How to use appleworks 6 inMaverick

AW does not work with Lion or later because it is a PPC application. It can work with Snow Leopard if you install the Rosetta emulator as part of the installation options.

If you have AW documents, then you will need to find a way to convert them either with AW on another computer or using Pages to import word processing documents and Numbers to import spreadsheet documents. There is nothing that converts database documents.

If you have upgraded to Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks and have AppleWorks documents you cannot open, then you should be able to install Snow Leopard on an external hard disk and start from that (provided that the Mac did not come with anything higher than Snow Leopard originally installed); and success has been reported in running Snow Leopard Server under emulation in Parallels - the method is described here: AFAIK Snow Leopard Server is still available in the Apple Store (by telephone) at a reduced price and is preferable to using ordinary Snow Leopard which is quite tricky. I haven't tried this myself: use at your own discretion. You can then run AppleWorks as an emergency measure.

This article looks in detail at migrating from Appleworks:

http://rfwilmut.net/aw

Lifeboat coming to rescue the OP in the form of Snow Leopard Server installed into Parallels to continue to operate Appleworks 6 in Lion, Mt. Lion and Mavericks:

[click on image to enlarge]

I had a lot of drawings in AppleWorks, and when I upgraded past Leopard, none of them would open. I also had a few other programs that would not work in Mountain Lion. So I bought a G4 laptop on eBay for around $80 including shipping, running Leopard, and it does what I need. Sort of unhandy, but I can use all my old programs.

Kiai

Kiai wrote:

...I bought a G4 laptop on eBay for around $80 including shipping, running Leopard, and it does what I need. Sort of unhandy, but I can use all my old programs.

Kiai

Until the day that the G4 dies...