Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I just upgraded to El Capitan and also downloaded new versions of iWork software. I noticed that the old versions were left untouched on the hard drive. Good thing, because I have now noticed that the new version will not open an old Appleworks document. In fact, it seems that it will not open nor save even a text document?? Am I missing something?
MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), , Apple since 1979!
It was dropped in Pages 5.0.
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PeterBreis0807 wrote:
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I am coming to the conclusion that commonsense is not just rare it has evaporated.
Peter
I would have been happy to continue a scholarly discussion of the pros and cons of those owners of new Macs that must utilize their older PowerPC software for one reason or another, such as the OP, but once again: you are compelled to include an insult!
What you say is true that support for PPC apps such as AppleWorks 6 stopped with Lion, meaning you cannot run AppleWorks in Lion or later. But I believe the question is the ability for Pages to open AppleWorks 6 documents. That was dropped with the very first iteration of Pages 5. Pages 4 & earlier can still open AppleWorks 6 documents even in El Capitan.
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With all this chatter, it seems that the OP should chime in. I believe Appleworks to be one of the finest pieces of software ever conceived! I had documents that were primarily word processing with imbedded spreadsheets AND graphics from the Draw module. I never liked Word (it always seemed more anxious to control me rather than let me control it!) I loved Excel from the moment it morphed from MultiPlan which replaced SuperCalc which in turn, had replaced VisiCalc. Yes, I have been at it since 1979 with my first Apple II which replaced my Osborne.
Back when Apples and PCs didn't talk much to each other, I had some wonderful software that would convert almost anything to anything else (can't remember the name of it.) When Apple dropped support for Appleworks, I was so nauseated that I want through my hard drive translating whole folders of Appleworks WP documents to text; SS documents to Excel, and Draw documents to a draw format which I now open with EasyDraw. My mistake since then has been using Pages for word processing, using stationery templates to create correspondence. However, when Pages opens an old, missed Appleworks document, I save it in text format. I do that with a Cut and Paste.
New computers and operating systems do little for me. I do little with the new ones that the old ones couldn't do. Movements to the Intel chips did me the greatest damage as it obsoleted much of my software. Most of my OS and computer upgrades (including this one to El Capitan) have been forced by one essential software - TurboTax and there is really no reasonable alternative.
As to older machines - I recently sold on eBay my Wallstreet laptop, including all the SCSI peripherals and the SCSI cables. I have left one PowerBook running Tiger and Classic.
I would have agreed with you a long time ago because Appleworks also included a basic database, but the years have rolled on and and the flaws in Appleworks became too great to continue with it. That point was well over 10 years ago.
Two major flaws are its lack of Unicode, otf support and poor font rendering. Then there is all the problems with color and output. It is really too crude for all but basic laserprinting.
As to its ability to embed spreadsheets, and drawings both were long ago surpassed by Pages. Pages spreadsheets are leagues ahead of AppleWorks, as are its charting and a good deal of its drawing. Pages '09 used to do a fair fist of data merging from Numbers and Contacts, at least to the level of what Appleworks was capable of. Unfortunately Apple has ruined both in the later OSes and versions of the iWork Apps.
I think you are very used to AppleWorks and having failed to upgrade never learnt what the iWork Apps did so can't compare.
I used AppleWorks but couldn't ignore its deficiencies. Pages '09 is an amazing productive tool. AppleWorks DTP and presentation abilities were miserable. Pages '09 is in a league of its own. Now Apple has basically sidelined it it leaves a real hole in a Mac users productivity arsenal. There is some hope coming up with Affinity Publisher later this year but I don't think it will do what Pages does. Basically nothing does. Word can do something like it but still comes a poor second in usability and quality of results. At least Microsoft continues to support and develop Word, more than can be said with Apple and the iWork, iLife etc Mac Apps.
To summarise, keep Appleworks on hold on an older Mac if you must, but look to a longer term solution elsewhere (ie Not Apple anything).
