Opening up old Appleworks 6 files (OS 9) in OS X

[PinkPanther]

We've got a few database files saved as Appleworks 6 files (the OS 9 version which doesn't work under OS X). However as we are running OS X Tiger on all machines we cannot access these files at all - I have even tried downloading 'icword' to convert the files which doesn't work. Short of actually buying the new Appleworks 6.2.9 (for OS X) Is there anyway of accessing these old files?

Bit of a long shot, but having seen a few Mac enthusiasts lurking on here I thought it worth a try

Regards, PP

[magic torch]

Hi PP, which version of Appleworks 6 did you have on OS 9?

When you say you can't access them, do you mean they fail to load?

[HiRich]

magic torch can answer this far better than I can, but one thought.

My interpretation of your problem is that you don't have a Classic (OS9) environment installed on your Tiger machines. Therefore you cannot install your Classic version of AppleWorks. therefore you cannot open your old Appleworks files.

Although Classic is not installed automatically under Tiger, it seems that you can install it manually (I must admit I thought you couldn't - perhaps it's only Intel Macs?). It seems you can find it on the installation disks, or at apple.com. So, provided you have (at least one) PPC Mac, you could install Classic, then install the Classic apps, then open and convert these files into a format the new machines can recognise. It might be an idea to make one Mac a 'legacy' machine with all your Classic apps loaded on it - then you always have a way of opening and converting any old files (and the ability to check that new files open on an old system)

[PinkPanther]

Hi Jamie,

All I know is that it is the AppleWorks 6 that came with our Snow Imac that was running Mac OS version 9.1 (as per the Software Install CD). I have tried loading this up on one of our machines (running OS X Tiger) and it comes up with the alert 'Classic cannot find a Mac OS 9 System Folder on the startup disk to use'. And I don't fancy getting into all the 'classic' stuff to sort it out as we've just moved on from that

When I say I can't access them I mean I can't open them up in any of the office:mac applications we have or 'icword' which is a downloadable piece of software that is supposed to be able convert them.

BTW when I say can't open them, I mean in such a way that we can decipher them - they just open with reams of gobbledegook

I think we did the wrong thing initially by saving the files as native Appleworks rather than exporting as Clarisworks or the like as it seems this file format is less receptive to opening in other programs?

Anyways, apologies for rambling on. Perhaps it might be a lot easier to go and purchase the latest Appleworks .

PP

[PinkPanther]

HiRich said:

magic torch can answer this far better than I can, but one thought. My interpretation of your problem is that you don't have a Classic (OS9) environment installed on your Tiger machines. Therefore you cannot install your Classic version of AppleWorks. therefore you cannot open your old Appleworks files. Although Classic is not installed automatically under Tiger, it seems that you can install it manually (I must admit I thought you couldn't - perhaps it's only Intel Macs?). It seems you can find it on the installation disks, or at apple.com. So, provided you have (at least one) PPC Mac, you could install Classic, then install the Classic apps, then open and convert these files into a format the new machines can recognise. It might be an idea to make one Mac a 'legacy' machine with all your Classic apps loaded on it - then you always have a way of opening and converting any old files (and the ability to check that new files open on an old system)

You've got it bang on HiRich. However as we've got everything running up in Tiger, I am fairly reluctant to start going back to Classic. Plus other than Appleworks we seem to have all other (software) bases covered so it seems daft having to muck about with one of the computers just to access a few database files. I guess I was hoping of an easier method of accessing them. Mmmmm, think it might be a case of either forgetting about the databases or biting the bullet and purchasing the newer version

>> Edited by PinkPanther on Thursday 1st June 16:26

[magic torch]

It's basically as HiRich says, you haven't got a copy of OS 9 on the machine for Classic to work. You could have then installed Appleworks in Classic and converted the Application to OS X.

I understand why you don't want to install OS 9. You'll need to boot off the CD for it to work, and it'll need to be OS 9.2.2.

Some newer machines such as the iBook ship with the latest Appleworks although it's not normally installed.

I'll e-mail you an alternative

[wildeep]

I have Appleworks on my machine if you want me to export as a CSV or other file?.