Clean Up AppleWorks temporary files

Jan 28, '04 10:18:00AM

Contributed by: idyson

Some background:

  1. AppleWorks 6.2.9 Latest version (I hoped updating to the latest would fix the problem, but it didn't).
  2. OS X 10.2.8
  3. I use "insert equation" on a regular basis with the Word Processing document type

I often use the "Insert equation..." under the Edit menu to insert equations into my AppleWorks documents. This menu command brings up a handy little helper application which allows simple manipulation of equations. Anyhow, that's not the problem. The equation editor works wonderfully. Until recently, this solution has been working fine ... but I've noticed that AppleWorks has been running slower and slower. So slow to the point that the spinny beachball (new colour version or black and white one, depending on the location of the cursor) would often show up.

The problem is that equation editor creates a bunch of temproary files in ~/Documents -> Appleworks User Data -> Starting Points -> Recent Items. It appears to be creating temproary files and leaving references in the recent items folder -- but neglecting to remove them afterwards. So I wrote a small shell script which I run every once in a while (usually after about a dozen equation insertions):


#!/bin/sh

cd ~/Documents/AppleWorks\ User\ Data/Starting\ Points/Recent Items/
rm tmp*
This removes the temporary data, and AppleWorks returns to its normal speed.

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040119220209780