AWUG/iWUG Help and Discussion Forums

Old: AppleWorks 5.0.4 on PowerMac 8500-120, Mac OS 9.2.2

New: AppleWorks 6.2.9 on iMac (spring, 2009), Mac OS 10.5.6

PROBLEM: I have lots of files created under the OLD setup that just will not open up under the NEW setup. Specifically, I have lengthy database files that will not open - I haven't gotten to the tons of old word processing files yet.

What gives? I saved all the old files in the AppleWorks 5 format - but AppleWorks 6 just won't have anything to do with them -- a box comes back saying that I can't open this application because Classic is no longer supported.

Does this mean that all of my OLD files are unavailable under the NEW setup?

Alan Agardi wrote:Old: AppleWorks 5.0.4 on PowerMac 8500-120, Mac OS 9.2.2

New: AppleWorks 6.2.9 on iMac (spring, 2009), Mac OS 10.5.6

PROBLEM: I have lots of files created under the OLD setup that just will not open up under the NEW setup. Specifically, I have lengthy database files that will not open - I haven't gotten to the tons of old word processing files yet.

What gives? I saved all the old files in the AppleWorks 5 format - but AppleWorks 6 just won't have anything to do with them -- a box comes back saying that I can't open this application because Classic is no longer supported.

Does this mean that all of my OLD files are unavailable under the NEW setup?

That you're getting the error message that Classic isn't supported, it sounds like you're trying to open AppleWorks 5. Your Intel iMac, as well as Leopard, doesn't support Classic.

But, AppleWorks 6.2.9 should open your documents created in AppleWorks 5. Normally, AppleWorks 6 has no problem at all opening AppleWorks 5 files. Many times, in the moving of the files from one computer to another, some identifying information of the file may have been lost. The most common cause of this happening is using a PC-formatted disk - a USB flash drive or Zip disk are the most common. This loss is almost always able to be overcome by adding the .cwk extension to the file name. If you add this extension to a known AppleWorks 5 (or 6) file & AppleWorks 6 can open it, you can easily add the extension to a whole folder of files using AppleScript.

To add the AppleScript menu go to Applications > AppleScript and launch the AppleScript Utility application. The option to "Show Script Menu in menu bar" is activated from there.

Peggy -

Thanks - it worked perfectly.

Alan