppleWorks of interest. Note particularly that AW Databases and Paint documents cannot be opened by anything other than AppleWorks, and that therefore for you must take steps to export them before upgrading or you will lose the ability to access them.

Roger Wilmut1 wrote:

[...]

if the OP is thinking of upgrading to Lion he may find my article on Abandoning AppleWorks of interest. Note particularly that AW Databases and Paint documents cannot be opened by anything other than AppleWorks, and that therefore for you must take steps to export them before upgrading or you will lose the ability to access them.

Thanks Roger. Exceptionnal quality document :>.

Hello,

Since some crazy guys reserve a part of the Mac HD to install Windows, would it be possible to install Snow Leopard in that partition, and in that part install AppleWorks 6?

I would buy the FileMaker Pro, if I could convert the AW 6 DB files that I have.

Jorge Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

I am in the process of converting all of my AW database files to Bento.  So far the process has been painless and was well documented on the Bento support site.  As noted above neither Bento nor any other program will actually open AW DB files, so they must be converted.  All of my files are rather simple and "flat", so Bento looks like it will work for me.  It does lack some of the formatting features that I liked in AW, and as far as I can see there it lacks the capability to print out multiple report formats.  I did find out an interesting fact about pricing for Bento.  If you purchase the program directly from the Bento/Filemaker site, you must pay either $49 for a single user license, or $99 for a family pack permitting you to install it on more than one computer.  However, if you buy it from the Apple App store that license permits you to install it on as many computers as you like, provided that they are all iTunes authorized under your iTunes account.

Bobio,

I am a High School Math teacher and I keep all the info regarding presences/absences and scores of my students in an AW 6 DB file of 255 fields — the maximum permitted by AW 6.

This I can reconstruct in FileMaker Pro, from the scratch, before the next school year begins in february of 2012. I will not need the 2011 file's data because the file data starts each year.

I know that I can make it better and more secure using FileMaker Pro.

But, for this current school year, I should do nothing.

The Expenses and the CheckBook, both AW 6 DB files cover more of 10 years and I would like to get all the data I have on those. With FileMaker Pro, I can even integrate both files in just one.

If FileMaker Pro can import the data of a Numbers spreadsheet, I will get my data, exporting from AW 6 DB mode to an AW 6 SS mode, and then to Numbers.

But I will not die just because this turns out to be impossible.

I am certain of one thing: Bento is not sufficient for me. Either I will have Snow Leopard or I will move to FileMaker Pro.

Best regards,

Jorge Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

Jorge,

That makes perfect sense.  From what I understand Bento is only for "lightweights" like me, and FileMaker Pro for people who really need a database .  Good luck with your conversion over the summer.   Having two teachers in the family I have to laugh when someone complains that teachers work only 6 hours per day for 9 months and have all the other time "off".  Thanks for teaching.

Jorge Lucas,

I just found your post, seems that you have some experience with Filemaker Pro. I am in the same dilemma; But my database has a photo of the person included as well. Is there any chance to convert these Appleworks files with Filesmaker Pro as well. I did not find any information about this, an!d since filemaker is not really cheap I would like to have the answer before trying.

Thanks a lot

saba01,

I never bought a copy of FileMaker; I just played with it. The way you create fields in FileMaker Pro is the same way you do that using AppleWorks.

When I said that I could create the same AppleWorks DBs using FileMaker is because I have files that I create from scratch or templates that I adapt to my needs. AW 6 DB module is called a flat DB — non relational — 1 single table.

If I buy FileMaker Pro, I would not use the DBs I have in my head; I would do them better — the relational way, with several files working together.

FileMaker Pro is so much better than the AW 6 DB module; but it can not import the AW 5 DB file.

You can have a trial of FileMaker Pro — at www.filemaker.com,  a subsidiary of Apple.

Enjoy it!

Jorge Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

Thanks I will try it.....

fred137 wrote:

 

will AppleWorks be able to run on Lion?

No. AW requires Rosetta to run and Rosetta will not be supported anymore. However ..

I've tried to Lion-proof my future by converting AW documents as follows :

WP - Save As RTF and/or Word, both of which can be read by TextEdit

DR -  Save As any image file, e.g. JPEG, though there is no way to preserve individual graphics objects*

PT -  similar

DB -  (sorry, as a FMP user for 17 years I don't know the answer to this.)

SS -  Save As an eXcel file either Mac or Win, or as an ASCII text file

* if it's a particular important document, and you have a layer-based image editor such as Photoshop, each graphic object can be copied and pasted as a separate layer, though each will have to be re-positioned. It would REALLY have to be worth doing!

Appleworks will not run on Lion.  This is unfortunate, because everyone knows that Appleworks is the best word-processing program there is, for non-professionals.  It is not cool; it is simply the best.  Perhaps Apple will admit their mistake and rectify this somehow.  (It is possible; Apple conceded error on the iPod shuffle model that slit your stomach with its little attached razor blade, and had the controls in the earphone cord, where sweat would short-out the system.  Apple went back to the old Shuffle design.  So there is precedent for Apple considering

the needs of its users.)