iWork 09, AppleWorks & MathType: Advice requested

[JimmyMac]

I'm looking for some advice on what I should purchase. I have two eMacs: the newer one runs OS X 10.4.11, has 1GB memory and a 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processor, the older one runs OS X 10.2.8, has 256 mB memory and a 700 MHz Power PC G4 processor. I've been using AppleWorks 6.2.4 on the older eMac along with MathType 5.1.

I've just purchased the newer eMac and have AppleWorks 6.2.9 on it, but my CD of MathType will not work because I have no System 9 on the new machine. I'm considering upgrading to MathType 6, which supposedly will work on my newer eMac, and perhaps purchasing iWork 09, and I'm interested in getting opinions and/or advice from people more knowledgeable than myself.

I'm a semi-retired math teacher who has thousands of documents on the hard drive of my older eMac - all were created over the past 10 years or so and most have some expressions from MathType. I work part-time at a local college and do a fair amount of tutoring, so I print several of those documents every week. The computers at my college all use Microsoft Office (Word). All of these documents are on the older computer (and on back-up CDs) but I've not yet transferred any to the newer computer.

I would very much appreciate any recommendations on which software I should purchase and why. Thanks for any help that you can give.

[Turboladdade]

Well, iWork is definitely a great product and I use it almost exclusively. But I'm not so sure that it would really help you in your specific situation. I have no experience with MathType, but I'm pretty confident your school's PCs won't be able to open any Apple-specific document formats like AppleWorks.

If you want to continue to have access to them, and print them and stuff, then why not just keep your old eMac around in its current state?

[JimmyMac]

Thanks for the reply - it certainly helps me to ask more focused questions. For example, does anyone know if iWork will be able to open (and save) my old documents that were created in AppleWorks? (A couple of years ago, I was told by a source whom I no longer remember that my old documents would open in iWork as long as they were first saved in the latest version of AppleWorks.) If so, I might be able to use some of those document on the macs at the local college (some rooms have PCs, others have macs, and some have minis that can be started in either operating system).

Also, I do plan to keep both computers, but I'd prefer to create new documents on the newer eMac. I believe that I could purchase the latest version of MathType and it would work with AppleWorks, but if I also purchase iWork, then my documents could also be opened by any computer using Word - correct? Might it be advisable to have both iWork and Appleworks on one computer?

If anyone has experience with any or all of these options, I'd sure appreciate some advice before I start spending money. Thanks in advance.

[Turboladdade]

For example, does anyone know if iWork will be able to open (and save) my old documents that were created in AppleWorks?

Well, try zipping one up and posting it here and I can let you know.

if I also purchase iWork, then my documents could also be opened by any computer using Word - correct? Might it be advisable to have both iWork and Appleworks on one computer?

Well, iWork's Pages application works natively with Pages format documents. You can export them to Word, but there can be formatting issues sometimes. See this page for more information. Your best choice would probably be to export everything as a PDF, which can be opened identically on all systems, even Mac OS 9.

[JimmyMac]

Thanks for the offer. I've attached two zipped documents - both were originally AppleWorks 6 documents that contain algebraic expressions imported from MathType, the father program of Equation Editor. One contains mostly basic algebraic expressions while the other contains more complicated expressions. I'll be eager to hear if iWork can open and read them.

[Turboladdade]

Attached are two screenshots of these documents opened in Pages '09 on a Mac Pro Quad Xeon running Leopard, and then each one converted to a PDF by said program (so they can be opened with Preview on any Mac or Adobe Reader on any operating system).

Curiously, they both wanted to open by default in Keynote, but then Keynote said "these are not presentations." Right clicking on them and choosing "open in Pages" solved the problem.

How do they look?

[JimmyMac]

Thanks for your help, SAAB. It is very much appreciated. Those images looked pretty good. Some of the expressions are a little "raised", but all are readable and the documents are usable, even if they don't look perfect.

Instead of making a couple of blind decisions and hoping for the best, I now have some knowledge to guide me, thanks to you. Along with getting the upgrade to MathType, I am now looking toward purchasing iWork09. I can certainly use it to create new documents, and it appears that, with a little effort, I will be able to use many, if not all, of my older documents.

[cheryl]

It's nice to know that iWork can open AppleWorks files. I was never quite sure whether or not it could. Now we all know.

[gimbeljohn]

I am trying to run MathType on Appleworks 6.2.9. When I go to insert an equation it shows up in the text in extremely small font. I can cut and paste and it shows up fine. But that takes longer and I am lazy. Does anybody know how to fix this? (BTW I did find one fix, which is to first run MathType in Microsoft Word and then move on to Appleworks....but this seems like an unnecessary thing to have to do every time I want to start up MathType.)