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Author Topic: Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?  (Read 2977 times)

Offline bellbram

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« on: March 09, 2003, 04:57:00 AM »
I have been using ClarisWorks for years and all my docs are in Claris.  Now having Jaguar, is it worth shelling out for AppleWorks?   Or maybe Word?

I don't do much sophisticated stuff, but like to keep up with the latest goodies.   The majority of my correspondents seem to use Word and find it difficult to open emailed Claris docs.   What suggestions?   Or caveats?  Thanks
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Offline jepinto

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2003, 06:01:00 AM »
AW6 is nice, the interface is familar, and it can save as a Word for Win or Word for Mac document.

If you like to "liven up" your documents, the clip art is extensive, and has a built in search for more.  (Check out the weasel-cute as cute can be!)

The open dialog leaves a bit to be desired-you must change the File Format to "all available" each time.  Default is Appleworks and I lose a couple of "panic" seconds each time wondering where the doc I want IS. Document type is "All Documets" why can't File Format be "All Available" as default?
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Offline WDL

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2003, 06:41:00 AM »
AW is probably the least appreciated jewel in the Apple crown. It's a powerful suite with a small footprint on the hard drive - comes bundled free on some models or at a really small price if you have to buy it. That alone probably makes some view it as "mickey mouse." Many people write it off without even seriously trying it!

I have a friend (long distance, unfortunately) who has found ways to make AW do amazing things - stretching text, text along an arc, sidebars etc, etc. I wish he'd write a book on how he accomplishes the many things he does, but he doesn't have the time to do it.

If Apple charged MS prices for AW it would probably get more respect.

I authored a technical manual, selling successfully internationally (occupational health & safety program) - all done in AW (including the cover design.) When I went to printhouses for estimates, they all thought it had been done in a pro-program like Quark at first glance - they were amazed it had been done in AW.
Since I was going for photo offset reproduction I didn't need Quark or its large cost. (Two years of 10 to 12 hour days in creation, with no income in that period makes you cost concious.)

AW is a treasure.

WDL
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Offline kps

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2003, 09:00:00 AM »
MS Word, by itself, is three times the price of the complete AppleWorks Suite. If you got along with ClarisWorks all these years, then upgrading to AW 6 would be my suggestion. It's "carbon" so it will run in either OS X or OS 9.
 
 [ 03-09-2003, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: kps ]
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Offline sokukodo

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2003, 02:07:00 PM »
Just curious: where can I find a good tutorial on using AW? The owners manual provided by Apple leaves a lot to be desired ...
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Offline Gary S

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2003, 02:17:00 PM »
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Offline bellbram

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2003, 02:27:00 PM »
Thanks everybody.  Looks like I'll be shelling out on AW.
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Offline WDL

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2003, 05:41:00 PM »
There's also:

AppleWorks 6 - the Missing Manual by Elferdinkl & Reynolds - Pogue Press/O'Reilly

ISBN 1-56592-858-X

$20 U.S.

www.missingmanuals.com

WDL
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Offline Gregg

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2003, 07:43:00 PM »
quote:
Originally posted by bellbram:
Thanks everybody.  Looks like I'll be shelling out on AW.  
Since you've already 'shelled out' on Jaguar, why not? I'm sticking with OS9 and CW4.5 on my old beige G3 until they won't let me do something that's life or death.
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Offline krissel

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #9 on: March 09, 2003, 09:29:00 PM »
I totally agree with the previous compliments given to AW. It has more features that are unexplored by the average user than you could imagine.

In fact there is one thing AW can do that Photoshop can't. If you have a graphic on a white background you can lasso it easily and it will snap around the object eliminating the white background. Copy that to the clipboard, then to the scrapbook, then back to clipboard and AW and you have a stretchable vector-like graphic.
This works perfectly in 9 but since the scrapbook doesn't exist in X you have to use Preview or another app to make it an expandable graphic. Sometimes Preview does it but gives the item a black background. I have yet to discover why it does this.

Couple things to consider: if you are in the education field you can get AW for very cheap through the Apple store; also there are rumors that AW 7 is in process and will be released soon. Of course that is just conjecture but it does fall within the activities of Steve and Co. lately.  With Apple's separation from MS and its development of browser, presentation program, etc. it only follows that eventually they will upgrade AW to be a true competitor to Office. Whether that will happen this upgrade or sometime down the line is anyone's guess.

At any rate, even full price AW is a bargain.
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Offline taliesin

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Stick with Claris or switch to AppleWorks or Ms Word?
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2003, 04:46:00 AM »
I have little to add to all the points above, with which I agree, and Jen's note  
quote:
it can save as a Word for Win or Word for Mac
is particularly important.
You didn't by any chance get a recent version of AW on an "extras" disk with a Mac at some stage? I ask because Mac talk here too is of an upgrade, expected to be sooner rather than later. This, as Kris says, remains speculation.
For my own humble purposes, I use TextEdit, AppleWorks and Tex-Edit in that order. My daughter has more occasion to dig out those "features that are unexplored by the average user" than I do.
There's not a word here about Word, though I know we have TSers who use it. To do it justice, when I had no choice for some months last year, working with Windows XP when abroad, I found Word very user-friendly. Then AW coped fine with the various documents I brought home with me on floppies.
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