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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Appleworks 6

Robert Ross - Oct 24, 2005 - 11:54 am

Appleworks 5 was the most useful, reliable and stable of all the word processing programs I have ever used. On the other hand, I have all sorts of problems with Appleworks 6.2.9.

Appleworks 6 is verrrrry slow no matter what task I attempt. It quits very frequently too. Fortunately when it does crash, the recovery feature works fine. Microsoft Word is also problematic, and since I don\'t really like that program anyway, I continue use Appleworks.

I have a G4 with Mac OS 10.39, a 400MgHz processor, and 832 MB of RAM.

I wonder if the mouse I\'m using might have something to do with this. I have been using a MaCalley for about 4 months. Before that I had a Microsoft mouse. I also have a Kensington keyboard. The only real problem I seem to have is with word processing.

DeltaMac - Oct 24, 2005 - 12:31 pm

AppleWorks can sometimes get bogged down because of a 'recent items' folder that has some corrupted files.
try opening your user Documents/AppleWorks User Data/Starting Points/Recent Items folder, and deleting everything you find there. If you have a large number of files, that may take care of your AppleWorks problem without doing anything else. I have seen these folders with literally thousands of files, but there should be at most 10 files.
Then open AppleWorks, and go into the AppleWorks Preferences/general/Files, and un-select the Recent Items check box, or change the "Remember" number to something lower than 10. Close AppleWorks, and re-open. Try typing, or some other action that has been slow. You should see a dramatic improvement to whatever normal should be...
- Dale

Robert Ross - Oct 25, 2005 - 7:17 pm

Thanks for responding Dale. However, I was not able to find the Documents/AppleWorks User Data/Starting Points/Recent Items folder you mentioned.

I did find the AppleWorks Preferences/General/Files, and I did find that the Recent Items option is already set at 10. That would seem to indicate that there is no folder with hundreds of recent items bogging down my computer.

Thanks anyway. Nice try, but no cigar.

Robert Ross - Oct 25, 2005 - 8:06 pm

Dale, It just occured to me where that user folder is that you were talking about. I found 982 files in the documents folder and deleted them all. I see a big difference already. THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!! Now I'm going to check my MS Word user documents / recent items folder and see what's in there. /

DeltaMac - Oct 25, 2005 - 9:46 pm

I don't think this type of issue affects MS Word. I have seen this a number of times with AppleWorks, and the fix is almost always deleting that Recent Items folder. I don't know why it happens, but AppleWorks does not clean out that folder when it reaches the maximum, and the files just pile up. Do change that recent items setting to a number less than 10, it seems to keep this from ever happening again.

Robert Ross - Oct 25, 2005 - 10:18 pm

Thanks again. MS Word doesn't have a folder like that, so I guess you are right on again. My MS Word crashes a lot too. I wonder if you have a fix for that too.

DeltaMac - Oct 25, 2005 - 10:43 pm

Crashing apps are commonly fixed by deleting the related preference or settings file(s) for that app. Open your user folder, and go to the Library/Preferences folder. Delete the file named com.microsoft.word.plist
Go to the Microsoft folder in that same list, and delete the com.microsoft.word.prefs.plist

go to your Documents/Microsoft User Data folder, and delete the normal template, if it exists.

Removing these files will reset your Word app to original defaults, and you may find it working better.
Be cautious if you have a complex default setup for New documents. Deleting the normal template will reset those also, and you will need to reset your default margins, fonts, etc.

Robert Ross - Oct 25, 2005 - 11:11 pm

I was able to find the first of your Microsoft deletion suggestions. The second one was not to be found. Thanks again. You seem to know quite a bit about these issues. I will push my luck, and tax your graciousness with one more issue. America Online. This is the other program that gives me some trouble. I have performed the usual preference maintenance trashing, although not lately. The usual AOL suggestions don't help the crashing I have found. AOL can also get a little funky on occasion like if you copy and paste some text into an email document and that paste includes a hyperlink, the whole text field will change to the hyperlink color and underline format. Then it will crash. Any suggestions for that? And then I will let you relax for the rest of the night. THANKS.

DeltaMac - Oct 26, 2005 - 6:39 am

AOL is as AOL does, unfortunately. Make sure your AOL is up-to-date - version 10.3.7 is the current one.
Go to your user/Library/Preferences/America Online folder, and delete the AOL External Prefs file. Look again in this user/Library/Preferences folder for your Microsoft folder. This is where it should be, and you can find the com.microsoft.word.(something) file(s). Your Microsoft apps create this folder, and have for a long time (longer than OS X has been around)

Go to the User/Shared/America Online folder (not the one in your own user folder, but the Shared folder in the main User folder) and delete the file Art Database. If you find that this is very large (more than 10 MB) then this may be causing some struggles with the AOL software. The next time you launch AOL, all of the window graphics will reload, so expect the first few pages to load a little slowly a first. This may help you....
- Dale

Robert Ross - Oct 26, 2005 - 9:17 am

I was able to delete the com.microsoft. (something) file yesterday following your prior directions.

As for the America Online problem, there did not seem to be an America Online folder or an art database file in the User/Shared/ area. There are however, 83 Limewire music download files there. But, when I used Sherlock to search for it, I found the America Online art database where you said it would be, and deleted it. Weird how it wasn't there and then it was.