I was sure there was another thread on this but I can't find it now. Apologies if this is a duplicate.

I've migrated from Appleworks to Pages and Numbers for my spreadsheet and word processing needs, and converted all my old Appleworks documents that could be converted. There is still a huge glaring gap in Apple's lineup however. (Well two huge glaring gaps but I never used Appleworks' database functions.)

Can anyone suggest a modern replacement for Appleworks Drawings, preferably one that can actually open Drawing files? Last year I found & bought EasyDraw as they said they could open Appleworks Drawing files, but in the end that has proved to be a failure. They can 'open' the files but in doing so a lot of stuff gets corrupted, eg. objects get moved around so everything is out of position and it ends up completely useless. EasyDraw's interface seems complicated and unfriendly to me, and without it being able to correctly open my old files, I've had zero incentive to work with it.

Obviously I'm still on Snow Leopard and this is one of the big reasons for that - I have years and years of files in Appleworks Drawing format, and have yet to find a decent replacement. I don't need fancy 3d rendering stuff, just something simple for making simple 2d drawings.

Thank you!

Do you just need to be able to read the files or do you need to be able to edit them?

If the former they can be saved as pdf files. This is part of the print dialogue. When you click on print there should be a button to allow you to create a pdf. Will also embed whatever fonts you happened to use, so even if your newer system lacks a particular font the file will still display properly.

Searching 'drawing programs' in the App Store brings up dozens, many free. Maybe one of them would do the job for you?

There don't seem to be a lot of options out there that open Appleworks drawings. Besides EazyDraw, there isn't much, other than Intaglio.

Intaglio — Macintosh Drawing & Illustration (http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/index.html)

It has a trial version.

Hmmm... if the OP is "still on Snow Leopard", what's the problem??

AW still works with SL 10.6.8.

The "problem" is that we're not bees trapped in amber, and he can't stay on SL forever.

He should be congratulated for wanting to convert his files BEFORE he finds himself in a jam. I can think of a lot of examples where people failed to do this (I still get 1-2 queries PER MONTH from people who have "vital" records on floppy discs that no longer read!).

Hmmm... not sure about the "The "problem" is that we're not bees trapped in amber" part, but I'm sure not "trapped" with a SL and a Lion boot partition.

But getting old files updated and possibly useable is sure a good idea, and before it's too late, and thanks for the reminder that I have to boot up my G3 DT Mac this week to hopefully recover some data from a local user's recently departed late husband's floppy disks she wants, and some are the old single sided 400k and 700k floppy disks that a USB floppy drive can't even read!!

Thanks for the feedback & suggestions. I've searched the Mac App store and there were zero results for 'appleworks' and 'drawing' - for that matter, zero results for 'appleworks' by itself. I'll have a a look at Intaglio, and I have given EasyDraw another look. The problem with EasyDraw is that it loses all text formatting - any text that was formatted loses everything (indents, alignment, bold, italic, size, colour, etc).

I do have most of the files saved as PDFs as well as Appleworks, so I can view them but the sort of situation we have is a client will want some minor change done to a project that we haven't touched in 5 or 6 years. So if I can't edit or migrate the Appleworks file, it means I have to recreate the entire thing from scratch in some other software. And the clients usually don't want to pay for a full rework when they only want a minor change...

I wonder if the lack of compatible replacements might be in part due to developers assuming Apple would eventually create their own iWork-based replacement. I mean Pages and Numbers (and Keynote) can open some Appleworks formats, it wasn't too big a stretch to figure they'd eventually add a Drawings and maybe even a Databases component as well.

As for being trapped in Snow Leopard, I'm contemplating a new iMac purchase this summer and I suspect a brand new Mac won't let me install 10.6 on it - it'll either be on 10.7 or maybe even 10.8. That's why I'm trying to find the migration path now.

If all else fails I can always leave a Mac running Snow Leopard indefinately in order to support those documents, but obviously that's not ideal.

Anyhow, thanks again for the input!

Cheers!

I do have most of the files saved as PDFs as well as Appleworks, so I can view them but the sort of situation we have is a client will want some minor change done to a project that we haven't touched in 5 or 6 years. So if I can't edit or migrate the Appleworks file, it means I have to recreate the entire thing from scratch in some other software. And the clients usually don't want to pay for a full rework when they only want a minor change...



It's not a good idea to attempt to run a business using consumer-grade software. If the files had been created by a pro application like Adobe Illustrator, the current version of the program would still open them with no problems.

Hmmm... resurrecting an old seven month old thread here Gerbill??? But a valid point posted and hopefully taken.

It's not a good idea to attempt to run a business using consumer-grade software. If the files had been created by a pro application like Adobe Illustrator, the current version of the program would still open them with no problems.

While I generally agree. Illustrator and its almost annual upgrades is quite expensive, has a fairly steep learning curve and is often extreme overkill. For simple one or two page layouts AW Draw will usually do the job far more efficiently than Illustrator/InDesign. Yes unfortunately it sometimes takes the two together to do what AW Draw does on its own. Illustrator combined with InDesign is certainly far more powerful but that does not always make it the right tool.

I have no idea how big a part AW Draw played in the OPs business, but it's hard to justify apps like Illustrator, unless they produce a lot of income for you.

For complex or multi-page, multi-colour documents and layouts we hired a pro who used pro tools. For the small one or two colour, simple layouts we could crank those out inhouse on Appleworks in 15 or 30 minutes, so it wasn't cost-effective to use the professional services.

