Summer Project? Appleworks to Word
28.May.2008 21:01 Filed in: Tech Tips
A great question came in yesterday from a District 21
teacher:
"I recall hearing somewhere that Appleworks will no longer be available and that staff should be moving their server files to a .doc format.
I did a search in The Modern Pen and did not find an entry on this topic. So, I have two questions for you.
Am I preparing for the future or wasting my time? If Appleworks is indeed going away, do you have an expected date that files need to be converted by?"
Way back at the beginning of the year, this was discussed during the Road Show, but only at certain venues. So, here's the full scoop. Appleworks was last updated with version 6.2.9. This version was released on January 14, 2004. Officially, the product reached its end-of-life status on August 15, 2007. What does all this mean? Well, Appleworks still works--even on OS 10.5 Leopard, but Appleworks will no longer be installed on new Apple computers in District 21 or anywhere.
So, at some point, Appleworks documents may not open on newer software.
Converting to .doc format documents, the basic format of Microsoft Word until recently will allow you to open your documents for a long time in lots of different software, including Microsoft Word on a Mac or on Windows, Apple's Pages on a Mac, OpenOffice on Linux, Mac, or Windows, or NeoOffice on a Mac, among others.
There are lots of ways to convert your documents, and in most cases, you will need to do a little fine-tuning of the new Word document. The easiest and most controlled way is often to have Word and Appleworks both open. Go in to your Appleworks document, and choose the Select All command from underneath the Edit menu bar. Then, copy. Now, go to Word, and go to Edit > Paste. Then, do your fine-tuning.
Alternatively, you could download and try the Magic Word Converter from local guy, Nick, an IT colleague in another area school district. This cool little application will convert word processing and spreadsheet documents from Appleworks to Word. It will not convert drawing documents. For those, you have a choice--re-do them or risk hanging on to them in the hopes that there will always be a machine/software that can open the documents.
So, this summer, you might consider beginning to transfer your important, old documents from Appleworks to Word. Then, as you start planning for and working on next school year, please do not use Appleworks to create new documents!
"I recall hearing somewhere that Appleworks will no longer be available and that staff should be moving their server files to a .doc format.
I did a search in The Modern Pen and did not find an entry on this topic. So, I have two questions for you.
Am I preparing for the future or wasting my time? If Appleworks is indeed going away, do you have an expected date that files need to be converted by?"
Way back at the beginning of the year, this was discussed during the Road Show, but only at certain venues. So, here's the full scoop. Appleworks was last updated with version 6.2.9. This version was released on January 14, 2004. Officially, the product reached its end-of-life status on August 15, 2007. What does all this mean? Well, Appleworks still works--even on OS 10.5 Leopard, but Appleworks will no longer be installed on new Apple computers in District 21 or anywhere.
So, at some point, Appleworks documents may not open on newer software.
Converting to .doc format documents, the basic format of Microsoft Word until recently will allow you to open your documents for a long time in lots of different software, including Microsoft Word on a Mac or on Windows, Apple's Pages on a Mac, OpenOffice on Linux, Mac, or Windows, or NeoOffice on a Mac, among others.
There are lots of ways to convert your documents, and in most cases, you will need to do a little fine-tuning of the new Word document. The easiest and most controlled way is often to have Word and Appleworks both open. Go in to your Appleworks document, and choose the Select All command from underneath the Edit menu bar. Then, copy. Now, go to Word, and go to Edit > Paste. Then, do your fine-tuning.
Alternatively, you could download and try the Magic Word Converter from local guy, Nick, an IT colleague in another area school district. This cool little application will convert word processing and spreadsheet documents from Appleworks to Word. It will not convert drawing documents. For those, you have a choice--re-do them or risk hanging on to them in the hopes that there will always be a machine/software that can open the documents.
So, this summer, you might consider beginning to transfer your important, old documents from Appleworks to Word. Then, as you start planning for and working on next school year, please do not use Appleworks to create new documents!
