paulfroms gloucestershire

Q: update clarisworks, please!

I am a graphic artist, disabled with ataxia now and depending on Clarisworks to replace my pen-on-paper work. It is the artist's delight - AND NO OTHER RECOMMENDED APP CAN TOUCH IT. Apple appears to have abandoned it, leaving it to go very flaky. Click on 'sise' when using Text in 'Draw' and watch total inaction until you go away and come back. Watch your big, intricae and time-consuming file, almost finished, crash. Withi unsaved material.

 

TRY DOING STUFF LIKE THIS WITH SOME BIG-NAME APPS!Roadsweeper.jpg

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 20, 2012 8:52 AM

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Q: update clarisworks, please!

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  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Dec 20, 2012 8:59 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 10 (271,406 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 20, 2012 8:59 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    I'm sorry to tell you but Clarisworks disappeared years ago. It was replaced by AppleWorks which Apple abandoned after the move to Intel proceesors. Now you have only iWork.

     

    I can only suggest that you export your documents to a generic format then find another suite to replace ClarisWorks. A possible example might be Libre Office, a Microsoft Office-like suite similar to Office 2007 for Windows.

  • by varjak paw,

    varjak paw varjak paw Dec 20, 2012 9:09 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 10 (169,883 points)
    Dec 20, 2012 9:09 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    Apple appears to have abandoned it.

     

    Yep. Twelve years ago, in fact. I can guarantee you that it will not be updated, ever. Even AppleWorks, which as Kappy said replaced ClarisWorks, has been discontinued for eight years and will not receive any further updates.

     

    While I understand the reluctance to abandon a product that works for you, if you are experiencing problems with your current software, your only choice will be to find another application. There are many good drawing programs available that are current and continue to be updated, and I find it difficult to believe that you can't find something that would work for you. Try searching MacUpdate.com for "draw" or "drawing".

     

    Otherwise you will need to stay with your current Mac and version of Mac OS X, since AppleWorks will not work at all on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion or any future version.

     

    Regards.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Dec 20, 2012 9:17 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 10 (271,406 points)
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    Dec 20, 2012 9:17 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    To add to waht varjak says. You may need to downgrade your OS to an earlier version, if that's possible, with which Clarisworks will function. Unfortunately, it would not be a version of OS X, and if you have a recent Mac model most likely it will not run Mac OS.

  • by paulfroms gloucestershire,

    paulfroms gloucestershire paulfroms gloucestershire Dec 20, 2012 9:24 AM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2012 9:24 AM in response to Kappy

    Thanks for that reply. Is there evidence, do you know, of any uproar about its cancellation? A campaign to persuade Apple to reconsider the cancellation in view of demand? Recover it, revise it using recently-devised tools? I find it difficult to believe that there is only a handful of us who are suffering the slow decay of this magnificent app. (I can only think it's simply bowing to the brickwall potato-heads at conferences assuring the Board that nobody wants the old-establisheed stuff. (Sorry to offload my ire on a helper!)

     

    By "export your documents to a generic format", in lauy,man's terms, what do I do? Do you mean send a copy-and-paste of something to somebody? Also, would Libre Office work on an OX - S?

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Dec 20, 2012 9:29 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 10 (271,406 points)
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    Dec 20, 2012 9:29 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    No uproar. If there was one it fell on deaf ears. Don't lose sleep over its return. It won't happen. The company that made Clarisworks is no more.

     

    By export to generic format I mean, for example, exporting a word processing document to a plain text or RTF format that most other word processors can read.

     

    Libre Office should work on your version of OS X. But you can verify that at the site link I provided.

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Dec 20, 2012 9:30 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 8 (37,946 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 20, 2012 9:30 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    AND NO OTHER RECOMMENDED APP CAN TOUCH IT.

    Sorry, but that is full out baloney. What you've got there is a raster image. There are numerous programs that can do exactly the same thing. Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements being the most obvious ones. You cannot in any way convince me that you couldn't do the same thing in Photoshop Elements (only $99) with a Wacom tablet.

