AppleWorks Updated Today -- MWNY??
MacSlash is reporting that Appleworks was updated today to version 6.2.4 (for OSX) and 6.2.3 (for OS9). It seems like this update is a mixture of minor fixes and added functionality.
Which is good, right?
Well, maybe. AppleWorks (back in its early incarnations, or back when it was ClarisWorks) used to be a low-end productivity suite that did an admirable job for those unwilling to give Billy G ~$400 for Office. But, sadly, times have changed. AppleWorks is one Apple software product desperately in need of the "iApp" treatment. It needs to be overhauled, reworked, and generally improved across the board. The transfer to OSX seemed more like an afterthought than a real usable product.
Many of us were hoping that this update (version 7.0?) would come at MW New York. It depends upon what the update today means. Two possibilties come to mind:
<ol type="1">[*] Today's update proves that Apple hasn't forgotten about AppleWorks, and it's merely an incremental fix until the mind-blowing (well, maybe not) new version can be unveiled in July.[*] Today's update is Apple's "latest and greatest" stab at a productivity suite. Having completed this new version, SJ and friends are perfectly content to let another 6-12 months slip by without an update. In short, there's nothing new in July - do we really expect them to update the same product twice within 3 months?[/list=a]
Anybody have any thoughts on this?
-mithral
Which is good, right?
Well, maybe. AppleWorks (back in its early incarnations, or back when it was ClarisWorks) used to be a low-end productivity suite that did an admirable job for those unwilling to give Billy G ~$400 for Office. But, sadly, times have changed. AppleWorks is one Apple software product desperately in need of the "iApp" treatment. It needs to be overhauled, reworked, and generally improved across the board. The transfer to OSX seemed more like an afterthought than a real usable product.
Many of us were hoping that this update (version 7.0?) would come at MW New York. It depends upon what the update today means. Two possibilties come to mind:
<ol type="1">[*] Today's update proves that Apple hasn't forgotten about AppleWorks, and it's merely an incremental fix until the mind-blowing (well, maybe not) new version can be unveiled in July.[*] Today's update is Apple's "latest and greatest" stab at a productivity suite. Having completed this new version, SJ and friends are perfectly content to let another 6-12 months slip by without an update. In short, there's nothing new in July - do we really expect them to update the same product twice within 3 months?[/list=a]
Anybody have any thoughts on this?
-mithral
Comments
<strong>Have i missed something? I'm sure that my current version of Appleworks (6.2.2) on the new imac can read word files and save to . Is this update not for everyone then?</strong><hr></blockquote> I can't open office documents with my 6.2.2
<strong>I've just downloaded some .doc files from the net and can open them just by double clicking. there's a quick flash of the maclink translators then it opens perfectly. Now i'm really confused.</strong><hr></blockquote> And you do all this in OsX? Maybe it's because I have OsX on a different partition <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
I believe it was the education version that has done this for a while.