How can I batch convert Appleworks to iwork?

Yvan Koenig, who tends to post in the Pages forum rather than here, had a lot of scripts, including one to do this, on his iDisk: of course that's no longer available and I can't find any reference to another URL.

I would suggest that you ask in the Pages forum - Yvan may see your post and be able to provide you with a working link.

You are presumably aware that Pages can only open AppleWorks 6 Word processing documents, Numbers can only open AW6 spreadsheets, and Keynotes presentations. Nothing will open Paint documents or databases.

Yvan's scripts are available in the Public area of his Box account. https://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

The URL will take you there. Click for_iWork'09, then other_iWork'09 items.

Look for "batch_WPSS2iWork.zip

Unzip, then open the script in the Script Editor. Instructions (in French and English) should be at the beginning of the script.

Regards,

Barry

Try this: go to https://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Click on for_iWork, then For_Pages, then batch_AWxWP2Pages.zip - download this. Use the AppleScript editor to open it: there are instructions in French and English at the top of the script.

Jeweler wrote:

The important part of the instructions are in French, which does not help me.

Thanks for trying,

Sometimes you need to take a little action to help yourself.

Yvan includes instructions in French and in English in every (finished) script of his that I have seen.

The French version always comes first (Yvan lives in France, his first language is French), and is immediately followed by the English version.

Open the script in the Script Editor, then scroll down a few lines.

Regards,

Barry

PS: Google and Bing both offer online translation between French and English (and several other languages). While mechanical translations are not perfect, they are often 'good enough' to be useful. The Google translation of Yvan's French instructions is adequate for preparing and running the script (although Yvan's translation is better, and included in the script).

B.

I am trying to convert my Appleworks files now. I have downloaded this Script and have tried to run it several times, but it will not work. I keep getting an error message in Pages that it cannot open the file. Do you guys have any help for me. I have spent hours and have no solutions for converting my files.

Thanks

Pages can open only word processing files created by AppleWorks 6. If some of your AppleWorks files were made in earlier versions of AppleWorks, or are nor word processing files, that would explain the error message.

Regards,

Barry

All documents were AW 6 and documents. :-( I'm reall quite puzzled because I was told that Pages should open them. It will not even open them individually. I have Pages '09, do you think I need the earlier version? '06?

You can open AppleWorks 6 word processing, spreadsheets & presentations in Pages, Numbers & Keynote respectively. You cannot open any other type (draw, paint or database) of AppleWorks 6 documents with any iWork application nor can you open AppleWorks 5 or any version of ClarisWorks documents. So the odds are that your documents were one of those types that the iWork apps can't open even if they are AppleWorks 6.

After the two hours at the apple store and 45 minutes on the phone with Tech support, my problem was solved. My Pages application had some kind of corruption in it. When we reinstalled it, it worked. Most of my files are word processing. No drawing, no painting, no spreadsheet and a few database files that I know I can't save. Thanks for your help!

Crystal

Thank you for your contributions to this issue! Couple of questions before I do the conversion:

How do I save the files 1,000 files that are converted?

Will converting the files do anything to the original documents?

Thanks again for helping Barry.

@obesity

It's been a while since I last looked at this script. The description below, copied from the English notes at the head of the script, should answer your questions.

Save the script as application.

Run it or drag and drop a folder icon on its icon.

It import AppleWorks 6 SS or WP files stored in the folder in Numbers or Pages

and save the created Numbers or Pages document

in the source folder (including original hierarchy).

Errors are reported in the file

"import2iWorkReport.txt" stored on the desktop.

Complementary tasks :

(1) the source folder is archived in a zip file.

(2) the Draw files (CWGR) are stored in a subfolder whose name is defined by the property nom_GR

(3) the other files which can't be treated are stored in a subfolder whose name is defined by the property nom_alt

(4) the original files which were exported are deleted

(5) Alas, the script can't recover cases where Numbers or Pages freeze during an import process. Reboot is the unique emergency issue available.

These are from the batch_AW6_2iWork.applescript file, contained in the folder batch_WPSS2iWork.zip referred to in my post above. If I read Yvan's revision dates notes (not included in the quoted portion above) correctly, this script is a late 2011 update of the earlier (early 2009) script referred to in Roger's post.

After you have opened the script in the Script Editor, and Saved it as an application, an easy test of what happens to the original files and folder, and the converted files is to:

• go to the Finder
• make a new Folder and name it 'AW2iWork test'
• Select and Duplicate a half dozen AppleWorks files.
• Place the copies of these files in the new folder.
• Drop the new folder onto the script's icon (saved ".app" version, not downloaded ".applescript" version).
• Observe the results.

Regards,

Barry

Thanks for all the information Barry. This all helped so much. I was able to open all the Appleworks files! Of course the format was not exactly the same in document was not saved exactly as it appeared in AW, but at least all of the content appeared. I can now use my new iMac with Mt. Lion and not worry about lost AW files!

Cheers!

While your issues may have been solved there is still the issue of drawing documents. There is a program called Easy Draw which is capable of opening Appleworks drawing docs. The only thing it will drop is tables elements. And if you still have appleworks running anywhere you can even cut and paste tables into Easy Draw you just won't be able to edit them.

I keep an old mac around just for holding on to Appleworks documents.

wy Applw dropped this program is beyond me. For education it is the best software ever developed for showing seamles interaction of all computing environments.