Any way to open AppleWorks .cwk files?

Hello,

there exists many other applications to open AppleWorks files:

• LibreOffice(free)
• the last version of NeoOffice(paid) which is now based on LibreOffice 4.4: more precisely, I just check the free viewer, and it does contain an AppleWorks/ClarisWorks filter...
• ( if you want to retrieve only the text like in TextEdit, all basic text editors: vi, emacs, ... and probably sed, .. can do that in a Terminal's window).
• using a virtual machine, you can also emulate a Windows, MacClassic, OSX 10.6 machine and have a working version of AppleWorks (not free and can depend on some copyright conditions).

Concerning the conversion in batch, I do not know Document converter, probably the simpler solution, but:

• LibreOffice can be called online, so it is possible to create a shell script, an AppleScript, .. to do many conversions at the same time,
• if you want to convert the files in odt/ods/odp, you can find some code in libmwaw / libmwaw-swift / to create a tool which does that. If you do not want to compiled, I compiled a version(*) named mwawOSX.zip in libmwaw - Browse Files at SourceForge.net but it is not signed (see OS X: About Gatekeeper - Apple Support).

(*) this version can be interesting if you want to convert some cwk's databases as it may correct many problems.

I know this is -w-a-y- after everyone's posted and the solution's been found, but Thank You! ..This had been bugging me for years, but your suggestion of Ctrl-Click and choose "Open In.." has finally unlocked many of my old .cwk files (..except those which protected with a password!)

Many thanks, BigTarantula.

Hello David,

concerning the files protected by a password, you can try to open them with LibreOffice (free) (*) : depending on the complexity of the files, the results will be correct or not (but at least you must retrieve most of the files' contents).

(*) i.e. normally, if I do not make mistake, AppleWorks adds an unknown structure to indicate that the file is protected (and probably to check if the password is correct) and I choose to ignore it when I parse the file...

Many thanks, Fosnola ..I just found yesterday that I can open the password-protected files by using 'Open In..' and then choosing TextEdit! That shows a bit of gibberish at the start and end of the files, but bypasses the protection.

I can't believe that it never occurred to me to use 'Open In..' before! ..Thanks again.

Yes,

AppleWorks did not use the password to encrypt the file, so TextEdit will be able to retrieve the text in a protected file (as in an unprotected file)...

Note:

- normally, you can also open these files in LibreOffice, it will try to retrieve the texts with most formatting, the pictures, the tables, ...

I have found two solutions:

One is free and in the Mac:

1. Highlight your .cwk file.

2. Open TextEdit in Applications.

3. Run through the folders to your document.

4. Open it, copy it (⌘-c).

5. Open Pages, create a new document.

6. Paste it, (⌘-v).

7. Hit the Format button and design it to your liking.

The second is an app I just thought looked cool and it is. Personally I prefer paid apps, and I have my reasons, but just this morning I found Document Converter. Company is RootRise Technologies. Tried it once with an entire folder (about ten documents) and it was awesome. Very quick, very clean, converted to RTF which I will convert to Pages; so much easier than the whole TextEdit process. It's a matter of how much time you have, really.

Yes. As long as they are documents that aren't earlier than ClarisWorks 5, you will find that the free LibreOffice suite will open them. https://www.libreoffice.org

You can't re-save them in their original format, and you may find you need to hunt down older fonts to see them 'as they were', but you can open and save them in a newer format.

Do you have any idea as to what was stored in the cwk files?

I know Pages can open text document and Numbers can open spreadsheets.

As far as I know there is no way to open database or drawings.

Allan

Pages will open AppleWorks 6 word processing documents, but if these are Appleworks 5 you are, I'm afraid, out of luck unless you can find a working copy of AppleWorks to open them (AW 6 will open them and convert them to AW6, then Pages will open them). Of course AppleWorks will not run on Lion or Mountain Lion.

How exactly are you trying to open them? Try File>Open rather than dragging them over the Pages icon - and ensure that the files are showing the .cwk extension.

You're not doing anything wrong - I just checked and that should work fine even without the .cwk extension. If the file was a database or something other than a WP document it would be greyed out in the selection list. So I'm afraid I can't offer an explanation.