STILL LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION
This is my second try at finding a solution. First though an apology to fruhulda who responded to my question this morning. Sorry I did not reply, but I was unable to find a way to start another message and have been unable to reload that page now. But I believe she asked what kind of equipment I am using, (The answer: iMac 4,1 . . . Intel Core Duo Processor . . .OSx.4. and AppleWorks 6 (which came with my computer).
I also am now totally out of ideas for restoring Appleworks (which really isn't even my favorite word processing software). I prefer Word and InDesign for serious docs, but usually click on AppleWorks because it is so simple and convenient for most quick documents).
It had been working fine until yesterday morning when it suddenly refused to start.Initially, I thought I might have too many open documents, so spent several hours trying to complete and close as many Photoshop projects as possible. Also checked my overall storage capacity and confirmed that probaby was not the problem either.
I then went on a hunt for all the AW preference files I could find . . . and deleted com.apple.appleworks.plist in the preference folder and all three files except the "button bars" in Library/Preferences/AppleWorks folder.Then following, Roger (W's) advice, Ideleted the contents of the 3 subfolders inside the 3 folders in the AppleWorks User Data. Actually did that so many times, I lsoy track of what I was doing, but luckily had saved all those deleted files inside the trash folder, without dumping it, thinking that if necessary, I could always go back and put them where I started. But by then, I was so confused and frustrated, I was no longer certain of where I found them, so just put them in a new folder with n unrelated name and kid them away on my desktop, for now.
After that (or maybe along the way, I also reloaded AW multiple times from the original Apple disks; but that didn't work either. Considered running Disk First Aid, but the disk I pulled out must have been from an earlier Mac, because it didn't work with the current system.
It feels like I've hit a brick wall, because I've run out of ideas. Have considered uninstalling and then reinstalling Appleworks, but am wondering if that might worsen things (if possible).
The only shred of luck I've had all day after almost pulling out every hair on my head) was managing to unlock the files I needed immediately (using Eext Edit and Word. It's only Saturday, but it's already starting to feel like the "Lost Weekend." Can't remember the last time I ran into problem as frustrating as this one, btu am guessing probably a couple of years. But I'm still hoping to solve it, so I can at least learn something from the experience.
