reinstalled apleworks unable to read old files

[brad]

I have a mac mini 10.3.9 and i did a reinstall, The insall disc does not contain all the original factory installed programs - appleworks. So i went to a third party vendor & purchased 6.2.9 I can open old documents created on my imac 8.9os but cant open newer documents - even the ones created since the reinstall "OPEN DICTIONARY- UNABLE TO READ THE DICTIONARY OF THE APPLICATION OR EXTENTION BECAUSE IT IS UNSCRIBABLE" also trying to open appleworks applications "FILE CANT BE CONVERTED TO AN APPLEWORKS DOCUMENT". i' uninstalled and reinstalled, I've custum installed, what next? is it drogram error or operator error?

[Peggy]

I have a mac mini 10.3.9 and i did a reinstall, The insall disc does not contain all the original factory installed programs - appleworks. So i went to a third party vendor & purchased 6.2.9 I can open old documents created on my imac 8.9os but cant open newer documents - even the ones created since the reinstall "OPEN DICTIONARY- UNABLE TO READ THE DICTIONARY OF THE APPLICATION OR EXTENTION BECAUSE IT IS UNSCRIBABLE" also trying to open appleworks applications "FILE CANT BE CONVERTED TO AN APPLEWORKS DOCUMENT". i' uninstalled and reinstalled, I've custum installed, what next? is it drogram error or operator error?

First of all, if your Mac mini is a G4, AppleWorks is included in the bundled software, it's just not reinstalled by default. This is most likely due to the fact that AppleWorks is not a multi-lingual application & the installer doesn't "know" which language version you want. You can always reinstall AppleWorks from the Install DVD that came with your Mac. Insert the Install DVD, double-click on the install bundled software icon, click the arrow/triangle (if necessary) next to AppleWorks at the bottom of the list, check the box for the language you want, click Install (I think) & follow the directions.

Whenever you do an update or system reinstall, it's a good idea to do two maintenance tasks, one for the system (Repair Permissions) and one for AppleWorks (delete preferences). (Thanks to Barry for this way to format this very common answer.)

To Repair permissions, launch Disk Utility, found in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder, click on First Aid, then on Repair Permissions.

To delete AppleWorks’ preference files, go to HD > Users > (your account) > Library > Preferences. Find and delete the file com.apple.appleworks.plist. Find and open the folder AppleWorks in this Preferences folder, then delete all of the enclosed files (with the exception of the Button Bar Preferences if you have customized the Button Bars). AppleWorks will recreate the preference files as it needs them. You should also do this every time AppleWorks crashes as each crash will cause some corruption of the preferences.