Appleworks 6.2.9 or 6.0.4 not able to open Appleworks 6 WP files

Question

Level 1

4 points

Appleworks 6.2.9 or 6.0.4 not able to open Appleworks 6 WP files

I have read a number of discussion here on how to access old Applworks 6 word processing files. Using a Mac with Snow leopard (10.6.8) I can open Appleworks 6.0.4 but it will not open some rather old Applework 6 letters that I wrote from 1997-2003. The files are greyed out in the open file listing. So I just updated Appleworks to 6.2.9 which is more OSX compatible according to the "Abandoning Appleworks" webpages. Even after the update all my old Appleworks 6 files are still unreadable by AW version 6.2.9. They also appear unreadable by any other application on my Mac when I checked using Command I. I will say that when I uncovered this batch of old files they were residing on a Mac running OS 10.8 and I simply moved them back to a Mac running 10.6. Could Mountain Lion have messed with the file permissions or other arcane metafile details to render these AW6 files unreadable by their original application?

Posted on Aug 24, 2013 4:17 PM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

60,035 points

Aug 25, 2013 9:28 PM in response to AlphaB

HI Alpha,

It sounds like there is a problem with the files themselves.

You could try opening one using Text Edit. If it's a word processing file, and does open, you'll get a lot of unreadable stuff (meta data and formatting characters) at the beginning and the end, but your text should appear somewhere in the middle, and be recoverable.

Spreadsheet and database documents will be less successful, as their data and formulas are not encoded in as straightforward a manner as WP docs. Drawing and Painting documents will likely yield no useable information.

If you like, you may send me a sample file to try opening. You can get my address by clicking my name in blue to the left of this message.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

AlphaB Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 25, 2013 10:20 PM in response to Barry

Yes, Text Edit opened one of my old AW6 files and I can see the original text. Thanks.

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Answer 3

fosnola

Level 1

126 points

Aug 26, 2013 12:21 AM in response to AlphaB

Hello AlphaB,

you can also try with LibreOffice 4.1.1 RC2 ( http://www.libreoffice.org/download/pre-releases/ ) which contains a not-perfect filter to read ClarisWorks/AppleWorks files ; if your files are not too damaged, it is possible that it will accept to open them ( or not )....

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Answer 4

AlphaB Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 26, 2013 11:53 PM in response to fosnola

Hi fosnola,

Thanks for the suggestion. At the Libreoffice website I found that "stable" version 4.1.0 claimed to support for AW6 files so I jumped through the hoops and downloaded that version. It actually did worse than Text Edit and created a 69 page document based on my original one page letter. It created a lot of pages with a single bit of formatting code at the top of each page. I may find another use for Libreoffice since I have avoided MS Office for years.

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Answer 5

fosnola

Level 1

126 points

Aug 27, 2013 12:30 AM in response to AlphaB

Hello AlphaB,

there was a problem in the LibreOffice 4.1.0 with the integration of the new CWK filter, ie. the CWK filter is never called, and LibreOffice 4.1.0 has reverted to the default filter ... This is main reason that I suggested that you try with LibreOffice 4.1.1 RC2 where this problem is corrected.

Of course, it is probably better to only use LibreOffice 4.1.1 RC2 to test/convert your files ; then revert back to a stable version or to OpenOffice,NeoOffice, ... to do normal works.

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