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Microsoft Office (1991)

223 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Publishing PIM Database Windows MacOS

Microsoft Office is a bundle of Microsoft's productivity application. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and later Mail, Office Manager, and Outlook. The "1.x" versions of Microsoft Office were simply a marketing bundle of the standalone products sold together with no other packaging changes. Even though these were distinct applications, rather than one single monolithic program, they shared a similar user interface, integrated well together and shared the ability to embed documents from one application in the documents of another.

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983)

74 Spreadsheet OS2 Unix Windows

Lotus 1-2-3 was an early spreadsheet application available for MS-DOS. It became extremely popular in the late 1980s, displacing the former leader VisiCalc. Lotus had difficulties adapting 1-2-3 to the Windows environment, and was overtaken by Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet functionality was also included in Lotus Symphony. Later versions were included in Lotus SmartSuite.

Microsoft Word (1983)

65 Word Processor Unix 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.

Lotus SmartSuite (1992)

51 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations PIM Database Windows OS2

IBM/Lotus SmartSuite is an office suite from Lotus software for Windows and OS/2. SmartSuite includes SmartCenter, 1-2-3, Word Pro, Freelance Graphics, Approach, Organizer, and ScreenCam.

CircuitMaker (1998)

46 Engineering Windows

CircuitMaker, from MicroCode Engineering, is an easy-to-use schematic design and simulation tool. This product was discontinued in 2000 after being bought out by Altium, and is not related to the current software of a similar name.

6.x
2000

WordPerfect (1983)

45 Word Processor OS2 Unix Windows 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.

Microsoft Excel (1985)

33 Spreadsheet Windows OS2 MacOS

Excel, from Microsoft, is a powerful spreadsheet application for Mac, Windows, and OS/2. Excel was first released for the Mac. When it was ported to Windows 2.x, they started at version "2.0" to one up current Mac version. There was never a DOS version. Instead, DOS and 8-bit platforms used the older Microsoft Multiplan. Excel was later bundled as part of Microsoft Office

Microsoft Works (1986)

32 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database Windows MacOS

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.

WordStar (1981)

26 Word Processor Windows

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.

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984)

12 Graphics Engineering Unix Windows

AutoCAD, from Autodesk and first released in 1982, is a powerful Computer Aided Design tool. It was, and still is, often considered the standard for CAD tools. Primarily for the IBM PC platform, it was ported to x86 machines with higher video resolutions such as the Zenith Z-100 and NEC APC. Intermittently, versions for the Macintosh appeared. Later versions use a dongle copy protection.

Professional Write (1986)

9 Word Processor Windows

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.

Plus 1.x (Win)

AmiPro (1991)

7 Word Processor Windows

Ami Pro, also called just Ami initially, was a word processor sold by Samna and later Lotus Software, where it became Lotus Word Pro. Ami was one of the first word processors for Microsoft Windows, beating MS Word by about a year. Other early Windows word processors included NBI Legend and WinText

Multiplan (1983)

7 Spreadsheet DOS OS2

Microsoft Multiplan was an early 8-bit spreadsheet application for CP/M and MS-DOS with ports to numerous other platforms in the early 80s. Initially it competed against VisiCalc and later Lotus 1-2-3. A companion product, Microsoft Chart, provided graphing support. Multiplan was never ported to Windows, where it was replaced with Microsoft Excel. Excel also replaced Multiplan on the Macintosh platform.

4.x

DisplayWrite (1984)

7 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.

4
4/2

Quattro Pro (1987)

6 Spreadsheet Windows DOS

Quattro Pro, initially just named "Quattro", is a spreadsheet application from Borland International. It competed against Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel, and had several advantages including tabbed sheets, and the ability to handle up to a million rows. Quattro Pro was the subject a lawsuit by Lotus, simply because because Quattro Pro copied their menu user interface, but Lotus claimed this was not allowed. This also affected The Twin and VP-Planner.

PFS:WindowWorks (1991)

6 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications PIM Database Windows

PFS WindowWorks, from Spinnaker Software and Ancier Technologies, is an integrated all-in-one office application that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, chart editor, telecommunications, database, label maker and address book. Supposedly it was the first of such office suites for Windows 3.0, but soon competed with Microsoft Works for Windows. for Windows"](/product/better-working-eight).

1.x
2.x

StarOffice (1995)

4 Word Processor Windows OS2 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

PerfectOffice (1995)

4 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Database Windows

PerfectOffice is a bundle of office applications that competed head on with Microsoft Office.It bundles WordPerfect and a number of other office applications. This bundle started out as "Borland Office", was briefly known as "Novell PerfectOffice", then "Corel Office", and under Corel it later became "WordPerfect Office". (Not to be confused with the unrelated ~1990 groupware program, also called "WordPerfect Office")

3.0

Ability (1985)

3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database Windows

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.

TurboCAD (1993)

3 Graphics Engineering Windows

TurboCAD is a low-cost 2D/3D Computer Aided Design program that competed with AutoCAD and Generic CADD. It was first available for DOS, and later Mac, Windows 3.x, and Windows 9x/NT.

1.0
3.x

Drafix (1990)

3 Graphics Engineering Windows

Drafix is a powerful, high performance, and feature rich 2-dimensional computer aided design tool. Despite being a 2-D CAD program, it had many features of high end 3-D CAD software, and competed directly with AutoCAD. Drafix was first was fist released in 1986 for DOS, and was the first professional CAD program released for Microsoft Windows.

Correct Grammar (1989)

2 Word Processor Utility Windows

Correct Grammar is a grammar checking and analysis tool for DOS. Correct Grammar incorporates technology from the Houghton Mifflin CorrectText system.

2.x (Win)

Lotus Word Pro (1996)

2 Word Processor Windows

Word Pro was a word processor based upon Ami Pro (originally published by Samna).
Lotus acquired Samna in 1990. Word Pro 96 is the first release to no longer use the Ami Pro naming.

96
97

CompuWorks Office (1994)

2 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Database Windows

ComuWorks is an entry-level budget oriented integrated all-in-one office suite for Microsoft Windows 3.1. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, report writer, and charting tools.

2.x

Visual CADD (1994)

2 Engineering Windows

Visual CADD is a greatly enhanced version of Generic CADD designed for Microsoft Windows. It was created by Numera Software Corporation, which consisted of many original Generic CADD programmers, after Generic CADD was acquired and then abandoned by AutoDesk. It never regained its popularity and was eventually acquired by Corel and IMSI before finally landing at TriTools. The original developers also created another Generic CADD offshoot called General CADD Pro.

1.x