Q: After installing Mountain Lion, none of my Applework documents will open! I've installed "pages" but don't know how to get my old documents back! HELP!!

AppleWorks is not compatible with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion. You will need to export your AWs documents in a generic format such as RTF. Pages may be able to read an AW's wordprocessing document.

FWIW, I'm using Appleworks on a Snow Leopard partition; it lags a little, but does work. I'm using it still for some design work, but also to export old AW files into something readable by Lion or Mountain Lion (PDF mostly).

For the OP:

If you still have Snow Leopard, then you can export your paint files as a PDF or jpeg (there is no app in Lion or ML that can read those, so you need to export in a different format); word processing can usually be read by Pages, and spreadsheets should be readable by Numbers (also available at the app store).

I think the OP has just upgraded to ML, B.

So, what options does he have?

(I don't use AW, or I would give it a shot, LOL)

Well, I was hoping that he still has Snow Leopard; but if not, I did mention that, as Kappy said, Pages should open word processing files. Numbers should open spreadsheets, but there is no app I know of that'll open painting documents (unless he has SL).

This thread may have info that may help. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3521984?start=0&tstart=0

So which of the Appleworks programs were the documents created with?

If it's word processing, double click on the file and Pages should automatically open it. Or, you could launch Pages, and click on Open.... and then navigate to your file.

If it's a spreadsheet, Pages won't open it; you'd need Numbers.

If it's a painting document, I know of nothing that'll open it (except Appleworks).

Hopefully this will work; otherwise I am out of ideas (unless you still have a copy of Snow Leopard).