psalmone1
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: What is "Terminal"? When I try to open old Appleworks files "Terminal 80 x 24" opens up a window, containing a bunch of computer gobbledgook, ending with "Cannot execute binary file." Are all these files lost? What do I do?

What is "Terminal"? When I try to open old Appleworks files "Terminal 80 x 24" opens up a window, containing a bunch of computer gobbledgook, ending with "Cannot execute binary file." Are all these files lost? What do I do? I am running Mac OS 10.6.8, with Appleworks version 6.2.9.

iMac (Intel)

Posted on Sep 17, 2012 8:25 PM

by Barry,Solvedanswer
Barry Barry
Level 7 (32,721 points)
iWork
A:

Terminal is an OS X application that emulates the dumb terminal of a UNIX workstation.It is the defaut application for opening UNIX execuble files.

 

OS X uses the file extension (those three of more letters following the period near the end of a file name) to identify which application is used to open a file. If the file has no extension, the OS assumes the extension to be .exe, and that the file is an executable file—a UNIX application—and launches Terminal.

 

Prior to OS X, Mac operating systems used Creator and Type codes, recorded at the beginning of a file, to identify which application created the file, and what type of file it was. These codes (BOBO for AppleWorks, and CWWP for a word processor file) were not visible. No file extension was necessary, and none was appended to th filename.

 

The Windows file system, though, did use extensions to identify files and associate them with applications. A Microsoft Word file was a .doc file, Excel used .xls, etcetera. The Windows version of AppleWorks (then ClarisWorks) also applied an extension to its file names—.cwk—and that's the extension still used.

 

If your 'old AppleWorks files' do not include a file extension in their names, try adding one. Early versions of OS X included an applescript for this purpose, and you may find that script on your machine yet. Its name is Add to File Names, and a Spotlight search should bring it up.

 

Add the .cwt extension to the filenames of the 'old AppleWorks files, and you may find they correctly open in AppleWorks.

 

Regards,

Barry

Posted on Sep 17, 2012 10:47 PM

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Q: What is "Terminal"? When I try to open old Appleworks files "Terminal 80 x 24" opens up a window, containing a bunch of computer g ... more

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  • by gail from maine,Helpful

    gail from maine gail from maine Sep 17, 2012 8:31 PM in response to psalmone1
    Level 7 (27,086 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 17, 2012 8:31 PM in response to psalmone1

    Hi psalmone,

     

    Try right clicking on the document in the finder (Control/Click) and selecting "Open With". You will see that Terminal is the default. I have found that with my docs that come up with a Terminal default (which will also not open), that if I select Other, then go to my Apps file and select Preview, they will open.

     

    Hope this helps!

     

    Cheers,

     

    GB

  • by Barry,Solvedanswer

    Barry Barry Sep 17, 2012 10:47 PM in response to psalmone1
    Level 7 (32,721 points)
    iWork
    Sep 17, 2012 10:47 PM in response to psalmone1

    Terminal is an OS X application that emulates the dumb terminal of a UNIX workstation.It is the defaut application for opening UNIX execuble files.

     

    OS X uses the file extension (those three of more letters following the period near the end of a file name) to identify which application is used to open a file. If the file has no extension, the OS assumes the extension to be .exe, and that the file is an executable file—a UNIX application—and launches Terminal.

     

    Prior to OS X, Mac operating systems used Creator and Type codes, recorded at the beginning of a file, to identify which application created the file, and what type of file it was. These codes (BOBO for AppleWorks, and CWWP for a word processor file) were not visible. No file extension was necessary, and none was appended to th filename.

     

    The Windows file system, though, did use extensions to identify files and associate them with applications. A Microsoft Word file was a .doc file, Excel used .xls, etcetera. The Windows version of AppleWorks (then ClarisWorks) also applied an extension to its file names—.cwk—and that's the extension still used.

     

    If your 'old AppleWorks files' do not include a file extension in their names, try adding one. Early versions of OS X included an applescript for this purpose, and you may find that script on your machine yet. Its name is Add to File Names, and a Spotlight search should bring it up.

     

    Add the .cwt extension to the filenames of the 'old AppleWorks files, and you may find they correctly open in AppleWorks.

     

    Regards,

    Barry

  • by Jeff Shenk,Helpful

    Jeff Shenk Jeff Shenk Sep 18, 2012 5:52 AM in response to Barry
    Level 4 (2,803 points)
    Sep 18, 2012 5:52 AM in response to Barry

    And by .cwt, I am pretty sure that Barry means .cwk.

  • by fruhulda,

    fruhulda fruhulda Sep 18, 2012 6:07 AM in response to gail from maine
    Level 6 (15,126 points)
    Sep 18, 2012 6:07 AM in response to gail from maine

    Isn't it better to choose AppleWorks instead of preview if it is  AppleWorks files?

  • by gail from maine,

    gail from maine gail from maine Sep 18, 2012 6:39 AM in response to fruhulda
    Level 7 (27,086 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 18, 2012 6:39 AM in response to fruhulda

    I agree with you fruhulda, if you have the AppleWorks app. My problem was that I was trying to open Pages documents (from my iPad), on my Mac, and I don't have Pages on my Mac. So, as a general purpose app, I think Preview might work.

     

    Cheers!

     

    GB

  • by psalmone1,

    psalmone1 psalmone1 Sep 18, 2012 8:04 AM in response to psalmone1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 18, 2012 8:04 AM in response to psalmone1

    Thanks so much everyone - I did some more searching around after I posted this question and found another solution (similar to Gail's): clicked on File - Open With- Appleworks (as fuuhulda suggested). Ta da - my file opened up! Phew - these were all short stories I had written awhile ago and wanted to have a look at again, so I was so glad they were not lost forever!   I am now in process of transferring all of them to Pages documents, though, just to be safe.

     

    And Barry, thanks for that explanation of "Terminal". It's something I have been wondering for a long time, ever since I started seeing that my old Appleworks documents were not opening. Makes sense, even to a computer-illiterate like me.

     

    Once again, thanks all for your input - I really appreciate it!

  • by psalmone1,

    psalmone1 psalmone1 Sep 18, 2012 8:07 AM in response to psalmone1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 18, 2012 8:07 AM in response to psalmone1

    And Barry, I just tried to add the .cwk to one of the files, and again (ta da!) it returned to an Appleworks file! Yay!!

     

    Lisa

  • by gail from maine,

    gail from maine gail from maine Sep 18, 2012 8:12 AM in response to psalmone1
    Level 7 (27,086 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 18, 2012 8:12 AM in response to psalmone1

    Well YAY all around, Lisa! So glad you were able to get this resolved with as little fal-da-rah as possible. Also cool that it worked either way. So now we know that both will resolve the issue!

     

    Cheers,

     

    GB

  • by fruhulda,

    fruhulda fruhulda Sep 18, 2012 8:26 AM in response to gail from maine
    Level 6 (15,126 points)
    Sep 18, 2012 8:26 AM in response to gail from maine

    Preview doesn't open Pages files not AppleWorks files. Preview opens pdf files and some other graphic files but not word processing or other files.