How to restore Appleworks 6 instead of ExCel as default to read .xls?

Question

I just loaded Appleworks 6 software from an old eMac applications disk onto my new MacBook because I don't want to buy iWork '08. Appleworks 6 works fine in general on my MacBook, but when I try to open Windows spreadsheets sent to me from a colleague, Appleworks with MacLinkPlus is no longer the default program as it had been on my eMac. Instead, ExCel for Mac now wants to open them by default, but since I refuse to buy iWorks of which ExCel is a part, they don't open. I can still read the spreadsheets in Appleworks 6 by choosing "Open With" from the drop down "File" menu in the Finder, but this is now an extra step. How can I restore Appleworks & MacLinkPlus as the default program to open these spreadsheets and not have go through this extra step?

Answer 1

HI Spokesman,
Welcome to Apple Discussions and the AppleWorks forum.
You wrote: "(S)ince I refuse to buy iWorks of which ExCel is a part, they don't open."
Microsoft Excel is one of the applications in the MS Office suite, and not a part of iWork (no 's'), made by Apple. The spreadsheet application Numbers was added to the iWork suite with iWork '08.
To your issue:
Go to the Finder and locate an Excel file with the file extension .xls). Click on the file (once), then press command-I to Get info.
In the Get info window, look to the Open with...section (If necessary, click the disclosure triangle to expand the section).
Use the pull down menu to change the application name from Microsoft Excel to AppleWorks 6. If AW 6 is not in the listed choices, select Other..., navigate to and open the AppleWorks 6 folder, select AppleWorks 6, then click Select (or OK).
Click the Change all button to apply the change to all files with the .xls extension.
Close the Get info window.
Regards,
Barry