Does LibreOffice support opening these old file types?
The MWAW filter ( see http://sourceforge.net/p/libmwaw/wiki/Home/ ) is indeed limited to convert text (word processing) documents.
Note: I am not sure that I choose the right word when I write “basic” in that comment ; more precisely, the CWK’s filter must be able to retrieve :
- the text, most graphics, the tables, the text-boxes, basic layouts…
- but not the complex layouts, … which can appear even in a text (word processing ) file.
Some updates:
- in LibreOffice 4.2, a new version of libmwaw was integrated which also allows to convert some drawing and painting document with various accuracy…
- in LibreOffice 4.3, basic spreadsheet and database will also be converted. More precisely, LibreOffice will try to import the main database/spreadsheet contents (ie. text,number,date/time,formula which appear in cells and the cells’ formatting) in Calc but none embedded frame, chart, pictures, text boxes…
Thanks Alonso for providing this information and for all the work you and Fridrich do in this area. My remark about the code comment was merely me trying to relate information rather than make any comment on the level of support. I hope that is clear, but if not I will edit my answer accordingly.
No problem oweng, I just tried to add a little more information.
@osnola, does the comment about “not spreadsheets” still apply in this answer? I opened a CWK spreadsheet here using v4.3.0.2 and it appears to render the results quite well. Let me know if you would like a copy of the file (it is just a random one downloaded from the internet).
Hello oweng, I have added some precisions about the import of spreadsheet and database files in LibreOffice 4.3 and yes, I am always looking for old files to increase my test collection, so if it is possible …
ClarisWorks/AppleWorks (CWK files) are like MS Works files in being a general container for multiple file types (word processing, spreadsheet, drawing, database). I presume your question is asking about the word processing, spreadsheet, and drawing components / formats. I don’t think it is possible to import CWK files yet (as at v4.0.3.3). I tried the following commands without any luck:
/opt/libreoffice4.0/program/soffice --headless --convert-to ods:"calc8" --infilter="ClarisWorks" spreadsheet.cwk
/opt/libreoffice4.0/program/soffice --headless --convert-to odt:"writer8" --infilter="ClarisWorks" word_processing.cwk
StarOffice 7 and StarOffice 8 originally imported ClarisWorks files using the W4W filter. This appears to have treated CWK files like they were text (word processing) files. Support for importing ClarisWorks/AppleWorks files into LO using the MWAW filter has recently (2013-03-15) been added. Again though this appears to be a word processing only filter. The source code does currently mention this offers a “basic” level of support.
I don’t know if anyone has been in contact with Terrence Curran, but he seems to have been working on a ClarisWorks/AppleWorks filter that will translate to ODF. He indicates that the old StarOffice/OpenOffice filters “simply opens the document as ASCII” and has numerous CWK test files up on GitHub.
EDIT: Fridrich Strba indicates on his blog that support for the AppleWorks v6.0 file format (and several other old formats) is coming to LO v4.1. I would like to extend a big “thank you” to Laurent Alonso, Fridrich, and all other developers involved in making this possible.