Appleworks opening failure

[Don C]

Appleworks 6 on my G4 Powerbook (Tiger ... all updates) was giving me an error message when it opened (couldn't find a file) but it seemed to run just fine.

But I decided things were not perfect, so I trashed AW6, emptied the trash, and reinstalled. I also discarded appleworks.plist from preferences. I've repaired permissions (twice)

Now, after the reinstall,AW will not open at all! It now gives me an erro message that "The file is locked or already in use." Since I am double clicking the application, not a file, I have NO IDEA what file it is that is blocking the startup. When I click the OK button (No, it is NOT OK!) the application gives me an Unexpected Close.

So, where do I look for a corrupted file? I'd rather like to get AW back up and running.

Thanks

[rgG]

Have you restarted the computer? Sometimes that will close a hidden open file. It's worth a shot if you haven't already tried that.

[Don C]

Twice

[rgG]

Oh, well. I was hoping that was it. I'm sure you have tried opening an AW document to see if it will open. I just can't think of what else it might be. Sorry.

[Don C]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I just remembered to run the AW updater.

Nope, THAT didn't fix it either.

Strange!

Here's what I've done:

Drag old AW to trash and emptied the trash.
Drag Appleworks.plist to trash and emptied the trash.
Installed new copy of AW from CD.
Run Repair permissions
Restart the computer
Download and run AW updater
Run Repair permissions
Restart the computer.
swivelled in my chair three times to the left and three times to the right.
clicked my heels together three times (Hey, it worked once with good results)

Whether I double click on a file or on the application directly I get the opening splash screen for a few seconds, then I get the error message, "The file is locked or already in use." When I click on OK, I see the AW menu bar for a couple of seconds, then the application closes with the AW quit unexpectedly box.

[Paul F.]

Hmm...

Add a restart between emptying the trash and reinstalling?


Other than that, you've already done everything I'd do.

[Gilbert]

Couple of other suggestions, and maybe you've done them.

Trash the folder ~/Documents/AppleWorks User Data/AutoSave. This is where the recent documents get stored. Or you could trash the whole AppleWorks User Data folder altogether.

Another thing to try, (but it sounds like you've done the same thing already by trashing the pref files) is use a utility I saw the other day on Macupdate.com called AppleWorks Mechanic.

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/21630

My wife still uses AppleWorks alot but I've never seen what you describe.

[Silencio]

Crud. I have to fix a similar problem with Appleworks not too long ago, but can't remember for the life of me how I did it.

Might have been a problem with some template files or directories not being where Appleworks expected them to be, I forget.

[Grumpyguy]

vaguely remember this, but can't remember what the cure was. Do a search on anything appleworks, including preferences and nuke them.

I remember seeing this thread at the other place, maybe do a search there.

[Don C]

After looking for any hint of an appleworks file I discovered a folder in /user/preferences/appleworks which has four files. Three of them are dated Jan 17, 2006 and one is dated Jun 15, 2004, so these are not files that were open and got corrupted today.

BUT

when I trashed this preferences folder, things started to work again. So AW is now running. The solution this time was deleting the folder:
/user/preferences/appleworks

I tried the repair script, but it tried to open Appleworks. It seems to be a script to fix Appleworks when it won't open, but it requires Appleworks to run. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks to all who provided suggestions!

I DO love this forum!