Microsoft Word (1983) 161 Word Processor DOS OS2 Windows MacOS

The Microsoft Word word processor was first introduced for MS-DOS in 1983. Its design made use of a mouse and WYSIWYG graphics. Its crude WYSIWYG/mouse support was a direct response to the Apple Lisa/Mac, and VisiCorp Visi On. Initially it competed against many popular word processors such as WordStar, Multimate, and WordPerfect. Word for DOS was never really successful.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• 4.0 (DOS)
• 5.x (DOS and OS/2)
• 6.x

Microsoft Works (1986) 129 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

WordPerfect (1983) 123 Word Processor DOS Unix Linux

During the late 1980's, WordPerfect was THE standard word processor for DOS based PCs in big business. Under DOS, it competed mostly against Wordstar. WordPerfect for Windows enjoyed some success in the early Windows environments, but was quickly displaced by Microsoft Word for Windows. Later Windows versions were part of Borland Office/Novell PerfectOffice/Corel Office/Corel WordPerfect Office.

• 3.x (DOS)
• 4.x (DOS)
• 5.0 (DOS)
• 5.1 (DOS)
• 6.x (DOS)
• 7.x (Unix)
• 8.x (Unix)

WordStar (1981) 78 Word Processor DOS CPM

WordStar, originally from MicroPro, was a popular word processor during the early 80s. It was ported to a number of CP/M architectures as well as Unix and PC/MS-DOS. It competed directly against many word processors, including WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS, and Multimate. By the late 80s most business word processing had moved to WordPerfect. In the early 90s, Microsoft Word for Windows took over.

• 3.30
• for PCjr
• 2000
• 4.0
• 1512
• 5.0
• COLT
• 5.5
• 6
• 7

StarOffice (1995) 18 Word Processor Windows Unix Linux

StarOffice, initially from Star Division GmbH is an office suite containing a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, and graphing program. It was later owned by Sun Microsystems and then Oracle, and spawned the open source OpenOffice and LibreOffice. Also see the earlier StarWriter

• 6.0

Volkswriter (1982) 18 Word Processor DOS

Volkswriter, from Lifetree Software Inc, was an early easy to use word processor for the IBM PC. Development of Volkswriter was inspired by the horridness of EasyWriter, and for a brief time it was possibly the only usable word processor for the IBM PC before an IBM version of WordStar was released. The "Deluxe" version will work with larger documents and has more features.

• 1.2
• Deluxe 2.x
• 3.0
• 4.0

VisiSpell (1983) 13 Word Processor DOS

VisiSpell is a standalone spell checker for DOS, that is intended for use with VisiCorp VisiWord but can be used with any text document.

• 1.00

Professional Write (1986) 12 Word Processor DOS

Professional Write, from Software Publishing Corporation, was a popular word processor for home use during the late 80s and early 90s. It features an easy to use menu system and an integrated spell checker. Professional Write was a revamp and replacement for SPC's earlier PFS:Write.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.0

Easy Writer (1982) 12 Word Processor DOS

Easy Writer was one of the first word processors for the IBM PC. It was originally written by John Draper AKA "Captain Crunch", with the PC version published by IBM. EasyWriter 1.x was written in the FORTH programming language and, as the story goes, it was ported to the IBM PC in a matter of days. There was also an Apple II version.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.15
• II

PFS First Choice (1987) 12 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Database DOS

PFS First Choice is a simple, easy to use integrated office suite marketed towards new users. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, database, and telecommunications. First Choice is similar to, but not as feature rich as, the standalone PFS office products. It competed against AlphaWorks/LotusWorks and Microsoft Works.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.x

Framework (1984) 11 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Originally created by Forefront Corporation for Ashton-Tate and first released in 1984, Framework was an early integrated office suite for DOS. It has a built in word processor, spreadsheet, database, outliner, graphing, and telecommunications.

• 1.0
• Premier 1.x
• II
• III
• XE
• IV

XyWrite (1984) 9 Word Processor DOS

XyWrite is a word processor for MS-DOS and Windows modeled on the mainframe-based ATEX typesetting system. Popular with writers and editors for its speed and degree of customization, XyWrite was in its heyday the house word processor in many editorial offices, including the New York Times from 1989 to 1993. XyWrite was developed by David Erickson and marketed by XyQuest from 1982 through 1992, after which it was acquired by The Technology Group. The final version for MS-DOS was 4.18 (1993); for Windows, 4.13. An offshoot descendant of XyWrite called Nota Bene is still being actively developed.

• II Plus v1.10
• 4

PFS:Write (1983) 9 Word Processor DOS

PFS:Write, originally from Software Publishing Corporation and later sold to Spinnaker Software, was an early and easy to use word processor for the IBM PC and Apple II. It was also licensed by IBM as IBM Writing Assistant. It can exchange data between PFS:Graph, PFS:File, and PFS:Report. SPC later replaced PFS:Write with Professional Write. Early versions had no built in spell checker, and were instead used with PFS:Proof.

