Ability (1985) 6 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

Adobe Acrobat (1993) 44 Publishing Windows Unix MacOS

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.

• 3.x

ArcView GIS (1996) 15 Graphics Other Database Windows

ArcView, from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is a geographical information system program for Win9x/NT.

• 3.0

Arts and Letters Graphics Editor (1989) 4 Publishing Windows

Arts & Letters, from Computer Support Corporation, is an easy to use line based illustration package. It competed against Corel Draw, and Micrografx Designer. Features include multitasking, rotation, different viewing levels, shading, color, and image combining. The first version was for MS-DOS, and version 2 ran under Windows 2. It later repositioned itself as a sign/banner type program like the Print Shop.

• 5.0
• 6.0

Aslightly LabelPro (1991) 4 Publishing Windows

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.

• 3.x (Win)

ClarisWorks (1991) 19 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Publishing Database Windows MacOS

ClarisWorks is an all-in-one Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Graphics Editor, and Presentations tool from Claris. In 1998, after version 5.0.2, ClairsWorks was purchased by Apple and re-branded under the "AppleWorks" name. It is not related to the Apple II AppleWorks product.

• 4.x

Corel Office (1996) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Windows

Corel Office is a software bundle that includes WordPerfect and a number of other office applications. It competed unsuccessfully against Microsoft Office. 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")

• 6.1
• 7

CorelDraw! (1989) 55 Graphics Publishing Unix Windows

Corel Draw is a vector based drawing and illustration program. It is primarily a Windows application, but was ported to Mac OS, Mac OS X, Linux, CTOS and OS/2. It competed against Aldus Freehand, Adobe Illustrator, and Micrografx Designer.

• 3.5 (Unix)
• 6.0

Deneba Canvas (1994) 8 Graphics Publishing Windows

Deneba Canvas is a shape based drawing and illustration program for the PC and mac. Unlike other publishing programs of the time, Canvas combined the ability to use vector graphics and raster images. It could also function as a word processor.

• 5.x

FontMinder (1993) 2 Utility Publishing Windows

FontMinder, by Dennis Harrington & Costas Kistos, is a font management tool that streamlines the installation and archival of Windows TrueType and Adobe Type Manager fonts.

• 2.5

FrameMaker (1990) 5 Publishing Windows

FrameMaker, originally from Frame Technology Corporation and later Adobe, is a professional document system for creating large, complex documents with highly structured layout. It was often accompanied by FrameReader.

• 5.0

FrameReader (1996) 3 Publishing Windows

FrameReader is a document viewer for Frame Technology/Adobe FrameMaker.

• 5.x

FreeHand (1988) 7 Graphics Publishing Windows

FreeHand is a vector based drawing program used to create illustrations. It is similar to CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator. Initially it offered more features and flexibility than illustrator. It was created by Altsys, sold through Aldus, then sold to Macromedia, and then finally was assimilated by Adobe. Later versions repositioned itself as a content creation system for the web through Flash. The final version was Freehand MX (version 11) in 2003.

• 5.0

Greetings (1996) 1 Publishing Windows

Greetings, from Parsons Technologies, is a budget greeting card, poster, and banner generator for Macintosh and Windows. It includes a set of graphic clipart. Greetings is more free-form than most card creators and does not try to guide the user through each step. It was sometimes given away as a freebee. Not to be confused with Microsoft Greetings.

• 2.0

HiJaak (1991) 6 Graphics Publishing Windows

The original HiJaak program, from Inset Systems, is a powerful screen capture tool and image converter that can perform batch conversion between a large number of formats. The later Windows version are a powerful raster-to-vector graphics conversion and editing tool that can convert between a huge number of bitmap and vector file formats.

• 95
• 4.0

Labels Unlimited (1994) 2 Publishing Windows

Labels Unlimited is a "professional" easy to use program designed specifically for making labels. It includes templates for VHS video cassettes, audio cassettes, floppy disks, mailing labels, and Avery printer labels. It features a WYSIWYG interface, supports text, graphics, sequences, and much more.

• 2.x (Win)

Lighthouse Design Ltd Productivity Applications for NEXTSTEP and OpenStep (1995) 1 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Publishing Communications Other Database Mathematics Other

Lighthouse Design Ltd Productivity Applications is an application suite of programs for NeXT computers.

• MAY 1995

Lotus SmartSuite (1992) 45 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations PIM Database Windows

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.

• 4.0
• 96

Micrografx Picture Publisher (1990) 5 Graphics Publishing Windows

Formerly Astral Picture Publisher, Micrografx Picture Publisher is a bitmapped image editor for Windows that offered powerful and feature rich 24-bit color image editing on the Microsoft Windows platform prior to Photoshop for Windows. Picture Publisher was briefly considered the leading image editor on the Microsoft Windows platform until Adobe made Photoshop available for Windows.

• 6.0

Microsoft Excel (1985) 78 Spreadsheet Windows

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

• 95 (7.0)

Microsoft FrontPage (1995) 14 Publishing Windows

Microsoft FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor/Cuisinart for Microsoft Windows.

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 97 (v2)

Microsoft Great Greetings (1995) 2 Publishing Windows

Microsoft Great Greetings is a greeting card creation program that runs within the Microsoft BOB environment. It is unique in that it was the only retail product produced for Microsoft BOB. It is not quite the same as Microsoft's mainstream card software: Microsoft Greetings.

• 1.0

Microsoft Office (1991) 289 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.

• 95
• 97/98

Microsoft Publisher (1991) 24 Publishing Windows

Publisher is a desktop publishing tool from Microsoft geared towards ease of use with the home user. Microsoft publisher can be used to created professional looking newsletters, flyers, forms, and more. It includes guides and wizards that walk users through creation of common document types, while still offering powerful flexibility.

• 95 (3.0)
• 97 (4.0)

Microsoft Works (1986) 145 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.

• 4.0