  • by paulfroms gloucestershire,

    paulfroms gloucestershire paulfroms gloucestershire Apr 8, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 8, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    Are yout a graphic artist Kurt? If not, you can't be expected to understand my dismay at the death of the .cwk Draw system. I have tried other Draw programs but none provide the splendidly flexible tools that have become second nature to me. Photoshop Elements? You mean that I can find a Draw program there?

     

     

     

    .

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Apr 8, 2014 9:43 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 8 (37,946 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 8, 2014 9:43 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    You mean that I can find a Draw program there?

    The whole thing is a drawing / retouching / artistic app. The simple drawing you show is easily reproducible with the pen tool (as your drawing is mostly hard edged lines), and splotching on some clone brush marks for the dirt.

     

    A bit odd that you waited over a year to respond.

  • by Jeff Shenk,

    Jeff Shenk Jeff Shenk Apr 8, 2014 4:27 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 4 (2,803 points)
    Apr 8, 2014 4:27 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    Actually, even though the inserted image is a jpeg, the Clarisworks/AppleWorks Draw module is a vector illustration module (Paint is the raster module which would fit in the same class with Photoshop Elements). Since the only vector format available for export in AppleWorks is pict, which is itself pretty well obsolete, I suspect the conversion to jpeg was needed to post here.

     

    There are, however, lots of vector illustration programs that do work on modern systems, like Intaglio and EazyDraw, as well as Illustrator. I can't recommend any of them, because I haven't found any that I particularly liked, and I don't do that kind of freehand illustration. Cadintosh works for my kind of vector drawing, but I doubt if it would appeal for freehand sketching.

     

    Basically, there are many applications that can produce this kind of output. The decision at this point is whether it is better to learn to work with new tools in a new interface, or to do the work needed to maintain a system (either an older machine or a virtual machine) capable of running Clarisworks.

     

    It's a safe bet that even if Apple did update Clarisworks (and that is not goint to happen) they would change it so much that it wouldnt be any better than the alternatives. Just look through the iWork discussions.

  • by paulfroms gloucestershire,

    paulfroms gloucestershire paulfroms gloucestershire Apr 9, 2014 1:35 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 1:35 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    Yes, you're right about the jpeg. I have looked at other illustration apps and none have the one vital (to me) tool. This one.                                                                                                                                    Screen shot 2014-04-09 at 09.00.44.png

    The roadsweeper pic was drawn entirely by this tool (plus the curving option, etc). It enables my jerking finger (held firmly still by my other hand) to select a point with a mouse click and then move that point (or select the rounding tool, etc) by keyboard. On rare occasions I can move it with the mouse. Thanks for your kind reply.

  • by Kurt Lang,Helpful

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Apr 9, 2014 6:43 AM in response to Jeff Shenk
    Level 8 (37,946 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 9, 2014 6:43 AM in response to Jeff Shenk

    You are correct. I kept overlooking "Draw" and assumed "Paint" since the posted image is raster.

     

    Illustrator is far from cheap, but will do exactly what you describe. You can select any individual anchor point, or a group of them, and move it or them with the keyboard.

     

    I'm going to list some cheaper alternatives. None of which I've tried since I use Illustrator, but you can try the demos and see what works best for you.

     

    Sketch - $80 in the App Store. Free trial download.

     

    Inkscape - Free open source. Runs under X11. Ctrl is used where Command is normally the Mac key control. The site says they're working to change that.

     

    DrawPlus X6 - $99. Free trial download.

     

    Pixelmator - $30. Started out as an inexpensive Photoshop replacement, but vector drawing has been added. So now it does both Photoshop and Illustrator type work. Free trial download.

     

    Xara Photo & Graphic Designer - $90. Like Pixelmator, it does both raster and vector art. Free trial download.

