[Macworld.com]

AppleWorks does so work on Intel Macs. But it’s high time to think about alternatives. [more]

[roadwarrior]

I don't really have any good solutions, but it is a shame what Apple's done to AppleWorks. I still prefer AppleWorks for most of the applications it covers to other programs for its ease of use. iWork is extremely thin compared to the variety of uses AppleWorks could handle. Where's the spreadsheet? Drawing program? None of AppleWorks' modules were anywhere near the best at what they did, but they did cover enough of the basic features to satisfy most peoples' needs.

[Cramertivity]

For running a small business, Appleworks is hard to beat. I bought my wife a little iBook 2 years ago and she's been using the (then) included program's database function to keep track of her clients. (she runs a small hairstyling shop) I hope that Apple will see fit to include this useful funtion in future versions of iWork - and keep it as simple as it is now.

[jasspatola]

We been using AppleWorks for the majority of stuff at my cafe for business. We are slowly migrating to OpenOffice for some things but I still prefer using AppleWorks.

[zensunni]

In reply to:

---

While you can then work with these documents in Excel, you can also use another application thats compatible with ExcelMariner Softwares $50 Calc and ThinkFrees $50 Office, for example.

---

And OpenOffice's Calc (Freeware).

[Chris Breen]

Yeah, I considered including OpenOffice, but the whole X11 thing is more than some people can handle.

[TheBum]

The only problem I've had with AppleWorks on my MacBook Pro is one short period of time when it crashed every time I tried to launch it. I tried just about everything and finally rebooted (I hadn't rebooted in a week or more up until then). Lo and behold, it started working again. I strongly suspect that Rosetta got into a weird state and that only a reboot fixed it.

[daltonrooney]

What about NeoOffice? It's OpenOffice, but built from native OS X components so X11 isn't necessary. I believe there is a 2.0 beta that is pretty stable. And OpenOffice is coming natively to OS X sometime in the next year or so, so it will be nice to have yet another competitor to the MS Office empire.
Although, I'm moving over to web based apps for a lot of my work - Writely and Google Spreadsheets come to mind. There's Quickbase and baseportal for databases, although neither are as easy to use or as full featured as File Maker Pro.

[ldwyer]

As a school teacher, during the ten years I have used Macs, my primary workhorse application has been and still is ClarisWorks/AppleWorks. It's great for word processing, spreadsheets to keep track of student assignments and grades, drawing maps, simple newsletters, databases of student info, and on and on.
Up until the last couple years, when the various Macintosh magazines did polls of readers' favorite apps, AppleWorks was always on the list. A few years ago there was even a rumor that Apple was going to come out with a pro version of AppleWorks, which I would have happily purchased. One wonders if AppleWorks has been orphaned as part of a secret agreement with Bill Gates, in order to make sure that Microsoft continues to make Office available for the Mac platform.
Incidentally, this message was composed as an AppleWorks word-processing document before copying it to this online discussion board!

[Cubert]

My thoughts exactly! I think that there was no announcement of a spreadsheet for iWork this past January in order to coax another 5 years of Office out of Microsucks. A deal with the devil!

[HandyMac]

Hi Chris,
Count me also among the very annoyed at the abandonment of AppleWorks, which was my most-used Mac app for a decade, from ClarisWorks 2.1. I used the Word Processor most, along with the Draw and Paint modules, and there's really nothing like it in the OS X world. I wish Apple had revamped it for OS X, but I'm not really surprised they didn't.
It's not commonly understood that, though Apple is still the same "corporation" (logo, etc.), it's really an entirely different bunch of people now than in the classic Mac days. Steve Himself never used a Mac during the years when it matured and developed its loyal following -- those like me who squawked when Steve proposed erasing the Apple menu (for starters) from the upcoming OS X (which also, as I recall, was to have only column view). And now it's clear that Steve is most interested in multimedia -- sound and video -- so old-fashioned work (everything AppleWorks was so good at) has simply been forgotten in the Hallowed Halls of Infinite Loop.
I had some hopes for iWork -- which was announced by Himself, after all, as AppleWorks' replacement -- but the little I've looked at Pages so far has not been reassuring or attractive. (No way to set exact leading -- a feature in all word processors since the 80s! And the rulers are awful.) I guess I'll get further into it, since I have to do something -- AppleWorks' un-X-ness is becoming increasingly inconvenient (e.g. I have to remember to switch keyboards anytime I go to AW, since the Unicode keyboard I use as default will instantly crash it).

In reply to:

---

Yeah, I considered including OpenOffice, but the whole X11 thing is more than some people can handle.

---

For spreadsheet and database work, how about NeoOffice? It works right in OS X and, like Camino (in which I'm composing this note), it's Open Source with Mac Style -- though it still looks a lot like Windoze internally, that's gradually changing, as the developers find time to perfect it. The Intel version is in Alpha, will soon be freely available. (The PPC version doesn't run in Rosetta because it relies on Java, so apparently must be redone for Intel Macs.)

Don't use it myself, but have found it useful for Latin American branches of an organization I do computer support for -- we needed Spanish and Portuguese M$ Office compatibility, which NeoOffice provided very nicely. I use it myself to open occasional .ppt and .xls docs people send me.
Andrew Main

[SFrawley]

A NeoOffice Intel early version will bee free as of 7/1, but send then a donation for their fine work on a good Office replacement. You can buy it early with a donation now too!
It has almost as many features as Office (enough to confuse many) but reads and writes all the files in MS Office format for you.
Try it you might like it and I think it will probably read your old AppleWorks files but probably converts them to Office format files (I am not positive).

[UncleAsad]

The NeoOffice Wiki contains a page of tips for opening AppleWorks documents in NeoOffice. Unfortunately, due to the closed nature of the AppleWorks document format things are a little difficult, but not insurmountable. You have to do some conversion from AppleWorks to intermediate formats that NeoOffice can open, so you still need AppleWorks (on your old PPC Mac, or under Rosetta on your Intel Mac) initially.
As mentioned by other posters, the first free (public) alpha of NeoOffice 2.0 for Intel will be available on July 1.
It would be nice if Apple would "do the right thing" and freely and publicly post the AppleWorks file format specifications now that they've abandoned AppleWorks. Then both free/open source and commercial software vendors would more easily and seemlessly be able to support the import of people's years worth of content....

[savageduck]

Without going the X11 route, there is NeoOffice. This is also open source (freeware) and I believe a better implementation of Open Office.