MacLink Plus is the OS9 conversion App that you can't remember and is long gone. OSX offers most of the means to convert files between platforms rendering it obsolete. I can't remember, but can't you export the AppleWorks files to Word.doc or rtf, even if not perfectly but at least as a start to your migration?
Hanging onto a long obsoleted Applications means you have only added to your work load now you more or less have to move to something more durable. Whilst I recommend users stick with Pages '09 and largely ignore Pages 5, that is only a Hold recommendation. We should see something soon to fill the gap.
Peter
Hi Peggy! 🙂
How are you keeping? Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year.
We have noted how you have wisely found better things to do with your life than support the unsupportable. 😀
Peter
PeterBreis0807 wrote:
...We are now faced with transitioning from iWork '09 which does not even have the Unicode and other system problems of Appleworks...
You may find my article on Abandoning iWork of some interest, though the choice of other programs is rather limited, particularly in the case of spreadsheets. It does not of course address the problem of databases: this is covered my Abandoning Appleworks article and really the best choice is Filemaker Pro - though you need deep pockets.
Hi Roger 🙂
Nice of you to refer me to your article which in turn refers back to me!
Unfortunately the people who ran the Free Forum that iWorkTipsNTricks ran on didn't pay their bills, so I and many others lost their sites. Completely and without warning.
Yes I am aware of your suggestions which largely overlap mine. I had added a long list of Apps allowing for the wide range of uses people had with Pages '09, most would not have been what ordinary users would consider directly equivalent, but I believe in providing as much information in one spot as possible.
LibreOffice would in an ideal world fill the gap, at least it has consistency, the users work is considered important and it opens/saves in an enormous number of file formats.
...but I really find it hard to love. Certainly not a scratch on Pages '09's prodcutivity.
Fingers crossed that Affinity Publisher is more than a crash hot DTP App. I've already given Serif my ideas that could lift it to a super productive layout and presentation tool not just a cheaper Indesign.
Peter
I thought I made it clear that the only Appleworks files left on my current computer are in some remote folder that I missed when using MacLink and converting. The WP files were converted to text; the SSs to Excel, the Draw to EasyDraw; and the DB to FileMakerPro. And, my old computers only come out a couple of times a year when I run across something that won't open. Then, if it is useful, I translate it to something and transfer it to the current machine.
Roger Wilmut1 wrote:
You may find my article on Abandoning iWork of some interest...
Roger, does running Snow Leopard Server in virtualization have any positive indicatings for continuing to run the more productive versions of iWorks?
GeneMike wrote:
Yes, I have been at it since 1979 with my first Apple II which replaced my Osborne.
Same here, except instead of an Osborne*, I started with a Sinclair/Zenith ZX-81 that I built from kit form for $99.
The next year I replaced it with an Apple ][+ only later to replace that with my first "transportable computer:" an Apple //c with LED screen and battery pack in the Prairie Power traveling case. With a 1200 baud modem, I was able to continue my work while in attendance at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival!
A few years back I needed to extract some personal financial data from my series of Time Is Money annual data files from the mid-1980's. Rather than run it on the Apple //c, I found that Virtual ][ on my Mac was the almost-perfect answer, with then being able to use Print to PDF as a basis to output reports to a format that I could clean up and then import and manipulate in Excel. However Time Is Money would not run on Virtual ][ until I contacted the program's author and he made an upgrade/fix specifically for this program and now it runs perfectly.
Originally being an early Mac user in corporate environments that were a PC universe, I become quite knowledgeable about using the TOPS network and installing Phonenet PC cards in the PCs and using Phonenet to print to a modified HP Laserjet with a Postscript cartridge. My assistant at that time, using her PC, always loved showing off her proportional and justified font WYSISYG documents to her courier-font using peers!
I still keep a Powerbook 1400c with Ethernet and CD and Zip modules for early legacy work, but quite honestly, I have not powered it on for years now.
All of this stuff is in storage and soon I will research some ongoing Legacy Apple museum to donate all this stuff to!
