Clarisworks And Appleworks For Mac

Apple has finally put its venerable AppleWorks integrated productivity software application - a package it hasn't updated for more than three years - out to pasture.

So I have a friend of mine that just had their old iMac (Lampshade model) die. She's older and did most of her work on Clarisworks (christmas. AppleWorks5.0.4.sit.bin: AppleWorks 5.0.4 for Macintosh installer appleworks5.0.3.sit. The file extension of AppleWorks and ClarisWorks documents is.cwk.

According to a MacWorld UK report, Apple's dealers were notified of the move last week, and with the arrival of a new version of the iWork suite with a spreadsheet package, AppleWorks disappeared from Apple's main applications webpage. The old AppleWorks URL, www.apple.com/appleworks now redirects to the AppleWorks support page.

AppleWorks was last updated by Apple more than three years ago, in January 2004, when it released a series of patches for the Mac OS X, classic Mac OS and even the Windows version of the product.

Apple's AppleWorks 6 for Mac OS X

The app as we know it today - there was also an Apple II AppleWorks way, way back - was originally launched as ClarisWorks in 1991, a year after Apple spun Claris out as an independent entity. The Windows version followed two years later, in 1993. In 1998, Apple took ClarisWorks back, then at version 5, and Claris transformed into FileMaker, to focus on its most popular app.

Apple renamed the app AppleWorks and began bundling the Mac version with its consumer-oriented machines. Outlook calendar permissions greyed out office 365. AppleWorks 6 was released early in 2000.

AppleWorks for Mac OS 9

Integrated applications like AppleWorks and MicrosoftWorks evolved as all-on-one apps that offered the same features as standalone office applications. Microsoft's move to bundle Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other apps in a single package made buying full-scale productivity apps less onerous, particularly once the suite's price began to plummet, and demand for the less functional integrated apps waned. They exist now mainly as cheap apps for PC makers to bundle.

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I am running OS X 10.11 El Capitan. For a while now I have not been able to open my old ClarisWorks documents. ( I think maybe since Appleworks 6 or so.) I have not thrown them out in case a solution would arise one day and thankfully I have found one. You can open old ClarisWorks document using Libre Office. It doesn’t seem to work on drawings, but it does work on word-processing documents.

1. Download Libre Office from here. You can go for the “still” version or “fresh” version. The fresh version is new with more features but the still version is more stable, I went for the still version. Libra Office downloads for free, but after the download they offer for you to make a donation to them.
   Step 1: download LibreOffice.
2. Go to your downloads folder and click on the downloaded file called ‘LibreOffice_5etc.dmg. Drag the Libre Office app to the Applications folder. This will install it.
   Step 2: install LibreOffice by dragging it to your applications folder
3. Launch Libre Office by double clicking on it from your applications folder. It may take a while the first time that you launch it.
   This is what Libre Office looks like in your applications folder.
4. In Libra Office click on ‘Open File’ or drag the file you want to open into Libre Office.
   Step 4: Click ‘Open File’ and choose your ClarisWorks file that you want to open.

I had varying degrees of success opening old ClarisWorks documents in Libre Office.

Clarisworks and Appleworks drawings would open but I could not see the drawings, I could only see the text that was in the drawings.

In word processing documents, all the information seemed to be there but the formatting was not great.

It’s not going to open your documents perfectly, but it might allow you to get some information out of your old files that Pages won’t open.

For example, trying to open an old AppleWorks document in Apple Pages gave me this error below but LibraOffice opened the file. The formatting was a bit poor but I could at least get the information out that I wanted.

Pages could not open an old AppleWorks file but libra office did open this file.

Once you have opened the file in Libra Office you have two options. You can copy the information and paste it into a new Pages document. Or you can save the file (Using ‘Save As) to save the file as a Microsoft Word document, which you can then import into Apple Pages.

Libra Office does not allow you to save as a Pages document.

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GeriPsays:December 17, 2016 at 4:35 pm

Thanks! Worked like a charm.

ReplyJan Steinmansays:December 29, 2016 at 5:00 pm

Thanks! Saved me a tonne of trouble.

ReplyRoger Braintreesays:March 7, 2017 at 3:28 am

Gobsmackingly effective — I’d completely given up hope of ever reading .cwk files again. All of mine are ‘compound’ docs — single text page with all the important stuff in a massive spreadsheet shrunk into a box on that page, and nothing else that I’ve found will do anything with them (shame on you, MacLink Plus)…

Yes, the currency’s wrong, and the fonts are all over the place, but all the data’s there! In most cases the formulae are also good, although it looks as if something odd happens with % signs in formulae, as they get converted to a +, leading to some odd totals, so some care is needed amidst all the popping champagne corks.

But overall, it’s eminently workable. Thanks so much for letting this out!

ReplyEric A Meecesays:June 27, 2017 at 3:27 pm

How can I import a clarisworks database into a libre office program?

ReplydSavannahsays:November 2, 2017 at 12:02 pm

goddess bless you! I thought my old AppleWorks poems were gone forever! Thank you!!!!!!

ReplyA Davidsonsays:April 1, 2018 at 5:34 am

I have managed to open CWK text files with Textedit on OS 10.11.6.

ReplyRichard Rolfesays:May 23, 2018 at 6:43 am

A brilliant solution that deserves to be better known – thank you very much

ReplyTHX1138says:December 10, 2018 at 10:27 pm

Brilliant! Opened old Appleworks word processing documents PERFECTLY! All formatting, pagination, underlines, italics, etc – wow. Could not be more impressed. Thank you! :)

Replyjjfsays:January 17, 2019 at 5:01 pm

Thank you… I’ve been able to recover files that I’d thought gone forever — and for free! Running High Sierra 10.13.6, with Libre Office Version: 6.0.7.3 — got graphics back, too! Thank you!

ReplyMichael Harrahsays:February 1, 2019 at 8:31 am

Libre office database wizard does not open in MAC OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). I have installed java file to fix – but nothing.

ReplyDickon Whiteheadsays:June 7, 2019 at 4:52 am

Neo-office can also open them but with very variable success rates.

ReplyBill Waringsays:September 26, 2019 at 6:00 pm

Thank you for explaining clearly. It works just right.

Reply