Ability (1985) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database DOS

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 1.0
• Demo
• 1.2
• Plus 1.0
• Plus 2.0

Adobe Acrobat (1993) 83 Publishing MacOS Windows

Adobe Acrobat, first released in 1993, is a tool for creating portable electronic documents. Its documents retain complex formatting when used across differing systems, so that they appear identical when viewed on screen or printed to a printer. Acrobat accomplishes this by encapsulating Adobe's PostSript printer language in to a document file format and offering the ability to embed fonts that are not present on the target system.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Adobe Dimensions (1992) 3 Graphics Publishing MacOS

Adobe Dimensions was a low cost 3-d object editing and rendering program. Unlike other 3d rendering programs, Dimensions is specifically geared towards producing illustrations for print. programs, such as Adobe Illustrator or Freehand, and edited to create 3d objects. Then, instead of outputting a pixilated raster image, it outputs in postscript bezier curves, which can then be further processed by other 2d illustration packages.

• 1.0
• 2.0

Apple PlainTalk (1994) 0 Utility MacOS

PlainTalk is the collective name for several speech synthesis (MacinTalk) and speech recognition technologies developed by Apple Inc. In 1990, Apple invested a lot of work and money in speech recognition technology, hiring many researchers in the field. The result was "PlainTalk", released with the AV models in the Macintosh Quadra series from 1993. It was made a standard system component in System 7.1.2, and has since been shipped on all PowerPC and some other 68K Macintoshes.

• 1.x

Aslightly LabelPro (1991) 0 Publishing DOS

Aslightly LabelPro is a label printing utility for use in conjunction with Aslightly label products. It supports mail merge, graphics and text, postal bar codes, and includes clipart.

• 1.x (DOS)

Automenu (1987) 1 Utility DOS

Automenu is a sophisticated commercial menuing system that lets you control your computer using custom menus, rather than using DOS commands. It features small, compact memory usage and built in help.

• 4.x

Award Maker Plus (1987) 0 Publishing DOS

AwardMaker, from Baudville, Inc., is a tool for printing nice looking awards and certificates on a dot-matrix printer from a set of about 200 templates. It lacks any print preview, so you must have the manual to know what the templates look like. This is almost identical to Springboard Certificate Maker, however it contains a different set of templates and graphics.

• 1

Back-It (1986) 0 Utility DOS

Back-It, from Gazelle Systems, is a fast and compact hard disk backup utility. It was sometimes part of OEM system bundles. It was kind of low-end, and changed backup formats between releases but otherwise did what it was supposed to do.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Bank Street Writer (1984) 0 Word Processor DOS

Bank Street Writer is an easy to use word processor intended for beginners and educational use. It was very popular on the Apple II, but also had ports for Atari, Commodore 64, MSX, Macintosh, IBM PC, and IBM PCjr.

• IBM PC
• Plus

BannerMania (1989) 3 Graphics Publishing DOS

Banner Mania is a banner making program for IBM PC compatible computers, enabling the user to create banners, posters, signs and logos. It can create and print multi-page banners, with 19 different fonts and effects in 16 colors.

• 1.0

Better Working Eight-in-One (1989) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Better Working Eight-in-One, from Spinnaker Software is an integrated office suite for DOS. It contains a word processor, a spelling checker, a data base, a spreadsheet, an outliner, a graphics program, a communications program and a set of desktop utilities - all in one single, consistent application.

• 2.x

Better Working Resume Kit (1989) 0 Publishing DOS

Back before there were endless web sites with endless soul crushing job application forms, one would print a paper resume and mail it to potential employers. Spinnaker Better Working is a computerized tool that can help you manage and structure complex resumes.

• 1.x

Beyond Words Composer (1991) 1 Word Processor DOS

Beyond Words Composer is a GUI-based word processor developed by former Micropro (WordStar) employees and distributed by Cannon. Technology from this product was incorporated in to IBM DisplayWrite 5/2.

• 2.00

BlueMAX (1991) 0 Utility DOS

BlueMAX is a version of 386Max that is specifically intended for IBM PS/2 computers rather than clones. BlueMAX offers automatic easy-to-use installation and configuration, automatically adding upper memory where possible and moving DOS device drivers to make use of this memory.

• 6.x

Borland Sprint (1988) 0 Word Processor DOS

Sprint is a text-based word processor for DOS that features a powerful scripting language, multiple user interfaces, exceptional speed, the ability to handle very large files, and powerful PostScript capabilities. "Mark of the Unicorn", and bought by Borland where it was renamed to "Sprint" in 1987. WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS, and Multimate. preview at a time when that was clearly the way forward. However Sprint was targeted towards power users that needed advanced features WYSIWYG editors did not yet provide.

• 1.0x

Brown Bag Word Processor (1985) 0 Word Processor DOS

The Brown Bag Word Processor was an inexpensive word processor that offered features comparable to more expensive programs. It is essentially an OEM licensed version of Quicksoft's PC-Write with a different user interface. Formatting is done using "dot" commands and it includes a mail-merge module.

• 2.x

BULL Micral Prologue (1984) 0 DOS

BULL Micral Prologue system for the Olympia People Computer.

• 2.x

By Design (1993) 0 Word Processor DOS

By Design is an add-on set of document design utilities, fonts, and clipart for WordPerfect. Graphics include lead characters, page borders, graphics fonts, and page headers. Templates include newsletters, letterheads, title pages, and business forms.

• 3.0

Cache86 (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Cache86 is a high speed disk caching program for DOS and Windows 3.x systems. It features a very small conventional memory overhead, speed, reliability, support for Extended memory on 286+ machines, and support for Expanded memory on PC/XT class machines.

• 3.x

Carbon Copy (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Carbon Copy is a remote control desktop program for DOS and later Windows, similar to PCAnywhere. protection. You can not connect to other copies of Carbon Copy if the serial numbers are the same.

• 5.x

Celebrity (1987) 3 Word Processor DOS

Celebrity is a powerful word processing program that includes a Speller, Thesaurus, Forms System, Report Writer, Calculator, Calendar, and File Cabinet. It was advertised as a solution for novice users, however the command based interface makes it less than user friendly.

• 1.0

Central Point Anti-Virus (1992) 0 Utility DOS

Central Point Anti-Virus was a DOS-based antivirus program developed originally by an Israel company, CARMEL Software Engineering Ltd. as "Turbo Anti-Virus", and licensed by Central Point Software Inc. It was the basis for Microsoft's Anti-Virus for DOS and Windows (MSAV and MWAV). In 1994 it was acquired by Symantec Corporation and merged into Norton Antivirus.

• 1.x

Change Directory Plus (1993) 0 Utility DOS

Change Directory Plus is a small commercial utility distributed with Softdisk publishing's Big Blue Disk magazine. It indexes all folders on your hard drive, and permits you to change in to a deep subdirectory simply by specifying the final subdirectories name.

• 1.x

CheckIt (1988) 10 Utility DOS

CheckIt, from TouchStone Software Corporation, is a diagnostic tool for generic PC/XT/AT compatible computers. It can perform tests on RAM, hard disks, video cards, floppy disks, motherboard resources, and I/O devices. It has an easy to use menu interface but can also run tests non-interactively. It was followed up by the product WINCheckit.

• 1.x
• 2.1
• 3.0
• LAN 2.x
• Pro 1.x

ChiWriter (1990) 1 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