Templates

[John R.]

Since moving to OSX, I noticed that everytime I open one of my AW 6.2.9 self created templates a copy is created. I have looked to see if there is any Appleworks or system preference to stop this but could not find one. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

[Peggy]

Since moving to OSX, I noticed that everytime I open one of my AW 6.2.9 self created templates a copy is created. I have looked to see if there is any Appleworks or system preference to stop this but could not find one. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

AppleWorks template files are intended to be opened from Starting Points (they contain information that AppleWorks uses to organize your template files). It doesn't hurt anything, but is just a matter of self-preservation. AppleWorks has indexed those template files so you can find them easily from within AppleWorks. If your Mac has multiple user accounts, it keeps each user's templates separate from the others, while allowing all users access to the common templates. When you try to open them from the Finder, AppleWorks immediately makes a copy of it to make it harder for you to make an inadvertent change to the original indexed version.

If you want to be able to double-click a template, you can use my solution to delete the original template after a "copy" was created, then remove "(space)copy" from the name of the copy created. I found that this copy (now named as the original template) will not create copies.

[John R.]

Since moving to OSX, I noticed that everytime I open one of my AW 6.2.9 self created templates a copy is created. I have looked to see if there is any Appleworks or system preference to stop this but could not find one. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

AppleWorks template files are intended to be opened from Starting Points (they contain information that AppleWorks uses to organize your template files). It doesn't hurt anything, but is just a matter of self-preservation. AppleWorks has indexed those template files so you can find them easily from within AppleWorks. If your Mac has multiple user accounts, it keeps each user's templates separate from the others, while allowing all users access to the common templates. When you try to open them from the Finder, AppleWorks immediately makes a copy of it to make it harder for you to make an inadvertent change to the original indexed version.

If you want to be able to double-click a template, you can use my solution to delete the original template after a "copy" was created, then remove "(space)copy" from the name of the copy created. I found that this copy (now named as the original template) will not create copies.

Thank you for the recommendation.


John

[lhartten]

AppleWorks template files are intended to be opened from Starting Points (they contain information that AppleWorks uses to organize your template files). It doesn't hurt anything, but is just a matter of self-preservation. AppleWorks has indexed those template files so you can find them easily from within AppleWorks. If your Mac has multiple user accounts, it keeps each user's templates separate from the others, while allowing all users access to the common templates.

Really? Where does it do that? I had AW on an OS9 PowerBook that was converted to an OSX PowerBook (on which I was the sole real user, although the IT group had an account). Then we got re-organized and I landed in a group with little Mac knowledge but lots of Macs. They set me up on a G5 with much more limited access; there is also 1 other user account in addition to the admin-type ones. Through all times and machines, whenever I have wanted to save a new template or edit an old one, once I'm in the "Save" dialog box and I click the "Template" radio button, the destination window automatically pops over to AppleWorks 6/Starting Points/Templates. (This caused big problems when I came under control of a new IT group, because they had the permissions on that folder set such that no regular user could write to it.) Is it supposed to "pop" somewhere else?

This might be critical information, since I'm trying to edit a template I last changed in May 2007. As soon as I hit the Template button, the destination is switching over to AppleWorks 6/Starting Points/Templates *and* I'm getting the dreaded spinning color wheel. Even "Force Quit" won't break out of it; I have to log out. I have no idea what's going on; the permissions are all OK for me to be writing.

[Peggy]

AppleWorks template files are intended to be opened from Starting Points (they contain information that AppleWorks uses to organize your template files). It doesn't hurt anything, but is just a matter of self-preservation. AppleWorks has indexed those template files so you can find them easily from within AppleWorks. If your Mac has multiple user accounts, it keeps each user's templates separate from the others, while allowing all users access to the common templates.

Really? Where does it do that? I had AW on an OS9 PowerBook that was converted to an OSX PowerBook (on which I was the sole real user, although the IT group had an account). Then we got re-organized and I landed in a group with little Mac knowledge but lots of Macs. They set me up on a G5 with much more limited access; there is also 1 other user account in addition to the admin-type ones. Through all times and machines, whenever I have wanted to save a new template or edit an old one, once I'm in the "Save" dialog box and I click the "Template" radio button, the destination window automatically pops over to AppleWorks 6/Starting Points/Templates. (This caused big problems when I came under control of a new IT group, because they had the permissions on that folder set such that no regular user could write to it.) Is it supposed to "pop" somewhere else?

This might be critical information, since I'm trying to edit a template I last changed in May 2007. As soon as I hit the Template button, the destination is switching over to AppleWorks 6/Starting Points/Templates *and* I'm getting the dreaded spinning color wheel. Even "Force Quit" won't break out of it; I have to log out. I have no idea what's going on; the permissions are all OK for me to be writing.

You can store templates a folder you create in your account > Documents > AppleWorks User Data > Starting Points. I put a folder in the "automatic"/default folder so they are available to all user accounts.

I think the problem you are having with the spinning beach ball is much more likely due to the most complained about bug in AppleWorks 6 - known as the "Recent Items bug" - & has been around since AppleWorks 6 was released in March, 2000. Go to your account > Documents > AppleWorks User Data > Starting Points > Recent Items & delete all of the aliases in that folder. AppleWorks never empties this folder & it slows AppleWorks down to the point where it appears to have frozen.