Extract text from Sidekick and CogSketch files (SKW)
To convert SKW files to another format, you need Sidekick 98 or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "PIM Data File" file type, you need software like Sidekick 98 or a similar tool.
The .SKW file extension represents a digital artifact from two distinct eras of computing.
For most users, an .SKW file is a legacy "Sidekick for Windows" calendar database created by Starfish Sidekick (formerly Borland Sidekick). This Personal Information Manager (PIM) was ubiquitous in the late 1990s (Windows 95/98 era) for managing appointments, calls, and contacts.
The Problem: These files are proprietary binary databases. Modern PIMs like Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar cannot natively import or open them. If you attempt to open an .SKW file in a text editor like Notepad, you will see garbled binary code mixed with fragments of your appointment text.
The Solution: To recover this data, you typically cannot "convert" the file directly using standard web tools. The reliable workflow is to run a copy of Starfish Sidekick 98 (often available on abandonware repositories) within a virtual machine or compatibility mode. From there, you must use the internal Export function to save the data as a Comma Separated Value (CSV) or Tab Delimited text file, which can then be imported into modern software.
In academic and cognitive science circles, .SKW stands for a CogSketch Worksheet. Developed by the Qualitative Reasoning Group at Northwestern University, this file stores sketch data, ink strokes, and spatial reasoning metadata used to study how humans and AI perceive drawings.
The Solution: These files are strictly for use within the CogSketch environment. To share this data, users should open the file in CogSketch and export the sketch as a PDF or JPG image for viewing, or export the spatial data to XML for analysis.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SKW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SXW and SKWRITE files.
If you want to convert SKW file to , you can use Sidekick 98 or similar software from the "Legacy PIM Scheduler Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to SKW, try Sidekick 98 or another comparable tool in the "Legacy PIM Scheduler Data" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our SKW converter.