convert cwk file to doc

Did you see my previous post. If these are simply text files (no drawings, etc) then they can be opened on a newer Mac by using TextEdit.app. See my previous post for specific instructions. Hope this helps.

For all versions of ClarisWork documents, there are a few things that can be done, none of which are perfect. To retrieve the text, a simple perl script could strip out the binary header and delete the XML tags the encase the text itself. Then, the perl script via Terminal could at least retrieve the text itself and save to a text file that you could reformat with something more modern (or just save it as a text file, which is almost universal).

The XML tags at the end of the file specifiy document attributes and layout. I think if the original document was a simple layout, then it's possible to attach the text to the tags and at least read it as an HTML file.

I still haven't figured out all the binary stuff at the header of the files, as Claris/Apple kept changing the specs with different versions and in-between versions. Does anyone know of a reference on the file layout?

When you tack onto a three-year-old thread you will see old answers which are no longer accurate. The current version of Pages will not open AppleWorks documents. However there is no need to go messing about in TextEdit with the associated programming garbage problem: the free LibreOffice will open many AW documents satisfactorily and at least some ClarisWorks documents. For more details see:

http://wilmut.uk/aw-options

Hello,

the xml parts must only appear in AppleWorks 6 document created on OSX: they store the printer plists. I never look at this format, as the document properties are also stored as a TPrint record in the beginning of the document (see https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/mac/pdf/Imaging_With_Qu ickDraw/Printing_Manager.pdf ) , maybe you can see if https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Printing/ osxp_printinfo/osxp_printinfo.html gives some hint about what can be stored in these plists.

Notes:

• if you are on Linux or on OS X, you can configure libmwaw (the filter used by LibreOffice see http://sourceforge.net/p/libmwaw/wiki/Home/ ) with --enable-full-debug and compile it. Then when you ask to convert a file, it will created extra files in the current directory to show what structures has been recognized in the data fork and what pictures/plist have been found...
• you can also look at the ClarisWks*xx files in http://sourceforge.net/p/libmwaw/libmwaw/ci/master/tree/src/lib/

LibreOffice will open just about any .cwk file. 🙂