Last month, we looked at AppleWorks 6, the latest version of Apple's popular suite of products. As we mentioned, the latest version--though only $79 and packing more than 100 new features--didn't meet with unanimous acclaim after its unveiling.

Thankfully, Apple has addressed two of the worst problems--spotty performance and instability--in an update. If you're using AppleWorks 6.0, you'll definitely want to upgrade to version 6.0.3, since it speeds up performance, restores stability, and adds rich-text format (RTF) translation.

To use the update, you'll need Mac OS 8.1 or higher and any English version of AppleWorks 6. You can download the free updater (a 4.477MB file), which will "zap" AppleWorks 6.0 up to 6.0.3. Visit http://asu. info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11671

Of course, that still leaves two controversial areas in AppleWorks 6. One is the new interface, which users either love or hate. Its aqua look, larger buttons, and bigger palettes are designed to make it aesthetically compatible with Apple's upcoming Mac OS X. In fact, whether or not you like the appearance, AppleWorks 6.x will supposedly run native on the next generation operating system.

There's also the problem of compatibility--or lack thereof. Unlike its predecessors, version 6 no longer ships with file translators. So you'll need to get a third-party product to handle this chore. We recommend DataViz's MacLinkPlus, which will set you back about $99, but is well worth the price (even if you don't use AppleWorks).

Once you've done all this, you should be up and running smoothly with AppleWorks 6. Now let's show you how to save some time and overcome some bumps in the road.

tip 1:

If you're getting some strange formatting and spacing problems in the AW word processing component, try turning on the formatting view. Do so by pressing the Command and the semicolon keys at the same time, and you'll be able to see the invisible formatting characters (Space, Return, Soft Return, and Tab) within your document. Turn off the formatting view by once again pressing the Command and semicolon keys simultaneously.

tip 2:

The dictionary format used by AppleWorks 6 is different from that in AppleWorks 5. To employ your user dictionary in AppleWorks 6, you first have to convert it to the AppleWorks 6 format. Here's how to export words from the AppleWorks 5 user dictionary:

Choose Writing Tools from the Edit menu, then choose Edit User Dictionary from the submenu. Click the triangle next to Text File in the lower right-hand corner of the dialog box. Click Export. Select where to save the file and Click Save. Click OK when the file has been exported. Click OK to dismiss the dialog.

To import words from a text file into the current user dictionary, follow these steps:

Choose Writing Tools from the Edit menu, then choose Edit User Dictionary from the submenu. Click the triangle next to Text File in the lower right-hand corner of the dialog box. Click Import. Select the file you want to import, then click Open.

tip 3:

AppleWorks 6 has a new Auto-Save feature that lets you recover work that you might have lost if your Mac crashed for some reason. When you restart, AppleWorks automatically opens any document you were working on. If you made any changes since the last time you saved the document, you can recover those changes by selecting the Auto-Saved version of the document. I like this feature, but it annoys some people, particularly when these documents appear at startup.

You can disable the Auto-Save feature in the Files section of the Preferences panel. Alas, this prevents you from taking advantage of any Auto-Save features, so you may want to prevent the aforementioned documents from appearing on a startup-by-startup basis. There are two ways to do this.

You can observe the startup process as extensions load and their icons appear at the bottom of the screen. At any time after extensions begin loading, but before the desktop appears, hold down the Shift key and keep it down until startup is complete.This prevents any startup items from being loaded during this startup.

You should hold down the space bar when you hear the startup chime. When the Extensions Manager window appears, release the space bar. Choose View As Folders from the Selected Set pop-up menu. Scroll down to the Startup Items folder and unselect any AppleWorks document that you don't want to open on startup. Click Continue and your Mac will finish booting up normally. This step stops the deselected items from opening at startup until they're re-enabled.

(Any item you deselect is moved to the Startup Items (Disabled) folder inside the System Folder. You may want to delete these items to prevent this folder from becoming cluttered. The items that AppleWorks places here are aliases, so you can trash 'em without affecting the original document.)

tip 4:

If you no longer want to use a default template document for a document type, you can deactivate it. First, quit AppleWorks, then open the Templates folder (in the Starting Points folder). Delete, rename, or move the default template document for the document type.

tip 5:

In the spreadsheet component of AppleWorks, if you use the Auto Sum function from the Calculate menu on multiple columns or rows of data, not all columns or rows are summed. And, you may get similar incomplete results when you use the Auto Average function. Aggravating. However, if you look at the contents of each cell that should show a sum or average, you'll see that the correct formula is present even if the result doesn't appear in the cell. To make the result appear, select all the empty cells, choose Copy, then Paste. All the correct values should now appear.

tip 6:

If you want to start every session with the Open dialog, set it as a preference. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences. Select General from the Topic pop-up menu. In the On Startup Show box, click the Open Document radio button. Click Make Default.

tip 7:

If you have a bunch of AppleWorks documents open, you can close them all at once by holding down the option key while clicking on the close box of one of the open documents.

tip 8:

Even though AppleWorks 6 didn't ship with the translators that came with previous versions of the program, you can use those translators from AppleWorks 5.x if you have a copy. Just move them over from the AW5 folder to the AW6 folder. However, if and when you upgrade to Mac OS X, ditch the translators. They might not work since they contain 680X0 code, all of which Apple purposely stripped from version 6.

tip 9:

If you're dealing with graphics, you can proportionally resize them. Maintain the original proportions by pressing Shift as you drag the object handles. To resize the graphic by a specific percentage, choose Scale By Percent from the Arrange menu. When resizing paint objects, use the lasso tool to select the object. Choose Scale By Percent from the Transform menu.

You can also restore graphics to their original size in most cases by selecting the graphic, and choosing Picture Info from the Edit menu. Then click Use Picture Bounds, and click OK. (If you don't see the Picture Info command, this means you're dealing with a graphic that's not in a format that lets you restore it to its original size.)

tip 10:

Get a good AppleWorks book. Apple's included manual isn't nearly comprehensive enough. There's also "AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual" by Jim Elferdink and David Reynolds. Touted as "the book that should have been in the box," it guides you through both the basics and the hidden parts of the new AppleWorks, placing special emphasis on version 6's enhanced word processing, Internet, and presentation features. "AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual"--which also costs $20--has more than 250 illustrations, a 2,000-entry index, and a menu-by-menu explanation of every command. If you want a sample of the book, you can find "Chapter 3: Advanced Word Processing," available free online http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/applewrksmm/chapter/index.html. For more on the Missing Manual series, including ordering information, go online to http://www. missingmanual.com.

Contributing Editor Dennis Sellers edits and writes for several Mac-specific publications.