I installed Mavericks and now i can't access any of my appleworks documenrts

As of Lion (10.7) the PowerPC compatibility "Rosetta" utility is no longer supported by Apple. So PowerPC programs such as AppleWorks no longer work.

You can run Snow Leopard (10.6) on an external drive or on a partition on your internal drive to continue running PowerPC programs under the Rosetta utility. Using the Startup Manager http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1310 you would boot Snow Leopard to run the PowerPC applications and then reboot a newer OS (10.7, 10.8 or 10.9) to run normally.

If you will be using the PowerPC applications often and you want to run them on Snow Leopard at the same time you run a newer operating system, then you can use Parallels. You need the Snow Leopard Server version to use it with Parallels. You need to call Apple to order it.

Snow Leopard Server for $19.99 + sales tax & shipping costs at 1.800.MYAPPLE (1.800.692.7753) - Apple Part Number: MC588Z/A (telephone orders only).

Parallels ($80): http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

I meant to say you need to call Apple to order the SL Server. Sorry for the typo.

Carransong,

I'm assuming you upgraded from Snow Leopard (10.6.x)? If so, then, yes, as hands4 stated, AppleWorks (a PowerPC app) will no longer run as Rosetta has been discontinued for 10.7 and newer. You do have other options.

If you have or can get any of the previous versions of the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote), these apps will open AppleWorks files (word processing docs, spreadsheets, and presentations, respectively, if they are in AppleWorks 6 format)). Note: you would need iWork '09 (version 4.3) or older for this to work. The new versions of the iWork apps (5.0) created for Mavericks WILL NOT open AppleWorks documents.

If you can't get an older version iWork, then the current version of LibreOffice (4.1) is capable of opening AppleWorks files (as well as numerous other Mac legacy fomats). I have confirmed that it works with word processing documents. I don't know about other AppleWorks file types. LibreOffice is free, though, so you've got nothing to lose trying it.

Be sure to read Roger Wilmut's excellent article: Abandoning Appleworks:

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

Information.

AppleWorks in OS 10.7/10.8