  • by christopher rigby1,

    christopher rigby1 christopher rigby1 Apr 9, 2014 7:04 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 4 (2,146 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 7:04 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    I am not sure of their (disability) logistics compared to AppleWorks, but I have three vector drawing programs on my iMac (though as I'm still using 10.6.8, I tend to use AppleWorks on the rare occasion I need to draw) :

     

    1. VectorDesigner - Universal Binary but not available anymore

     

    2. Graphics Design Studio - Intel, paid for software

     

    and

     

    3. Libre Office - Intel, free software

     

    I've just tried using their drawing tools (2. and 3.); they take some getting used to - drawing apps seem to follow their own rules - but they do support freehand drawing along the lines of that polygon tool you've shown.

     

    I agree that AppleWorks is now very flaky to use for drawing, even in Rosetta, so I'd recommend one of those other programs. The drawing component is the one reason why AppleWorks should not have been completely abandoned. There's iWork for WP and spreadsheets, there's always been FileMaker for databases, and there are more bitmap graphics programs including Photoshop than you can shake a fist at. But Apple should have brought out a vector drawing program to replace the one in AppleWorks.

     

    (I'd forgotten about Inkscape! - I have that too but never used it).

  • by Jeff Shenk,

    Jeff Shenk Jeff Shenk Apr 9, 2014 7:35 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 4 (2,803 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 7:35 AM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    I haven't tried it, and it doesn't seem to keep up to date very well, but MacDraft PE does at least list compatability with OS X 10.7, and its tool palette, which reminds me of the Clarisworks one, does include a similar icon for a polygon tool:

     

    Screen shot 2014-04-09 at 10.25.16 AM.png

  • by MlchaelLAX,

    MlchaelLAX MlchaelLAX Apr 9, 2014 3:12 PM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire
    Level 4 (2,256 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 3:12 PM in response to paulfroms gloucestershire

    Paul:

     

    Have you read Roger Wilmut's excellent article, Abandoning Appleworks?

     

    http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/aw/page1.html

     

    It is not clear to me how much his article will cover your Clarisworks situation.

     

    Hopefully one of these alternative applications posted on this thread will work for you. Otherwise...

     

    From Wikipedia:

     

     

    ClarisWorks 1.0 shipped for the Macintosh in 1991 and was subsequently ported to the Windows platform, shipping as ClarisWorks 1.0 for Windows in 1993.[citation needed] When the Claris company was disbanded and absorbed back into Apple, the product was renamed AppleWorks;[7] in fact, version 5 was released shortly before the product's return to Apple and was briefly called ClarisWorks 5.

     

    So then it would appear that Clarisworks is a legacy Classic app and not a PowerPC app; hence Rosetta is not involved here.

     

    It appears that it will not run on your Intel iMac with Snow Leopard (10.6.8) installed, so how are you accessing Clarisworks now?  What version is it?

     

    Legacy Classic apps can run on Intel Macs using the SheepShaver emulator (or its cousin, Chubby Bunny).  Other than purchasing a used legacy Mac (and hoping it continues to work), this may be your only hope to continue with Clarisworks. 

     

    Here is a recent post I assembled for a similar question about running a Classic app:

     

     

    With the newer Intel Macs, you have to run a Classic emulator such as SheepShaver, which requires you to extract the Mac ROMs from your older Classic Mac and then install Mac OS 9.

     

    A related program is Chubby Bunny, which comes bundled with all of that included (google the term "Classic-On-Intel v 4.0.1 chubby bunny").

     

     

    More information on SheepShaver:

     

    http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup

     

    and

     

    http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/mac-os-9-classic-support-faq/run-macos-9-on- intel-macs.html

     

    and more information about Chubby Bunny:

     

    http://www.macwindows.com/OS9_on_Intel_Mac.html#092408b

     

    and

     

    http://hackthemac.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/chubby-bunny-old-virtual-machine.html

    Here is the Classic CD-ROM version of RISK II running in SheepShaver on my Lion Mac Mini:

     

    Risk II.png

                                  [click on image to enlarge]

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