So far, I continue to stick with snow leopard, my older iMac, and Appleworks to access those older files.

Cheers!

For complex or multi-page, multi-colour documents and layouts we hired a pro who used pro tools. For the small one or two colour, simple layouts we could crank those out inhouse on Appleworks in 15 or 30 minutes, so it wasn't cost-effective to use the professional services.

So far, I continue to stick with snow leopard, my older iMac, and Appleworks to access those older files.

Cheers!

Illustrator isn't much good for multi-page layouts, either. For that, a page layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress is the way to go.

I'm still using Illustrator CS3, which still mostly works with Mountain Lion. I can't afford yearly updates myself.

Illustrator isn't much good for multi-page layouts, either. For that, a page layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress is the way to go.

I'm still using Illustrator CS3, which still mostly works with Mountain Lion. I can't afford yearly updates myself.

Yep it is not just Illustrator but Illustrator/InDesign. Essential for professionals and great for fat wallets but not so good for the simpler things in life. Starting from scratch Pages is prettier and will work but falls short AW Draw in many situations.

Ironically I have a handful of ShareDraw 31x17 inch documents still on my old OS 7.5 computer. I can save them into Pict format and easily open them in half a dozen Tiger applications. Only AppleWorks Draw will automatically split them into 6-8.5x11 pages so that I can print them and splice them together. I am sure InDesign would do that as well but hardly worth the price for something I may need to print every couple of years.

With Illustrator, you may be able to open a pdf file created ("printed") from Appleworks and edit the image - IF, it is/was an postscript file originally - and not protected.

I don't know, but If printed Appleworks images are bit-mapped then the best you may be able to do is blank out (cover up) the area needing a change and draw over it.

I used to edit old drawings created in obscure/defunct apps by scanning tattered prints, importing into Illustrator, and "whiting-out" portions with white shapes. Definitely not elegant, but usually quicker & cheaper than recreating a complex drawing. You can also clean them up in Photoshop first.

Yep it is not just Illustrator but Illustrator/InDesign. Essential for professionals and great for fat wallets but not so good for the simpler things in life. Starting from scratch Pages is prettier and will work but falls short AW Draw in many situations.

Ironically I have a handful of ShareDraw 31x17 inch documents still on my old OS 7.5 computer. I can save them into Pict format and easily open them in half a dozen Tiger applications. Only AppleWorks Draw will automatically split them into 6-8.5x11 pages so that I can print them and splice them together. I am sure InDesign would do that as well but hardly worth the price for something I may need to print every couple of years.

You can print directly from Illustrator in this tiled multi-page mode, if you want. This applies to older versions as well as CS3, the one I've got.

Also, if you're using one of the extremely powerful vector illustration apps for Mountain Lion (e.g. iDraw) you can save a vector illustration as a PDF and print large tiled pictures in Poster mode from Adobe Reader. iDraw costs $25 in the Mac App Store, and Adobe Reader is free.

What version of EazyDraw did you try? I know people who use EazyDraw 4.0 (last version to support AppleWorks, 4.1 does not) with no issues to open and edit AW Drawings in Lion.

Interesting experiment. AW Draw stuff had consistently failed to open in Pages. Went back to a really old one done with ClarisWorks3. Opened with AW 6.8 in Classic as this will not open directly in Tiger. Then opened with AW 6.29 in Tiger but did not save. For some reason that latest version opened perfectly in Pages. Vector drawings could be ungrouped and edited.

The draw files I have are all over the map. Some in AW 5 some in earlier versions of AW6. It is just possible that they have to be in at least AW 6.28 to open.

EDIT: OOPS that was a really old file, back when I struggled to do those things in WP rather than using the Draw module. Too bad for a brief moment there was a tiny glimmer of hope.:rolleyes:

Converting to WP is possible but every bit as much work as other approaches.

Interesting experiment. AW Draw stuff had consistently failed to open in Pages. Went back to a really old one done with ClarisWorks3. Opened with AW 6.8 in Classic as this will not open directly in Tiger. Then opened with AW 6.29 in Tiger but did not save. For some reason that latest version opened perfectly in Pages. Vector drawings could be ungrouped and edited.

The draw files I have are all over the map. Some in AW 5 some in earlier versions of AW6. It is just possible that they have to be in at least AW 6.28 to open.

EDIT: OOPS that was a really old file, back when I struggled to do those things in WP rather than using the Draw module. Too bad for a brief moment there was a tiny glimmer of hope.:rolleyes:

Converting to WP is possible but every bit as much work as other approaches.

I believe from my recollection that your comment "It is just possible that they have to be in at least AW 6.28 to open." is correct, or at least an AW 6.x version.

I believe from my recollection that your comment "It is just possible that they have to be in at least AW 6.28 to open." is correct, or at least an AW 6.x version.

I think anything from CW 4 on will open in AW 6.29 but I could be wrong as I skipped CW 4 going directly to AW 5. I know the CW 3 stuff needs to go an intermediate step. Ironically that does not bother me too much as I can still get from A to B. As near as I can tell the only way to get AW Draw into an editable format is to group the vector elements and put it into AW WP. A daunting task when you have 100 or so such documents. OTOH for me editing usually means using an existing document as a starting place and revising it completely so my original plan of saving them all as PDFs will probably work.