Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

AppleWorks and Lion

EDIT: Sorry, I did not succeed with search in the first place, but afterwards found *quite many* contributions to this subject.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 12, 2011 8:43 AM

Reply
209 replies

Jun 12, 2011 11:53 AM in response to don gmt

If your qriginal inquiry was whether or not AppleWorks would run under Lion, the answer is No. Apple is not including Rosetta with Lion and the older Rosetta app will not work. Therefore, any app requiring PPC will no longer work under Lion. Apple was declared Dead by Apple back in 2006 and now is no longer usable unless you continue to use OS X 10.6.x or lower. I'm sorry to see it go, but that's life. As an alternative, I use Open Office which is available for free from openoffice.org. It has a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program and a database. Unfortunately you cannot just import ApplrWork documents into Open Office. The word processing documents can be easily imported, and the spreadsheet can be imported as well. However. the database documents cannot be imported and must be remade.

Jun 18, 2011 7:01 AM in response to Sjazbec

"Apple is no longer what it once was."


I wouldn't put it that way. After all, AW still worked for further 5 years after declaring EOL! And AW Files (at least text and spreadsheets, don't know of the others) can still be opened by pages!


Many years ago, when NisusWriter was updated for OSX it was unable to even open it's own old file versions!! *That* was a pitty! Had to convert hundreds of Nisus files to PDF! At that time I changed to AW and stood with it till Pages came out.


So, IMHO Apple handled this thing pretty fair.


Don

Jun 18, 2011 9:03 AM in response to don gmt

don gmt wrote:


..And AW Files (at least text and spreadsheets, don't know of the others) can still be opened by pages!

  • Word Processing documents can be opened directly only in Pages.
  • Draw Documents can be opened directly only in EazyDraw (the more expensive version from their website, not the cheaper one from the Mac App Store).
  • Spreadsheets can be opened directly only in Numbers.
  • Presentations can be opened directly only in Keynote.


To use other programs, or open Painting or Database documents at all, you must export from AppleWorks first. Therefore it is important not to wait to migrate your documents until a future upgrade of some sort has broken Appleworks.


This 7-page article examines the options for migrating from AppleWorks in some detail.

Jun 18, 2011 9:45 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

I had only Word Processing documents left over. When I opened and saved them in Pages, I could not print many of them - although they showed up in preview. Possibly it was a font issue. As I only needed the files for archive purposes, I converted them all to PDF and am now done with AW. Nevertheless I appreciate your precise statement! May well be helpfull for others! Thanks!


🙂 Don

Jun 20, 2011 5:30 AM in response to don gmt

>the answer is No.


I would not be so bold as to say No, outright. First off, while reports all over the web have announced that Rosetta is gone, and Apple has made no statement regarding Rosetta, there is always a chance that Apple would allow Rosetta to exist within Lion. Even if not from the start, if the demand is high enough, it might be able to if people demanded it here enough:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Secondly Appleworks does have a comparable Windows version that would work in virtualization of Windows under Lion, assuming that is there. See my FAQ*: http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html#WINTEL
And if indeed the rumors are true, the suggested alternatives are good. There is also Purgatory Design's Intaglio as an alternative draw application. http://www.filemaker.com/ has both Bento & Filemaker Pro as alternatives to import Appleworks database export documents.

Jul 15, 2011 12:46 PM in response to don gmt

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 particularly 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!

Jul 22, 2011 12:43 AM in response to don gmt

This is appalling news. I have over 20 years of work in AppleWorks (nee ClarisWorks) documents. I use AppleWorks as much as Mail and Safari and nothing yet is able to replace it. I create new Apple Works drawing documents every day of my life and to think that suddenly I would not have access to these does not bear thinking about, let alone 'upgrading'.


I almost downloaded Lion yesterday and I am totally disgusted that there was no warning that I would have lost so much of my past and current life.

Jul 22, 2011 1:58 AM in response to Tim Millea

If you find this to be "news," Tim, then you haven't been paying attention for the past six years. AppleWorks received its last update in 2004 or 2005, and was declared EOL in 2006. Other than leaving the update files online and this forum/community running in Apple Discussions, now Apple Support Communities, Apple discontinued selling AppleWorks and discontinued supporting it.


Since that time, the message has been pretty constant on AWUG, in the ClarisWorks/AppleWorks email list, and here on Apple discussions/ASC: eventually AppleWorks will not be able to run under a new version of the operating system.


Well, the time has come. If you want/need to run your Mac undere Lion, then you will not be able to use AppleWorks on that computer when it is running Lion. If you want/need to un Appleworks, then you'll have to keep/maintain at least one computer running a version of Mac OS X earlier than Lion. You might find that "appalling," but it certainly isn't "news."


Regards,

Barry

(Who's continuing to use AppleWorks on an iBook G4 with Mac OS X v4, but who is also backing up his data to Numbers and/or text files.)

Jul 23, 2011 5:07 AM in response to Tim Millea

Tim Millea wrote:


This is appalling news. I have over 20 years of work in AppleWorks (nee ClarisWorks) documents. I use AppleWorks as much as Mail and Safari and nothing yet is able to replace it. I create new Apple Works drawing documents every day of my life and to think that suddenly I would not have access to these does not bear thinking about, let alone 'upgrading'.


I almost downloaded Lion yesterday and I am totally disgusted that there was no warning that I would have lost so much of my past and current life.


There's almost a contradiction in philosophy there. AW is a suite of programs whose value is seen more by traditionalists who are accustomed to using their computer for serious document creation and doing work. For such people, appearances are - if I may be bold - less important than results.


Lion seems very much aimed at the 'twist, swipe, wipe and jab' generation, who have grown up with iPods and probably see computers as primarily means to consume and share content (music, video, photographs) and network socially, but who see non-media document creation as a whole lot less significant.


To be honest, I would reject Lion for now. You have a great OS in Snow Leopard, and apart from Resume and Versions (the former can be gained from third-party suppliers, while the latter doesn't seem to me to offer a whole lot over Time Machine) it's all fancy glitzy stuff that can be summed up as "style over content".

Jul 23, 2011 7:45 AM in response to Tim Millea

It may be appalling (it is to me, too), but it's not surprising, and not really "news" to those of us who have kept our ears to the ground and eyes on Mac developments.


I'm surprised (and grateful) that AppleWorks has worked as well as it has for as long as it has. I bought my new MacBook Pro in March because all the scuttlebutt said that AppleWorks was a goner with Lion. I wanted the last, best 13-incher that would run AppleWorks. I won't upgrade any further until I am forced to do so by some other thing that is more essential to me than AppleWorks. Right now, I can't imagine what that would be.

AppleWorks and Lion

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.