is it possible to convert an old Appleworks .adb file?

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Level 1

5 points

is it possible to convert an old Appleworks .adb file?

I have a Database from my older computers, now gone, that I would like to reconstruct. It is an Appleworks .adb file. Can it be converted to work on my IMAC?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jun 3, 2014 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

60,035 points

Jun 3, 2014 11:53 AM in response to wwyman

All AppleWorks (and ClarisWorks) file types carry the file extension .cwk

Fileinfo.org lists four typs of file using the .adb extension. Other file information sites name other types of files using this extension. None that I checked included AppleWorks in their lists.

Try opening the file with a text editor, such as Text Edit, supplied with your iMac. This may give you a better idea of what the file contains, and may provide an opportunity to retrieve the data. You will likely have to scroll well down in the file to get to the actual data.

Make a duplicate of the file, and work with the copy, not the original.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

fosnola

Level 1

126 points

Jun 3, 2014 11:50 PM in response to wwyman

Hello,

http://apple2history.org/history/ah19/ does seem to indicate that the adb extension was indeed used with some AppleWorks database file, but on Apple II :-), are your files really so old ?

If there are so old, I am not sure what is the best method to open them, probably by installing a virtual system Mac Classic 6 or 7 and then search if what convertors existed at this time...
If there are more recent, try if the lastest daily build of LibreOffice in http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/libreoffice-4-3/MacOSX-x86@49-TDF/2014-0 6-03_07.34.37/ can open it , ie. normally it must contain a filter to read CWK database and convert them as spreadsheet ( far from perfect, but maybe this will be sufficient )

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