I'm new to iwork. My wife and I volunteer as friends of the commerce Township Library. In that capacity we have been given the groups mailing list(for contact purposes). It is in .xlr format. How can we open it to read and use it in iword? thanks, Paul

That's a Microsoft Works format. You can't open it with iWork. You need a converter such as MacLink Plus.

If you happen to have an old version of AppleWorks, you might try opening it with that. I happen to have an old version, AppleWorks 6, that actually still can launch within Leopard. I've managed to open various Microsoft Office files in the past with it (though occasionally, it may lose some formatting).

Here's a discussion of the same issue.

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-46319.html

The solutions that stand out are these (quoted below). Changing the file extension to .xls worked in this case (the Excel extension). Don't know if iWork opens Excel files, but worth a try.

I purchased MarinerCalc, which is a nice replacement for the spreadsheet element of Appleworks, but I don't do SS work much.
======
Discussion quotes:

[SOLUTION #1] The files you have that are xlr are not true Excel files. They are Microsoft Works files. Those can't be opened directly on your Mac. You will need to go back to the PC and make sure that in Save As, you save them as Excel files and not Works files. Then the extension will be xls (which stands for Excel SpreadSheet).
--------
[SOLUTION #2]
This may not work on more complicated .xlr files, but i have found that simply changing the extension to .xls will allow these files to open in Excel flawlessly.

I received an attachment with an xlr extension and followed the advice of mic.dee. Changing the extension from xlr to xls worked like a charm. I was able to open it in Excel. Thank you!

Just thought of another long shot:

Try changing the extension to .csv

OR, see if the MS Works file can be saved as a .csv file.

Paul, I have MacLink Plus installed on my iMac. I'd be happy to translate the file to a usable format for you. I've done it for others in the past.

I still use MacLinkPlus with Appleworks and it opens all sorts of files just fine. Mine is a version that originally came with Appleworks ages ago. It still works.