Updated Appleworks will not open/ updated documents won't open

Question

Am so frustrated! Knew my G4 was almost out of memory. Was at the Apple Store today and bought a LaCie 500GB hard drive AND a new MacBook Pro notebook. Before transferring files to the new computer, Apple told me to "save" my desktop documents on the new hard drive. Worked OK until I got to Appleworks and all my cwk files. The Appleworks icon now shows a blue label under it (huh?) and a small arrow and will not open. Hundreds of documents done on the Appleworks updated (6.2) software I can't open or transfer. Only thing that I am able to open are old documents from my original Appleworks.
Is there any way to get the Appleworks 6.2 open? and moved to the new hard drive? I'm an artist working from home... need these documents! Do I have to schlep the old computer, the new computer and the new hard drive back to the Apple store tomorrow? Help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi Lani,
Welcome to Apple Discussions and the AppleWorks forum.
I don't know what the blue label under the AppleWorks icon means. Is this the Application icon or the icon for an AppleWorks document? The small arrow, if it is curved and located at the lower left corner of the icon, means the icon is an alias to the file.
If your AppleWorks application is indeed version 6.2, you'll need to update further. AppleWorks 6.2.4 is the earliest recommended version for current Mac OS X systems (Tiger & Leopard), and the newest (and also recommended) version is 6.2.9.
The following actions should help in solving your problem.
1. Locate the AppleWorks 6 application package. It should be at Applications > AppleWorks 6 > AppleWorks. Click on it once to select it, then press command-I to Get Info. In the Get Info window, check the Version number. If it is anything other than 6.2.4 or 6.2.9, download and apply the 6.2.9 update. (See the Caution below.) If the AppleWorks 6 folder (containing the application) is not in the Applications folder, move it to that folder. If the Appleworks application package is not in the AppleWorks 6 folder, move it to that folder.
2. After any software installation it is necessary to do a system maintenance task—Repair Permissions. Use Spotlight to locate Disk Utility and double click the file to launch the application. In Disk Utility, click First Aid, Select your hard drive, then click Repair Permissions.
3. Whenever Appleworks is misbehaving an early troubleshooting action is to delete AW's preferences files. This is especially true if you have moved AppleWorks from one machine to another. Look in Home (yourname) > Library > Preferences. Find and delete the file com.apple.appleworks.plist. Find and open the folder AppleWorks. Delete both prefs files and both cache files found in this folder.
4. Click on one of the AppleWorks file icons with the arrow and blue label, then press command-I. In the Get Info window, check if this icon is a file (document) or an alias. If it is a document, you should be able to open it. Check that the Open with section of the Get Info window names AppleWorks 6 as the application to open the file. If not, use the pull down menu in this section to select AppleWorks 6, then click the Change all button to apply this instruction to all .cwk files. If the icon is an alias, you will need to redo the transfer of files from the G4 to the MBP, making sure that what you are transferring are actual files, not aliases.
Still not solved? Re post with more detail on what you do to open the files, and what response you get from the MBP.
Regards,
Barry