Microsoft Works Database

[salhort]

Hello friends! I am a new Mac user and I used to have all my business documents on my PC. Switching over, I am unable to open my plant database which I created in Microsoft Works (old and outdated, yes). Pages, Numbers & Keynote don't work... The files look like this... Broadleafs Database.wdb.
Any suggestions? I need to be able to open the old files, edit and whatnot... Trying to input the data in a new program would be a very long process. Thanks for any help!!

 

[chscag]

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

The Apple iWork applications you mentioned - Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are not able to read the MS Works data base files or other data base files such as Access, DBase, etc.

What you can try and should work to open, edit, and convert those files is the free LibreOffice which you can download from here. The LibreOffice "Base" program is the one you need. You can of course use the other apps that come with the suite since they are all compatible with MS Office and Works.

 

[salhort]

Libre Office... fail

I too am having this issue and I am trying to find a free/cheap way to do this. I just downloaded the Libre Office, tried opening a database file and it didn't work. Dang it. Now I am trying to convert the files on my old laptop to excel... We'll see!

 

[fezopolis]

works databases

I, too, had the same problem ... several Works .wdb databases that my Mac Mini couldn't handle.

My resolution ... load the free Open Office suite. Return to the Works databases; open them and then SAVE AS db4 files. Load onto the Mac Mini. The Open Office db program will open the bd4 files and your old databases are saved.

fez;P

 

[chscag]

LibreOffice and Open Office are the same for file content and what they can open and edit so LibreOffice should be able to do likewise. No need to download Open Office. However, if you save the Works file as XLS (Excel), they'll open OK in Numbers.

 

[fezopolis]

I suggested Apache's Open Office as that was the "office" suite I was using on my MS computers and was most familiar with.

I had constructed dozens of flat file databases using MS Works (starting with version 1.0) to assist in running a small desktop educational publishing business for 18 years. MS Works allowed me to sort and merge for address label printing and it was just as good for merging billing statements.

It's major weakness was lack of relational DB ability.

Open Office or Libre Office ... it's what works best for the user.

 

[chas_m]

Once you have those converted, you might look as FileMaker Pro if you still need a good database program. It ain't cheap, but its the best real DB program for the Mac (and, secretly, Windows).