You can use AppleWorks to open documents created in a variety of other applications, including documents in text-only and other generic formats. AppleWorks attempts to preserve the original document's text, colors, layout, and other formatting options.
To open a document created with another application:
- Choose Open from the File menu.
- Choose the type of document that you want the imported document to become in AppleWorks from the Document Type pop-up menu (see Figure 1). For example, you can open an ASCII text or RTF file as a word-processing or spreadsheet document.
Figure 1 Choosing a Document Type
- Choose a file format from the File Format pop-up menu (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 Choosing a File Format
- Select the document and click Open. The scrolling list shows all documents of the selected file format in the folder specified above the list.
If you don't see the file you're trying to open:
Choose All Types from the Document Type pop-up menu and All Available from the File Format pop-up menu (see Figure 3). If you still don't see the file, the AppleWorks translators are not able to translate the file. Try using a generic file format. For example, use Text or RTF for word-processing files.
Figure 3 Choosing All Types and All Available Formats (Mac OS 9)
Note: In Mac OS X, the files may be visible, but the icons will be slightly dimmed regardless of which document type or file format is selected. If you attempt to click the file and nothing is selected, then the file cannot be opened with the current document type or file format. Figure 4 below shows a file being successfully selected after choosing All Types as the Document Type and All Available as the File Format.
Figure 4 Choosing All Types and All Available Formats (Mac OS X)
For a list of file formats that AppleWorks 6 can use, please see article 25300: "AppleWorks 6: List of Available File Formats"