I am running OS X 10.11 El Capitan. For a while now I have not been able to open my old ClarisWorks documents. ( I think maybe since Appleworks 6 or so.) I have not thrown them out in case a solution would arise one day and thankfully I have found one. You can open old ClarisWorks document using Libre Office. It doesn’t seem to work on drawings, but it does work on word-processing documents.

1. Download Libre Office from here. You can go for the “still” version or “fresh” version. The fresh version is new with more features but the still version is more stable, I went for the still version. Libra Office downloads for free, but after the download they offer for you to make a donation to them.
   Step 1: download LibreOffice.
2. Go to your downloads folder and click on the downloaded file called ‘LibreOffice_5etc.dmg. Drag the Libre Office app to the Applications folder. This will install it.
   Step 2: install LibreOffice by dragging it to your applications folder
3. Launch Libre Office by double clicking on it from your applications folder. It may take a while the first time that you launch it.
   This is what Libre Office looks like in your applications folder.
4. In Libra Office click on ‘Open File’ or drag the file you want to open into Libre Office.
   Step 4: Click ‘Open File’ and choose your ClarisWorks file that you want to open.

I had varying degrees of success opening old ClarisWorks documents in Libre Office.

ClarisWorks is an all-in-one Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics Editor, and Presentations tool from Claris. In 1998, after version 5.0.2, ClairsWorks was purchased by Apple and re-branded under the 'AppleWorks' name. It is not related to the Apple II AppleWorks product. AppleWorks An earlier integrated software package from Apple for the Mac and Windows. It was introduced in 1991 for the Mac as ClarisWorks (from Apple's Claris subsidiary) and included word processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting and communications functions. Quite popular, a Windows version followed two years later.

Clarisworks and Appleworks drawings would open but I could not see the drawings, I could only see the text that was in the drawings.

In word processing documents, all the information seemed to be there but the formatting was not great. Free download ufs3 sarasoft driver for mac windows 10.

It’s not going to open your documents perfectly, but it might allow you to get some information out of your old files that Pages won’t open.

For example, trying to open an old AppleWorks document in Apple Pages gave me this error below but LibraOffice opened the file. The formatting was a bit poor but I could at least get the information out that I wanted.

Pages could not open an old AppleWorks file but libra office did open this file.

Once you have opened the file in Libra Office you have two options. You can copy the information and paste it into a new Pages document. Or you can save the file (Using ‘Save As) to save the file as a Microsoft Word document, which you can then import into Apple Pages.

Libra Office does not allow you to save as a Pages document.

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GeriPsays:December 17, 2016 at 4:35 pm

Thanks! Worked like a charm.

ReplyJan Steinmansays:December 29, 2016 at 5:00 pm

Thanks! Saved me a tonne of trouble.

ReplyRoger Braintreesays:March 7, 2017 at 3:28 am

Gobsmackingly effective — I’d completely given up hope of ever reading .cwk files again. All of mine are ‘compound’ docs — single text page with all the important stuff in a massive spreadsheet shrunk into a box on that page, and nothing else that I’ve found will do anything with them (shame on you, MacLink Plus)…

Yes, the currency’s wrong, and the fonts are all over the place, but all the data’s there! In most cases the formulae are also good, although it looks as if something odd happens with % signs in formulae, as they get converted to a +, leading to some odd totals, so some care is needed amidst all the popping champagne corks.

But overall, it’s eminently workable. Thanks so much for letting this out!

ReplyEric A Meecesays:June 27, 2017 at 3:27 pm

How can I import a clarisworks database into a libre office program?

ReplydSavannahsays:November 2, 2017 at 12:02 pm

goddess bless you! I thought my old AppleWorks poems were gone forever! Thank you!!!!!!

ReplyA Davidsonsays:April 1, 2018 at 5:34 am

I have managed to open CWK text files with Textedit on OS 10.11.6.

ReplyRichard Rolfesays:May 23, 2018 at 6:43 am

A brilliant solution that deserves to be better known – thank you very much

ReplyTHX1138says:December 10, 2018 at 10:27 pm

Brilliant! Opened old Appleworks word processing documents PERFECTLY! All formatting, pagination, underlines, italics, etc – wow. Could not be more impressed. Thank you! :)

Replyjjfsays:January 17, 2019 at 5:01 pm

Thank you… I’ve been able to recover files that I’d thought gone forever — and for free! Running High Sierra 10.13.6, with Libre Office Version: 6.0.7.3 — got graphics back, too! Thank you!

