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Anything special about appleworks?
- Thread starter benlee
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Don't even bother with it...aside from a small update to allow it to run natively in OS X, it hasn't been updated in over seven years.
If you've got Office/NeoOffice and a graphics program, you can do everything AppleWorks does and a heck of a lot more. iWork is missing the spreadsheet component.
If you've got Office/NeoOffice and a graphics program, you can do everything AppleWorks does and a heck of a lot more. iWork is missing the spreadsheet component.
The only things that are special about Apple Work is the ability to save in a proprietary format (purely for boasting purposes) and a surprisingly good drawing application (derived from MacDraw?) that was VERY good... 8 years ago.
The latter was the only thing that actually kept me from deleting AppleWorks from my Mac, until, that is, I found Intaglio.
The latter was the only thing that actually kept me from deleting AppleWorks from my Mac, until, that is, I found Intaglio.
There is nothing special about AppleWorks except for the fact that it works. This may seem to be a novel concept based on some posts here, but it is why most people buy their computers. It is not Microsoft Office, but it is not supposed to be. It is most certainly not Photoshop, but AppleWorks was never supposed to be a topline raster graphics editor. And, AppleWorks is not iWorks. But as good as it is, iWorks is not yet all that many hope it will become.
AppleWorks modelessly integrates word processing, vector graphics, raster graphics, spreadsheets, database, and presentations. There is nothing else that comes close to doing what this works app does. If it satisfies your needs, then give it your careful consideration. If it does not, then investigate something else.
I honestly tried to use ClarisWorks and then AppleWorks to do work but could not keep myself on it, always ending up typing in word and presenting in powerpoint (none of which were ideal). It did not work for me , with the exception of the drawing application that was good. I did not use the database functionality, save for one small catalog file, so I can not vouch for the database application.
My entire PhD thesis (app 300 pages with illustrations and QT movies) was conceived and drafted in AppleWorks and then ported into Word (because that's what the university demanded). Why use AppleWorks? It's stable, exports and imports anything. Most important for me, it had a perfectly functional, easy, drawing mode that helped me concept map and layout ideas. I still revert to it when I need basic outining, drawing, and painting tools.
It would be nice to see an updated AppleWorks that contains the same applications but with a modern twist, that is, iWork + charts, drawing, and maybe database. I highly doubt that this will ever happen, though, 'cause Cupertino has too many things on their plate already and computers are no longer their first priority.
Because Filemaker and Appleworks had the same mommy (Claris, Apple), they not only integrate with each other, they also are easily Apple scriptable if you want to get fancy.