How can I open old Apple works files

IWORK8 - numbers, and Pages did convert .cwk files -- don't really know about later versions.

If you had IWORK8 and upgraded this mac - Iwork8 is not deleted it still is in applications.

If you had databases - Beneto by FiileMaker was a way to get the info into databases.

If you had paint items you want to open - sad but true - without buying more software - had to fire up the old Mac and convert them to .csv files so I could bring them into photoshop. At that time I also converted the two databases I had to .csv so I could bring them into numbers.

As this is the twenty first century and many companies have files stored on disks in older formats - feel free to point out to Apple - that both they and WIndows need to stop obsoleting load of older backed up info into their software.

Here is the definitive solution to convert AppleWorks .cwk files as of 2/18/17 to Word and Excel. There is an application called "Document Converter" by Rootwise Technologies. With it, I was able to convert all of my version 6 spreadsheet and word format documents to MS Office documents.

Download Libre Office, it will open some (but not all) cwk files.

The iWork '09 or earlier applications - Keynote, Pages & Numbers - can only open AppleWorks 6 presentation, word processing & spreadsheet documents, respectively. They will not open any other type of AppleWorks 6 files or any AppleWorks 5 or any version of ClarisWorks files. The latest versions - Keynote 6, Pages 5 & Numbers 3 cannot open AppleWorks files, nor can they open iWork '08 or earlier files

Certain versions of the third-party application, EazyDraw, can open AppleWorks draw documents. If you still have access to AppleWorks you can copy the contents of draw documents, paste them into an AppleWorks word processing document in object mode (click the arrow in the tool panel), save the WP document & then open it in Pages 4 or earlier. You can copy & paste from AppleWorks to Pages but you would have to do it object by object or it will be one big uneditable object.

There is nothing other than AppleWorks that can open paint or database documents. Database data can be copied & pasted into an AppleWorks spreadsheet, saved & opened in Numbers or saved as ASCII/plain text & opened in most any spreadsheet, database or word processing program. Paint documents can be saved as one of many different formats to be opened in most image editing programs. I recommend using PICT for best results.

Try LibreOffice v2.6. It can open many, but not all, types of AppleWorks & ClarisWorks documents. The latest version, LibreOffice 3 is reported to make a mess of the files.

With Bento 2 they made a big "to-do" about being able to import AppleWorks files. Sure, as long as you still have AppleWorks to export whatever data you have as plain text & then import it THEN recreate any layouts, calculations, etc.

I did recover my database and paint files by reassembling old Mac and exporting them to .CSV files for database and pretty sure that worked with Paint as those are now in Photoshop(may have been to jpeg not quite sure).

Why should anyone have to purchase software to convert backed up files? Apple should supply a program that does this automatically. At the time 2008 with Leopard Benito filemaker did convert the files but when snow leopard cam out you had to purchase another level of Filemaker - thats the point when I went back and pulled the database and drawings out of old mac (circa 2009).

I guess Apple has gone into Microsoft mode where companies have to scramble to find someone who can open an old document for them.

Hi everyone, and thanks for the run-down, Peggy. It's been a long time since I've been to the Appleworks discussions—glad it's still here. 🙂

I have a related question, which is: I have many Appleworks version 3, 4, and 5 word processing files that won't open in Pages. I do have the latest Appleworks on an older machine, so I can open them and save them in such a way that they can be opened in Pages. The problem is there are perhaps 200 or more of them. Might there be some way to "batch convert" these at one go, rather than having to open and save each one separately?

(I'm afraid I may already know the answer to that, but it never hurts to try.)

Yvan Koenig wrote a lot of AppleScripts, including several for batch converting, many for AppleWorks. Take a look at the files he has on his Box.com account. If you don't see any that work for you, post back & let me know. I'll contact Yvan & see what he can do.

Thanks, Peggy. I did not see a batch converter for changing old AW documents in the latest cwk version. I did find a script that appears to be a batch converter of AW to Word. ("AW batch BOBO2Office8").

Converting them to Word docs would be fine, so I downloaded that. The resulting folder contains two apps and two scripts. The apps appear to be damaged, and the script doesn't seem to work. The instructions say to drag the folder of AW files onto the script, but when I try that, they just get moved instead of activating the script. (May be doing it incorrectly; not too familiar with Applescripts.)

I did some searching & found one named "AW save as 6.applescript" that may do what you need. You will find it as the second item on this page. I tried using the script on a Mac running Snow Leopard but got an error saying AppleScript couldn't read the dictionary. I will contact Yvan & ask his advice.

Hello

You may try the last script (named "save_AW_as_v6.applescript" v0.3) in the following thread:

old appleworks files

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5455245?start=45&tstart=0

Good luck,

H

.

Kathy Platt wrote:

I have some old files written in AppleWorks. How can I convert them?

Here is a post I recently assembled for a similar question

Appleworks 6 running in Snow Leopard Server installed into Parallels for use on newer Macs:

[click on image to enlarge]

In the interim, study these two excellent articles:

Abandoning Appleworks, by Roger Wilnut; and

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

Appleworks for the Modern Day, a Migration Tip by a brody

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2522

Also: Installing Snow Leopard Server into Parallels for DUMMIES:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=17285039&postcount=564

On my MacBook Pro that I purchased in Nov. 2014, I'm running 10.9.5. I tried to download LibreOffice, but I got a message "LibreOffice can't be opened because the identity of the developer cannot be confirmed".

Control click on the file and select Open.

cool. thanks!