appleworks

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appleworks

I am using Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.8. I have a number of Appleworks 5 text files that I want to convert to MS Word or Pages and retain the page formats. I have read that I can use Rosetta to do this, so I selected Optional Installs on the Snow Leopard disc (OS X 10.6.3), selected Rosetta and installed it on my hard drive. However, I do not know where it is located, and doing a search of the computer (Cmd-f) it is not found. I installed it again with the same result. What do you think is the problem? And if there is a way to use Rosetta to convert the files, how would I do it? Would I open the Appleworks file with Rosetta? Will it work with Appleworks v5?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Intel Core 2 Duo

Posted on Feb 13, 2013 2:27 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Niel

Level 10

726,863 points

Feb 13, 2013 2:30 PM in response to Stuart Hotchkiss

Rosetta is a translator which is installed and runs in the background; you still need an application capable of reading those documents, such as AppleWorks 6. If they're plain text files, just about any word processor should be able to open them.

(76773)

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2013 2:47 PM in response to Niel

Thank you - that may be a good start. I can open the file in Word - "Recover Text from Any File", but the format of the document is missing (e.g. tabs are not there). Is Rosetta involved?

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Answer 3

Niel

Level 10

726,863 points

Feb 13, 2013 2:49 PM in response to Stuart Hotchkiss

No, it isn't; Rosetta simply enables PowerPC code to be run on Intel Macs. It doesn't directly open anything.

(76778)

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Answer 4

Feb 13, 2013 3:04 PM in response to Niel

OK. I will ignore Rosetta. But is there something else I can do to to get a better presentation of my original Appleworks document, or will I need to edit each of the documents (I have moe than 100...)?

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Answer 5

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Feb 13, 2013 4:31 PM in response to Stuart Hotchkiss

If you have Rosetta installed, you can run Appleworks 6.2.9:

[click on image to enlarge]

(ignore the fact that Snow Leopard is running in Parallels in the photo for your purposes)

Also, consult Roger Wilmut’s excellent article, Abandoning Appleworks for alternative programs that can work with Appleworks files.

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Answer 6

Feb 16, 2013 7:11 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

Thank you Michael and Niel. "Abandoning Appleworks" pretty much put it in perspective. I have Appleworks 5, not 6, so I think there is no simple solution. Also, I upgraded Snow Leopard 10.6.3 to 10.6.8 and that probably didn't help. My only solution is to put all the Appleworks 5 files on a flash drive and convert them on my wife's computer that has OS 9. I'm at least grateful that I can convert the files to alternative software that I can run!

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Answer 7

Kurt Lang

Level 9

57,972 points

Feb 16, 2013 9:14 AM in response to Stuart Hotchkiss

AppleWorks 6 can still be purchased. As MlchaelLAX noted, version 5 should run in Snow Leopard as is. Where you may have gotten caught is that Rosetta is not installed by default with Snow Leopard. You have to turn that option on when installing it. You can still install it after the fact by putting the Snow Leopard disk in the drive and launching the optional software installer. Then there would be no need to convert any of your files.

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Answer 8

Niel

Level 10

726,863 points

Feb 16, 2013 9:19 AM in response to Kurt Lang

AppleWorks 5 is a Classic application and can't be run in Snow Leopard.

(76966)

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Answer 9

Kurt Lang

Level 9

57,972 points

Feb 16, 2013 10:02 AM in response to Niel

AppleWorks 5 is a Classic application and can't be run in Snow Leopard.

Ah, so it's an OS 9 or earlier app. Then it's back to the original suggestion as the easiest solution. Get a copy of AppleWorks 6.2.9. That of course isn't a great solution either since any OS upgrade after Snow Leopard will kill that software, too.

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Answer 10

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Feb 19, 2013 8:08 PM in response to Stuart Hotchkiss

Roger Wilmut has confirmed for me that Appleworks 6 will open Appleworks 5 files, but then will be saved in "6" format and can no longer be opened in 5.

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