Re: AppleWorks --> Mac

[wyanttr@spoc.dnet.dupont.com (Tom Wyant)]

Edhel Iaur <drsmooth@baldcom.net> wrote:
> 
> Paul V. Colvin wrote:
>  
> > What is the best way to get AppleWorks or Student Writing
> > and Publishing Center (by Learning Company) files onto
> > Macs so they can be edited and printed?
> If the Macs will have ClarisWorks, then you can probably
> open AppleWorks files almost directly.  There's a program
> on the Mac system disks called "Apple File Exchange". It
> can move ProDOS (AppleWorks files are ProDOS) files over
> to the Mac.

Mac System 7.5.x will read ProDos floppies just fine. There 
have apparantly been problems with formatting ProDos floppies 
on the Mac, though I personally have not had them. There is 
another note in this thread about filetype information, but I 
haven't run into this either. Using MacOS 7.5.3 and 
ClarisWorks 4.0, my experience with converting AppleWorks 
files has been:

Word Processing: no problems.

Database: ClarisWorks 4.0 won't touch them. The Claris web 
site has a patch (which changes 4.0 to 4.0v4 and the splash 
screen from colorful mechanical drawing tools to colorful 
gears); since applying the patch I have not had any problems 
with databases either.

Spreadsheets: these have been a big problem, and Claris has 
been pretty unhelpful (beyond "delete the XTND preferences"). 
Basicly, the translator gets confused when it sees formulas 
containing numeric constants (that is, +A1+B1 is correctly 
translated, but +A1+32 typically is not). This confusion has 
effects ranging from incorrect translation to crashing the 
Mac. They have told me that they DO NOT support AppleWorks 
3.0 spreadsheets, and that typically you should not expect 
spreadsheet translation to work 100% anyway, especially with 
(and the following is their words, not mine) a product like 
AppleWorks where nobody much uses the spreadsheet. What we're 
having to do is go through and review all the spreadsheets, 
noting problem formulas and re-entering them by hand after 
the spreadsheet is translated. The iie emulator has been real 
helpful here, since the alternative is running back and forth 
between the Mac and the GS to read the two packages' versions 
of the same spreadsheet. I guess you can tell my frustration 
at this seemingly rinky-dink problem with what is otherwise a 
very satisfactory piece of software.

That said, what are the mechanics of translation? I like to 
copy the files to an 800k floppy (either ProDos or HFS 
format), shove that floppy in the Mac, select all the files 
on it, and drag them onto the ClarisWorks icon (the Launcher 
icon will do fine). This opens and translates them all in 
succession, and keeps me from having to bounce back and forth 
between the floppy and the hard disk in my open and save 
dialogs.

Tom Wyant                     The opinions expressed in this
wyanttr@spoc.dnet.dupont.com  document are those of the 
twyant@freenet.vcu.edu        author, except for the                               
                              following, which is
                              William Shakespeare's:
                        "The first thing we do is, we'll kill
                        all the lawyers."
                        Henry VI, Part II, Act 4, Scene 2