Appleworks to Pages or Word - Thinking of buying an old flavor of MacLink Plus

Hi everyone,

I’m facing a problem in that a member of my family still uses Appleworks and has a _ton_ of Appleworks word processing documents. My attempts to wean this person of Applework hasn’t worked to well. It isn’t because she can’t use MS Word or Pages. She has both on her machine. It’s because she needs the data store in the Appleworks word processing files. The problem is that Appleworks has long since been discontinued and in my experience has become more and more unreliable under OS 10.6.x and simply doesn’t run on newer flavors of the OS. It’s time for her to move to a newer, more update and supported app.

Pages is supposed to be able to open Appleworks word processing files. I did some tests and, at this point, Pages failed miserably in this regard. It opens some files but not others. I knew in advance to expect formatting issues. Very common when files get converted from one format to another. But, I need more reliable opening of the files. Enter MacLinkPlus.

I used it many years ago with MacWrite Pro and ClarisWork and Appleworks to open MS Word files on the Mac. MacLink wasn’t perfect but it got the job done. MegaMacs has MacLinkPlus Deluxe v11.0 for $24.99. SO, I’m thinking of buying it for the purpose of converting all of the old AppleWorks files into a format that Pages(or Word) can open with more reliability.

I’m hoping to use MAcLink to convert all of the Appleworks files into MS Word format. That way, she can use MS Word or, if she prefers, open them in Pages. Either way, it solves the problem. Truth to say, I really want her to switch to Word. Everyone else in the family (both immediate and extended) has standardized on it because of its cross-platform compatibility. But, she has trouble with the interface of Word and prefers Pages.

Anyone used MacLinkPlus Deluxe v11.0 to batch convert Appleworks documents into MS Word format? Other suggestions for resolving the issue?

Advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert

doesn't AW 6.2.9 work in SL under Rosetta?
IIRC a security update for SL 10.6.8 borked PPC stuff for a few days, then Apple released an updated update that fixed the issue. If the AW prefs also got borked during the that interim period, you/she may need to delete them so they can be recreated. Good luck.


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Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



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We have a winner!

Seriously, I've used AW under Rosetta with no problem. Or, if you want to go through the effort, get SheepShaver, and run AW under OS 9.

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Buzz
doesn't AW 6.2.9 work in SL under Rosetta?
IIRC a security update for SL 10.6.8 borked PPC stuff for a few days, then Apple released an updated update that fixed the issue. If the AW prefs also got borked during the that interim period, you/she may need to delete them so they can be recreated. Good luck.


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Hi everyone,

Nope. Not a winner. Read my post again. It's become more and more unreliable. It's time for her to move on to a different program.

Robert

For my mother-in-law, we took all her old AppleWorks files and converted them to pdf. My daughter was on-site, so she did it manually. But, I'd think an AppleScript wouldn't be that hard to write.

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Embarassing myself on the Internet since 1978.

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Robert M
Hi everyone,

Nope. Not a winner. Read my post again. It's become more and more unreliable. It's time for her to move on to a different program.

Robert

That's why I asked if the prefs had been recreated. Try it. Also, while you allude to your MacWrite and ClarisWorks history, you didn't do the same for her, but AW 6.2.9 doesn't always play nice w/ some earlier CW documents, and IIRC, you need an earlier version of AW (like 6.2.4?) to make nice w/ vintage CW work product. Maybe reinstall AW 6.2.9 from the ground up, which I think may mean installing an earlier version w/ an installer, and then using the 6.2.9 updater. I went through similar hassles for a couple of clients awhile back, but AW finally worked w/o having to resort to other translators.


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Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



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Hi everyone,

Turns out I have a copy of MacLinkPlus. It came with the IMac I'm using at my office. Go figure.

I'm going to do some conversions and see if it'll resolve the issue. Wish me luck!

Robert



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2012 11:17AM by Robert M.