• Axx
• 01.00.00 (Tandy 2000)
• Bxx
• Cxx
• 2.x

IBM Professional Editor (1982) 8 Word Processor Editor DOS

Professional Editor is an early editor for the IBM PC. It makes extensive use of function keys, has user definable macros, and can work with files larger than available RAM. You WILL need to read the manual to use this!

• 1.00
• II

ChiWriter (1990) 7 Word Processor Mathematics DOS

ChiWriter is a WYSIWYG scientific text editor for DOS. Created by Cay Horstmann in 1986, it was one of the first that could write mathematical formulas on common PC computers.

• 4.00
• 4.2

IBM Writing Assistant (1984) 7 Word Processor DOS

IBM Writing Assistant is an early word processor sold by IBM with their IBM PC computers. It is basically a re-branded version of PFS:Write It features a built in spell checker, and the ability to include data and graphs from other IBM Assistant programs.

• 1.0x
• 2.0

Lotus Works (1990) 5 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Database DOS

Formerly Electric Desk/AlphaWorks from Alpha Software, Lotus Works is an all in one office suite for DOS that includes a word processor, spell check, spreadsheet, graphics, database, and communications. It targeted the lower end and first time computer buyers. It competed against other all in one office suites such as FrameWork, PFS First Choice, and Microsoft Works

• 1.0

NewWord (1983) 5 Word Processor DOS

NewWord is a clone of WordStar created by former MicroPro employees. It filled a gap for WordStar users as WordStar 3.3 went unupdated, and eventually became the basis for WordStar 4.0.

• 1.x

DisplayWrite (1984) 5 Word Processor DOS OS2

DisplayWrite is a word processor that is based on the IBM Displaywriter dedicated word processing system. It directly competed with software ports of dedicated word processors such as the Wang Word Processing System (or its clone MultiMate ), Lanier Word Processing Software, Xerox, DEC, or similar.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Peachtext 5000 (1983) 5 Word Processor Financial Database DOS

PeachText 5000 is a complete personal productivity system for word processing, financial modeling, mailing lists and simple database management. It contains a thesaurus, spell checker, and file conversion tools.

• 2.x

FontasticWriter (1990) 5 Word Processor DOS

Fontastic, from David W Johnson, Pacific Tri Micro Inc / Wizardworks, Wizardware Group Inc, is a budget word processor. It promotes itself as having many fonts to choose from, making it sound like a graphical WYSIWYG, but it is really a text-based word processor with an external previewer application. "Wizardworks". Apparently it was a small-time publisher. Pacific Tri Micro products were published under other names as well. perfecting text that will add creative "snap" to documents. Choose from a library of more than 25 type fonts in varying sizes to spruce up any letter or presentation. Fontastic Writer Plus also includes 24 pin and laser printer drivers that allow your documents to print out just like the pros's. easy to use! Editing is also easy, and includes search and replace, cut and paste, left/right justification, line or word centering, underlining, and an electronic dictionary that scans documents and corrects your mistakes. documents from Easy Working Writer " and Word Writer" to name a few. Simply type the commands in your old files and Fontastic Writer Plus does the rest."

• Plus (1990)

IBM Primary Editor (1988) 5 Word Processor Graphics Education DOS

Primary Editor Plus is a student's toolkit for writing and language arts activities in Kindergarten through grade eight. The program is a flexible entry-level word processor appropriate for young students or anyone who is new to word processing and computers.

• Plus 1.00

Lotus Symphony (1984) 4 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database DOS

Lotus Symphony is a an integrated software program that combines five tools: spreadsheet - word processing, graphics, database management, and data communications - in one package. The spreadsheet has similar functionality to Lotus 1-2-3, however it uses a different software "engine". These releases are of the original suite produced by Lotus. For the unrelated suite produced by IBM under the same name, see "IBM Lotus Symphony".

• 1.00
• 2.00
• 3.00

MultiMate (1983) 4 Word Processor DOS

MultiMate, originally named WordMate, is a word processor designed to mimic the user interface of Wang word processing machines. It was primarily sold to large businesses, but eventually became popular with home users that were familiar with the Wang word processors. Later versions were bundled with extra third party software under the name MultiMate Advantage.

• 3.2x
• 3.3x
• 4.0

Spellbinder (1982) 4 Word Processor DOS

Spellbinder, from Lexisoft and later Ltec Inc, is a word processing program originally created for CP/M and OASIS operating systems and eventually competed with WordStar. It was designed as a work-alike of the NBI Word Processing system and featured spell checking, grammar checking, footnotes, two-column print, proportional printing, and macro programming language. It was bundled with machines from Eagle Computers, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox.

• 6.10