* The Osborne was created by Lee Felsenstein. Prior to that venture, Lee co-created the Community Memory Project in 1973, the first computerized bulletin board system, which I helped facilitate at its location at Leopold's Records in Berkeley, California.
Some interesting parallel reminiscing! I, too, had one of those huge "portables!"
My all-time favorite financial programs was MYM (Managing Your Money) by Andrew Tobias. I had him on he phone once and he explained how he simply could not keep up with the Apple frequent upgrades and gave up at the Intel chip. I still look back at data in that program using the one generation back PowerBook running Classic. And, I hate Quicken!
MlchaelLAX wrote:
Roger, does running Snow Leopard Server in virtualization have any positive indicatings for continuing to run the more productive versions of iWorks?
I think this depends very much on what people are trying to do. AppleWorks was a great program in its day - I still think one of the best ever written - and more powerful (particularly in the database) than people give it credit for: but various weaknesses became more and more apparent as time went on and it wasn't updated, particularly in font handling. Running it under emulation does at the very least give people a change to extract and convert their documents, and it's possible that many people might prefer to continue with it as long as possible: of course doing that runs the eventual risk of something happening to render it impossible to access documents so it would be wise to export to an easy to open format as a backup as much as possible.
I still use the previous version of Numbers, which works well for me; the current wouldn't as far as I can see. I quite liked the previous version of Pages, but in the end abandoned it for Nisus Writer which works well, is kept reasonably updated, and also saves in a version of RTF so that it is possible at least to extract text if it ever becomes necessary. I also moved to Filemaker Pro - I make considerable use of databases even though they have become unfashionable - and it does allow me to do a number of things that the AW database module wouldn't. The main drawback is it being very expensive (and if I want to move to a later system eventually there is no upgrade path, you have to buy it again).
Thanks, Roger!
GeneMike: what financial program do you currently use?
I must admit, I continue to use Quicken 2007 for Mac Intel, which is still sold by Intuit for $20 through their online chat feature. I find it does 99% of what I need and so no new product or reason to have to go through a whole new learning cycle, after years of using Quicken.
Originally I started with Home Accountant on the Apple ][, which was robust but very slow!
I then moved to Time is Money, which loaded all transactions into memory and was very fast, but had poor EXPORT abilities.
Finally, I moved over to the Mac with MacMoney and then Quicken.
I recently purchased Quicken 2016 for Mac and was underwhelmed by it and immediately moved back to Quicken 2007.
Do you still have your Apple //c setup? I fire mine up once in a while: it also has the Applied Engineering Z-RAM card installed so I had extra RAM for Appleworks and a Z-80 chip to run Apple CP/M programs!
I, too, started with something I recall as Home Accountant but, it was for the Apple. A partner of mine in Hartford gave it to me on a floppy disk! Later, with the Mac and a desire for a more robust program, I chose the MYM (Managing Your Money) mentioned above, which I liked considerably more than anything I have found today.
When I left Classic behind in 2008, I went to Quicken 2007 which I would have continued to use except that I was advised by both Quicken and my credit card company that they were discontinuing to support transaction downloads for Quicken 2007. So, I decided to upgrade to Quicken 2015 and I dislike it even more than Q2007. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to look around before I got too far into Q2015 and found that the top rated financial program right now is iBank - 5 mice by MacWorld. I looked it over and even asked some questions of iBank. I was impressed by the answers and the fact that they come from the President. Then, I found myself remembering how MYM could not weather the frequent Apple upgrades and wondered if iBank could suffer the same fate and whether it would be easy to migrate back to Quicken. In the end, I decided to stay with the hated Q2015!
BTW, the only advantage I could find in upgrading further to Q2016 was free telephone support. When I tried to call them, I got an estimate of a 40 minute wait!
COnsider going back to Q2007. I will give you the benefit of my expertise later...
Did Pages 5.6 Drop Appleworks Compatibility?
