GrafTalk (1982) 0 Presentations Graphics CPM

GrafTalk is a business graphics package for CP/M systems. It can generate pie charts, line plots, symbol plots, composite plots, text, and color. It was considered "easy" to use, with menus, but also features a powerful command line interface.

• 2.x

dBASE (1983) 12 Database DOS Windows

Ashton-Tate dBase was an early popular database management system for CP/M and MS-DOS. It was regarded as one of the killer applications for CP/M, and achieved good success. At the time of conception Ashton-Tate was a garage based company but quickly grew.

• 5.x

GraphPlan (1983) 0 Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics CPM

GraphPlan, from Chang Labs, is an integrated spreadsheet/business graphics package that turns numbers into presentation-quality graphics - instantly. Historically important as being among the early "integrated" spreadsheet/graphing packages, and it uses Digital Research's GSX, a core graphics system that evolved in to GEM.

• 1.0

SynFile (1983) 0 Database Other

SynFile, from Synaps Software, is a database program for the Atari 400/800 computer.

• 1.x

InfoStar (1983) 0 Database DOS CPM

InfoStar, by MicroPro, a business-application- development system designed specifically for nonprogrammers, provides easy-to-use on-screen menus that guide users through each step of data entry-form design and detailed report generation. within the report and allows users to incorporate data from multiple files. Other features include a form generator and a sorting facility.

• 1.x

Informix (1983) 0 Database Unix

Informix is a powerful high-speed high-end multi-user relational database program originally developed for Unix and Xenix in the C programming language. It includes form and report building tools.

• 3.x

Microsoft Project (1984) 11 Planning Windows MacOS

Microsoft Project is a project management chart and gantt chart generator. It is a Microsoft Office family member, and built on the Office code, although it has never shipped with any Office suite.

• 1.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 95
• 98
• 2000

The Print Shop (1984) 5 Publishing Windows

The Print Shop is a home oriented publisher capable of creating calendars, banners, greeting cards and other printable goods. It started off on the Apple II and Commodore 64 where it became popular for its simplicity and ease of use. From day one, it featured interactive editing, on-screen artwork/layout selection, print previewing, and a library of customizable clipart.

• Deluxe (Win)
• Deluxe 2.0 (Win)
• Deluxe III
• Premier 5.x (Win)
• Deluxe 6.0 (Win)
• Ensemble III
• 2002 (Mac)

FileMaker (1984) 16 Database Windows MacOS

FileMaker is a very easy to use graphical flat-file database management tool from Claris that allows for visual form and report creation. Originally for DOS, there were Macintosh versions and later it was ported to Windows.

• Pro 2.x
• Pro 3.x
• Pro 5.x

Unify (1984) 0 Database Unix

Unify is a relational database for Unix based systems. There was also a DOS version.

• 3.1

Graphstation (1984) 0 Presentations Graphics CPM

Graphstation, from Signature Information Systems, is a graphing application for making business presentations.

• 1.x

DR Graph (1984) 0 Presentations DOS CPM

DR Graph is a business graphics creation program. It can create line, bar, pie, and scatter graphs and print them on a graphics printer. DR Graph is implemented using Digital Research's GSX graphics library, and can run on many different platforms.

• 1.x

Freelance Graphics (1985) 5 Presentations Graphics Windows

GCI/Lotus/IBM Freelance Graphics is a vector based presentation and graphing package developed for DOS, OS/2, and Windows. It was intended for use alongside Lotus 1-2-3. Later versions were part of SmartSuite. Before it was acquired by Lotus it was known Freelance, from Graphic Communications.

• 1.0 (Win)

R:Base (1985) 0 Database Windows

R:Base, from Microrim and first released in 1983, was a popular relational database that competed with Ashton Tate's dBASE product. R:Base was the first relational database for the IBM PC, also notable as earlier relational databases typically required more powerful hardware. R:Base also includes a form and report generator that is optimized for the capabilities of the IBM PC and features the ability to add or remove fields without losing data or relationships.

• 5.0 (Win)

FormTool (1985) 0 Database Windows

FormTool is an easy to use form creation and data entry application.

• 3.x
• 1.x for Windows

Ability (1985) 2 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.

• 1.5 for Windows
• 2000
• 2002

Omnis (1985) 0 Database Windows

Omnis, from the European based Blyth Software, is an easy to use multiuser relational database for Windows, MacOS, and OS/2. It was the first database ported to Microsoft Windows, which ran on Windows 1.0x.

• Quartz (Win)

Microsoft Works (1986) 44 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.

• 2.x (Win)
• 3.x (Win)
• 4.0
• 4.5
• 5.x
• 6.0
• 9.0

QuarkXPress (1986) 10 Publishing Windows

QuarkXPress was THE standard publishing software during the 1990s. However it failed to update its product line to newer technologies in a timely manager, charged insane amounts for updates or additional features that should have been built in to the software, and became very abusive to their customers. Later versions required a parallel port/ADB copy protection dongle. They lost most of their market share to Adobe InDesign.

• 4.0

AppleWorks (1986) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database Other

AppleWorks is an all-in-one Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics Editor, and Presentations tool. The original product was a text-based product for the Apple II. The Apple Macintosh and Windows versions were forked from ClarisWorks in 1998 by Apple. At the time, Apple was under a lot of pressure to have a direct alternative to Microsoft Office. There were serious concerns that Microsoft might pull Microsoft Office for the Macintosh from development.

• 2.x (Apple II)

Ventura Publisher (1986) 1 Publishing Windows

Ventura Publisher, originally from Xerox, is a professional desktop publishing program for the GEM graphical environment and later Windows. It has the distinction of being the first popular publishing program for the IBM PC platform. It competed with Aldus PageMaker, which initially was more popular on the Mac platform. There are also versions for Mac and OS/2.

• 3.0 for Windows
• 4.0 for Windows
• 4.1.x for Windows
• 4.2

Time Line (1986) 0 Planning Windows

A once popular, powerful, easy to use project management program first released in 1984 from Breakthrough Software. Has unlimited number of tasks, dependencies, resources, and cost categories. It competed against Microsoft Project, and CA-SuperProject. Breakthrough Software merged with Symantec in 1987. The final version was 6.x for Windows.

• 6.x

FontWorks (1986) 0 Utility Publishing Other

FontWorks is a utility that prints documents using high quality fonts on a dot-matrix printer. It was commonly sold as a companion product to AppleWorks on the Apple II. It can print sideways, it includes a number of high quality fonts, and includes a font editor.

• 2.x

PowerPoint (1987) 3 Presentations Windows MacOS

Microsoft PowerPoint is a graphical presentation tool that is today part of Microsoft Office. Prior to its acquisition by Microsoft, it was known as "Presenter" from Forethought Inc. These are the standalone versions. For the Office bundled versions, see Microsoft Office.

• 2.0
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 95 (7.0)

PageMaker (1987) 48 Publishing Windows OS2 MacOS

Aldus PageMaker, later Adobe PageMaker, is a desktop publishing program for Mac and Windows. First released in 1985, PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program for the Macintosh. It was followed over a year later with the release of 1.0 for the IBM PC. The PC version was a notable application as it was one of the few rare applications which would run under Windows 1.x. PC PageMaker 1.0 bundled a runtime version of Windows. This enabled MS-DOS users who had not decided to buy Windows to run PageMaker. Aldus skipped version 2.0 on the PC to bring version number in sync with the 3.0 Mac product.

• 1.00
• 1.0A
• 3.00
• 3.01
• 4.0
• 5.0
• 6.x