NOTE: sadly, ClarisWorks is no longer current software. I get more emails about CW than anything else, because it was enormously popular, and many people are still running it, or have older CW files they want to access. If CW still works on your machine, you can certainly go on using it. However, you will need to know how to convert the files to more modern formats.
First, the current OSX office suite, iWork, will open .cwk files (which it calls "AppleWorks 6 files"). Use the Open command. Open the file, then save it as a current format. Older ClarisWorks files may not be seen as "AppleWorks 6", so you might need to import them into AppleWorks first, then save them as AppleWorks.
If all else fails, and if any of your ClarisWorks or AppleWorks translators (Save As...) will save your file in a more common format, that might be the best workaround.
There is still a thriving AppleWorks forum at Apple Discussions, and an AppleWorks and iWork forum at what was originally the AppleWorks User Group. These are definitely the places to look for further information, and to ask questions.
This sort of issue is why we now have standard formats like TXT, RTF and PDF which can be opened on any system.
The following page is very old, but may still contain information useful to ClarisWorks and AppleWorks devotees.
ClarisWorks Office (called AppleWorks from v5), for Macintosh or Windows, is available from:
and is lean, mean and clean compared to any of the bloated software you have to buy individually (or in an even more bloated package) to meet your home or office needs.
Compared to any of the other 'office' programs, it takes up an incredibly small amount of space on your hard drive, uses very little RAM, works quickly, and leaves your increasingly overloaded operating system alone!
And of course it's a lot cheaper ;-)
Not only does it do everything you could possibly want with word-processing, spreadsheets, databases, drawing and painting, but it has templates (Stationery) for all sorts of things, libraries of clip art, Assistants which take you through performing tasks, and best of all, this program handles all the different kinds of work, open in different documents at once, or displaying them all in one document!
Compatibility is a breeze, with all the Claris XTND (extend) Translators, which allow you to Save your documents in any of the common Macintosh or Windows file formats (there's something for every type of application, including .html for webpages) to send to other people, and to Open documents sent to you by people who use other Mac/Win programs.
This compatability can be extended even further by the Dataviz MacLinkPlus translators, available on the Macintosh System 8 CD, or from an AppleCentre near you.
I have copies of ClarisWorks versions 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0/4.1
(I haven't any personal need yet to upgrade to version 5).
My instructions will be based on v4, but there's not much difference between the versions: Claris have simply made popular features easier to use.
Fortunately for us, they follow the common-sense approach: if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
So you should be able to do anything I set out, in an earlier version, but it may take a few more commands.
Please email me for help if needed (using the address at the bottom of the page).
Note also that ClarisWorks does things in a simple and obvious way, so anything I set out here for word-processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing or painting should work very similarly in whatever word-processor, spreadsheet, database, drawing or painting program you already have.
The process will be much the same.
ClarisWorks has a very useful Help section, and from v4 has interactive Help (Assistants) which actually walk you through doing new things.
The program also comes with a 'video', live, Introduction.
However, from my own experience I know that many people just start trying to use something, so these pages are some quick instructions, that just might send you to the Help or Assistants to find out some of the other great things you can do!
If you get stuck trying to follow anything I set out in this developing group of Plain English ClarisWorks tutorials, please click on my email address (mailto:) at the bottom of any page, and yell for help.
It's OK to make mistakes, and it's OK to ask for help.
When you're learning any new thing, you need to remember that!
Claris has the Works