ReplyMichael Harrahsays:February 1, 2019 at 8:31 am

Libre office database wizard does not open in MAC OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra). I have installed java file to fix – but nothing. Sap gui download for mac windows 7.

ReplyDickon Whiteheadsays:June 7, 2019 at 4:52 am

Neo-office can also open them but with very variable success rates.

ReplyBill Waringsays:September 26, 2019 at 6:00 pm

Thank you for explaining clearly. It works just right.

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Rating:
Category:
Year released:
Author:	Bob Hearn Scott Holdaway
Publisher:	Claris

With version 5.0, the Mac's premier integrated suite gained features more akin to that other well known Office suite, such as its new 3D button bar & document bookmarks and hyper-links. It arrived too late perhaps, as Claris Corp was soon afterward dissolved and its applications were either junked or moved to Apple or FileMaker Inc.
ClarisWorks 5.0v2 was re-badged as AppleWorks 5.0v3, and the US version of ClarisWorks 5 could be updated to AppleWorks 5.0v3 with an updater patch (included in top DL above). AppleWorks survived at Apple, making it to version 6.0 (which saw several revisions) until its final revision as AppleWorks 6.2.9

Top DL (22.87 MB): ClarisWorks 5.0v2. The archive contains also the updater to 5.0v3 which updates and rebrands the installed files to AppleWorks 5.0v3, it remains a FAT application (runs native on either 68k or PPC Macintosh).

2nd DL (127.88 MB): This is the English language (Australian) release of ClarisWorks Office 5.0CAv1. International releases of ClarisWorks 5.0 were named 'ClarisWorks Office', (& apart from dictionaries & language) they're otherwise identical to ClarisWorks 5.0, as released in the US.
MD5 checksum & filename: d54cab8e6fbe6cd639a3f12fac0cb330 *cwks-5-mac-win.zip

3rd DL A Toast image of the installer CD for the Dutch version of ClarisWorks 5.

4th DL Updater (Dutch language) that updates ClarisWorks 5.x to AppleWorks 5.03.

On ClarisWorks' 1st run, it will want to be personalized. You may enter a user name. The serial entry is optional and not required. It may be left untouched, as is.

• Notes about the Australian version (DL #2):
  • The CD '.iso' image file 'CWOFFICE.ISO' contained in the zipped archive 'cwks-5-mac-win.zip', has both Mac & Windows install sets of ClarisWorks. It was the 4th version release of ClarisWorks to be ported to the Windows platform, and the 1st ClarisWorks release to ship only on CD (floppy disk sets were available, but only by request).
    
  • This CD install set is a 'Competitive Upgrade'. It requires a qualifying product to be pre-installed on a (Mac or Windows) PC. The pre-installed software could be any one of the following: Microsoft Works, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, WordPerfect Works, WordPerfect, Lotus SmartSuite, WordPerfect Office, or any Macintosh or Windows word processor, for example; ClarisWorks versions 1 to 4.
    
  • There was no upgrade path to AppleWorks 5.0v3 made for the Australian release of ClarisWorks 5. Also, no International English or US update patches will upgrade this CD version. Only upgrade patches made specifically for the Australian English release will work.
    
  • Included with this release (on a separate CD), is Claris Home Page 2.0, which installs both UK & US English dictionaries (usable also by ClarisWorks).

Compatibility
Architecture: 68k PPC x86 (Windows)

Will not run on 68000 Macintosh (Plus, SE, etc) or Mini vMac

• Minimum Requirements, Macintosh:
  • Processor: 68020
  • SSW 7.0.1 or newer.
  • RAM: 8 MB for 68k Mac, 8 MB + Virtual RAM for PPC

Optional Install for FAT or native 68k/PPC versions. Runs fine under Mac OS 9.2.2 or earlier.

• Minimum Requirements, Windows:
  • Processor: 386 for Win 95
  • Processor: 486 for Win NT 4.0
  • RAM: 8 MB for Win 95, 16 MB for Win NT 4.0

Runs fine on 32bit Windows up to & including Windows XP. This version may run OK on newer Windows OS's, but this has not been tested by me.

See also: AppleWorks 5.x for Mac/Win, & ClarisWorks for win v5.0 pages.