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New Pages and Numbers vs Appleworks

The iWork '09 versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote have now been replaced in the Mac App Store by new versions requiring Mavericks: the older versions are no longer listed.


I would be grateful if anyone in a position to do so could test whether these will still open the relevant AppleWorks documents - it wouldn't surprise me to find that the facility has been withdrawn - so that I can keep my 'Abandoning Appleworks' pages up to date.


As it is, it appears that Pages won't even open some pages '09 documents properly...


Here is a basic Word Processing document:


http://rfwilmut.net/share/AWtest.zip

24 inch iMac-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 13 inch Macbook Pro (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 4:33 AM

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Posted on Oct 24, 2013 7:43 AM

Hello,

I just test with Pages version 5.0 (1465) and I have had no success, it simply does not propose to open the document...


Note:

- after adding extension .cwk, still it does not propose to open it,

- after adding extension .pages, it tries to open it but then it displays an error message,

- the installation of the new iWork keeps intact "/Applications/iWork 09", so I test with Pages v4.0 which continues to open it...

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Oct 24, 2013 7:43 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hello,

I just test with Pages version 5.0 (1465) and I have had no success, it simply does not propose to open the document...


Note:

- after adding extension .cwk, still it does not propose to open it,

- after adding extension .pages, it tries to open it but then it displays an error message,

- the installation of the new iWork keeps intact "/Applications/iWork 09", so I test with Pages v4.0 which continues to open it...

Oct 25, 2013 12:59 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hello,

I just try with the new version of Numbers and KeyNote and I can not open any .cwk documents....


Note: the Pages v5 help seems accessible at http://help.apple.com/pages/mac/5.0/ :

===============================================

Create or open a document

Pages comes with Apple-designed templates to help you create your document. After you choose a template, you can add your own content using coordinated fonts, colours and shapes.



You can also use Pages to open and edit documents created with Pages and Word, or in plain text format (.txt).

Oct 27, 2013 1:37 AM in response to Ronda Wilson

Fortunately updating to Mavericks doesn't disable the older versions of iWorks, which is just as well as people are complaining that the new versions make a mess of some of their documents created in the older versions. So far we can just go on using the old versions - but how long that will apply for is anyone's guess. I shan't be pleased if I have to convert all my documents to something else all over again.


It really is quite extraordinary that nowadays upgrades to systems, programs and hardware from Apple always means losing existing facilities.

Oct 30, 2013 4:57 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

I'm very disappointed that Apple have abandoned AppleWorks. I have thousands of legacy documents that I can't afford to lose and am having to keep an elderly iMac chugging along on Snow Leopard to retain access to them. I don't think I've ever had even a simple WP doc (let alone a SS) that iWork 09 will open. Whoops! Tell a lie, I just checked back through the archives and a single simple WP, that could have been saved as a RTF, opened in Pages. All docs defaulted to Keynote but it had no better performance.


I have found that TextEdit will open AW WP dox. They're a nightmare of code, sample:


[Tt;«4< 2¢åO ÌbGóˇ+ ˙–∆: ÎΩÙ‰+ˇ≤üœ≥øB˚Eɱ 'Û |ï€ ”I¸:<DÓm\ +»%• 5u5ÒK)v@£™Ë ê
(KP)Õ<ê%Ã'U¶A˜åÏ∏˛ìƒ>*•J˝&aÍÉfijYR1å0ˇx?5o Ï^õfiˇ


but buried deep inside you may find at least simple version of your original, sample:


2 _ ¿¸¯ _ ı ¿˚X T € ¿˚| / æ ¿˚Ñ

Ì ∑ ¿˚∏ _M a k e s 2 s m a l l p u d d i n g s . T h e p u d d i n g c a n b e m a d e u p t o t h r e e

m o n t h s a h e a d a n d k e p t r e f r i g e r a t e d o r m a d e u p t o o n e y e a r a h e a d


They are littered with unnecessary spaces and random characters but Bean's Find&Replace quickly cleared those.

Oct 31, 2013 12:53 AM in response to kiwiiano

Pages '09 will open fairly complex Word Processing documents - this is a very complicated document I converted from AW Draw by copying into an AW Word Processing document then opening that in Pages (this is just one out of four similar pages):


User uploaded file


although it did require the odd tweak, it was mostly converted well. I've found other documents transferred well, and several spreadsheets went into Numbers without problems (though there are one or two functions which are not present in Numbers). However nothing will open an Appleworks database.


And as we've discussed, the new versions won't open AW at all, and has problems with many iWork '09 documents.

Oct 31, 2013 1:34 AM in response to kiwiiano

Hello Kiwiiano,

even if the extension cwk is associated to Keynote, you can use the finder menu "Open with" to try to open a word processing document with Pages :-)


Note:

for word processing cwk documents, if you can not open them with Pages v4 (the best solution) , you can also try to open them with the latest version of LibreOffice, normally, it will be able to retrieve the content with most formattings....

Oct 31, 2013 1:14 PM in response to kiwiiano

Hi Kiwilno,


The 'random characters' appearing within the plain text are formatting characters, used by AppleWorks to determine which fon to use, what size, whether the following text should be bold, italic or underlined, etc. TextEdit (and other text editors) don't read these as control signals, and simply show the character if it is displayable, or as a space if it is not defined (as a displayable character) in the basic font.


Regarding .cwk files opening Keynote by default, this is probably the least useful setting, as Keynote will open only AppleWorks Presentation files—and there aren't a lot of those in existence for most AW users. Ushe Get Info on any .cwk file to select either Pages '09 or Numbers '09, depending whether you have more WP or SS files, then click the Change All button to associate all .cwk files to the iWork application you chose.


Or, if you have the most current version of LibreOffice, associate the .cwk files to that application.


Regards,

Barry

New Pages and Numbers vs Appleworks

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