OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Is Still Good Enough for Me

Honestly, if they didn’t keep dropping support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in new versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Flash, I’d have almost no reason to have OS X 10.9 Mavericks on my Late 2008 13″ Aluminum MacBook (that’s a 2013 OS on a 2008 computer). But my Mid 2007 Mac mini is limited […]

ClarisWorks and AppleWorks for Mac FAQ

ClarisWorks 1.0 redefined the software category pioneered by Microsoft Works. Where Microsoft’s package was a software suite containing separate word processor, spreadsheet, and database programs, ClarisWorks was a single program.

Kill Bill: 12 Alternatives to Microsoft Word

Text processing is the least glamorous aspect of design work – and probably the most important. This week, The Low End Designer looks at some alternatives  to Microsoft Word, the 800-pound gorilla of the document processing market – and perhaps deservedly so.

Improving AppleWorks

2002 – AppleWorks is a fine Office suite. As it is, I like how well integrated the suite is and the fact that it runs smoothly in Mac OS 9 and OS X. Additional features, such as the slide presentation module (added since version 5), have been most welcome. However, I still feel the need to retreat […]

Creating a Graphics Library in AppleWorks

Today we take a look at the ability to create, use and share custom graphics libraries in AppleWorks. As usual, we are concentrating here on AppleWorks 5 and ClarisWorks 4, but many of the comments should apply to other versions.

Create a Random Number Picker in AppleWorks

Occasionally a teacher discovers that they ask the same students to answer questions over and over because some students are more enthusiastic, while others are content to melt into the background. In order to bring more students into the discussion, I ask students at random – selected by a dice roll or by computer – […]

Starting a Presentation in AppleWorks

This short appendix is not a tutorial on how to make presentations on the computer, but rather how to get one started in AppleWorks 5. AppleWorks 5 has the ability to take almost any document and turn it into a full-screen, menu-less display, but the functions are hidden. There are also some built-in presentation templates […]

A Roll-Your-Own Spelling Program

1999 – In the dark days when we had practically no budget and seemingly unlimited kids in our special education classroom, we saw the need for a “sure thing” self-image builder to get the kids to believe in themselves again and give us a good effort. Most of our students had extremely limited reading skills […]

Teacher Tools: AppleWorks

1999 – Two of the most opinionated and product loyal groups of folks I know are teachers and Macintosh users. The old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is often their battle cry. I’ve watched fellow educators fight tooth and nail to continue using older educational materials (often with very good reason) […]