AppleWorks 6.2.9 [OLDER VERSION]

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Excellent & Practical Software, February 19, 2007
By S. Pappas
This version of Appleworks works better than any previous version I've used. Easier to use than Microsoft Software.



Stuck in the 80's, January 25, 2007
By Tom Corbett (Tampa, FL)
I bought my Powerbook because I was fed up with Microsoft Windows and all of the problems associated with the OS. I hated Word and many things about Microsoft Office, so I didn't want to buy a Mac and then load it up with more Microsoft crap, like Mac Office. Although it seemed like the only mainstream commercial product, I couldn't bring myself to buy a copy.

There were free Office suites, e.g. OpenOffice, but I was learning the Mac again and needed something I could quickly get up to speed with. The only other options, as far as I could tell, were iWork and Appleworks. Iwork didn't offer a spreadsheet or database, which I needed,so that left me with Appleworks.

I first experienced Appleworks on an Apple IIe in the 80's and it's later iteration for the Mac in the 90's. It was a good office utility program in the "good old days", so I decided to give Appleworks a try. I shelled out the $80 bucks for the program, loaded it up and immediately stepped into the Wayback machine. Here was my $1500 Powerbook with all the latest bells and whistles and a beautiful interface running a program that hadn't changed in over 20 years. I should have read the Wikipedia info on this program.

I thought that over the last 20 years the program would have evolved. Well, it didn't. The program still performs the basic functions in the same basic, bland, convuluted ways. Saving a document and importing a document, such as a .doc file, is the most cumbersome and confusing excercise you could imagine. Try to open a Word .doc file and iWorks takes over, but unless you agree to buy iWork you can't save, print or do anything with the opened document. According to Wikipedia, it hasn't been updated to take advantage of the latest features of the Mac (hasn't been updated since 2004) and will be dumped for iWork that has no spreadsheet or database. I guess every genius has his problems.

Bottom line: the program does the basic stuff, but in an 80's way. If you are still into PacMan and Space Invaders, this program is probably for you; otherwise, don't waste your money.



Appleworks 6.2.9, January 9, 2007
By Earl E. Babcock (West End, North Carolina United States)
This is the best program from apple for the computer user that is not a expert in using a word or spreadsheet or many other programs. I don't know why apple has removed it from the new mini-mac. I guess they just wanted to make you buy it. But it is worth the price, buy it and install it you will love it.



It Was OK, Until It REALLY Wasn't, June 12, 2006
By Demonskrye (Massachusetts United States)
I had used AppleWorks for OS X fairly happily for some time. I never loved it; the interface seemed both sparse and clunky and the included templates were a little lacking. (How about a simple invoice template replacing just one of those certificates?) It gave me some problems when I tried to make a document with slightly more creative formatting and send it to a PC user, but it was at least servicable. When I bought a new Mac, it came preinstalled, so I continued to use it. Then one day, my boyfriend recieved a contract via e-mail that needed to be printed up, signed, and returned. To make a long story short, we dicovered after the fact that AppleWorks had somehow randomly selected a few paragraphs and changed the text to strikethrough. It showed up this way on both of our computers, both Macs running AppleWorks, but not on my PC running Microsoft Word at work. Fortunately, we managed to sort everything out and thanks to some very nice HR people, no harm was done. But under different circumstances, AppleWorks could have quite literally cost my boyfriend a job. Needless to say, we went out at our earliest convenience and picked up Microsoft Office for Mac. Also needless to say, we will not be using AppleWorks ever again.



Clunker of an app, January 12, 2006
By Roast Tea (Arkansas)
Appleworks really needs a thorough overall. In the latest version, the interface under OSX sucks. Why, oh why cannot the document window automatically expand to fill the screen, and let's have a page layout view that makes sense.

Word and Excel support is very inferior, I would suggest grabbing NeoOffice J or Open Office if you need to open Word and Excel documents.

The good news is that the next version of Mac office will support xml format documents...