MacWrite 1.0

MacWrite was one of two applications released with the Apple Macintosh in 1984 - the other being MacPaint. These applications defined the Macintosh, and helped define what users expected from GUI applications.

Although fairly limited on Mac 128k hardware, it featured a WYSIWYG interface, proportional fonts, embeddable images, a standard File menu, scroll bars, and windowing.

Almost all word processors developed afterward for graphical user interfaces used a similar style until around 2007. In Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft discarded standard menus in favor of their awful "ribbon" toolbar, and other webby/mobile UI nonsense.

Initially development was maintained by Encore Systems, a group of early Apple employees, and later handed off to Claris. During pre-release development, it was known as "MacAuthor".

With the move to Claris, MacWrite was rewritten and renamed to "MacWrite II" and the version numbering was reset. The name was then tweaked again to "MacWrite Pro".

Screenshots

Release notes

This is the first version of Apple's word processor and drawing program bundled with their Macintosh computers.

Apple also bundled a guided tour of MacPaint and MacWrite.

Installation instructions

On the image below, System 1.1 has been substituted for System 1.0 (0.97), so you only have to deal with one set of bugs at a time :P

Note: This disk is not from original media. The January 24, 1984 Macintosh release was accompanied by a box that included MacWrite and MacPaint. Specifically, Part 690-5009-A "MacWrite MacPaint" 3.5" disk, part 690-5006-A "MacWrite MacPaint: A Guided Tour" 3.5" disk, and part 942-0417A "A Guided Tour of MacWrite MacPaint" audio cassette (Side 1: 027-0015B, Side 2: 027-0016B)

If you can provide an unmodified or minimally modified (Macs write back to disks during use) dump, please let us know!