Ability (1985) 7 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.

• Plus 2.0

Adobe Acrobat (1993) 70 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

Clarion (1989) 1 Database DOS

Clarion is an advanced user friendly 4GL DBMS and programming environment for DOS and Windows. It boasted the ability to greatly reduce application development time, featured highly integrated visual creation tools, and a powerful set of program functions.

• 3.0 (DOS)
• 3.1 (DOS)

CorelDraw! (1989) 62 Graphics Publishing Unix

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)

DataPerfect (1993) 0 Word Processor Database DOS

DataPerfect, originally written by Lew Bastian, published through WordPerfect Corp, and later through Novell, was a fast, memory efficient, but capable relational database for DOS. WordPerfect Corp sold the product alongside their other DOS based office products, such as WordPerfect and PlanPerfect. In 1995 Novel released DataPerfect as freeware and development was continued by its original author until about 2008.

• 2.x

dBASE (1983) 58 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.

• IV v2.0
• 5.x

Expert Perfect Forms (1990) 0 Database DOS

Expert Software's Perfect Forms is a budget form creation and data entry tool. It comes with a large number of ready-to-use forms for a variety of business needs. You can customize existing forms, or create new ones.

• 3.00

FrameMaker (1990) 3 Publishing Windows Unix MacOS

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.

• 4.x

GeoPublish (1994) 0 Word Processor Publishing DOS

GeoPublish was a rudimentary desktop publishing program for the Apple II and C64 that ran under GEOS. In 1993, Geoworks re-released their commercial standalone Geoworks Writer product as a shareware product reprising the name GeoPublish.

• 2.x

Lotus Approach (1993) 0 Database DOS

Lotus Approach, originally from Approach Software Corporation, is a relational database management system. Approach promises "instant productivity" with its WYSIWYG form and report designer, and is compatible with many existing database formats. Approach started off as an independent product, was purchased by Lotus, and later IBM. It was included in Lotus SmartSuite for Microsoft Windows.

• 2.x

PasteUp (1992) 0 Publishing Unix

PasteUp is a text processing system that can arrange columns of text, provide typographical control, draw shapes, and other effects.

• 2.5

PC-File (1984) 4 Database DOS

PC-File is a simple flat file database management program for DOS. PC-File, along with PC-Write, and PC-Talk were the first popular products sold under the "Shareware" concept.

• 7.x

Perceive Personal (1993) 0 Publishing DOS

This is an early OCR program for DOS based computers.

• 1.1 for DOS

Policies Now! (1993) 0 Utility Publishing DOS

Policies Now is a document creation wizard that specializes in corporate policies. It provides general purpose templates with carefully constructed language that are customized via a series of questions. The results may be manually customized further with a built in text editor. accompanied by "DescriptionsWrite Now!" (A job description writing tool), and "Personal Policy Expert". These were renamed to "Policies Now!", "Description Now!", and "Policies Now! HR Pro Edition" respectively.

• 1.30

QuarkXPress (1986) 0 Publishing DOS

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.

• 3.x

StepWay Art Shop (1994) 0 Publishing DOS

StepWay Art Shop is a very low-end budget graphics editor for DOS. It appears to have been targeted at new computer users and educational markets. The StepWay software is considered "modular", with additional functionality added in separate modules, sold separately. The separate modules they sold included Desktop Publisher, Art Shop, To Do List, Checkbook, Banner, Cookbook, Home Inventory, Greeting Cards, Mail List, and Calendar.

• 1.x

StepWay Desktop Publisher (1994) 0 Graphics Publishing DOS

StepWay Desktop Publisher is a very low-end budget graphics editor and desktop publisher for DOS. It appears to have been targeted at new computer users and educational markets. The StepWay software is considered "modular", with additional functionality added in separate modules, sold separately. The separate modules they sold included Desktop Publisher, Art Shop, To Do List, Checkbook, Banner, Cookbook, Home Inventory, Greeting Cards, Mail List, and Calendar.

• 1.x

Timeworks DOS Office (1993) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Database DOS

Timeworks DOS Office, from Timeworks, Inc., is an office suite consisting of the Timeworks Word Writer PC word processor, the Timeworks SwftCalc spreadsheet, and the Timeworks Data Manager desktop database.

• 1.0

Xerox Globalview (1992) 6 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Publishing Communications Database Unix

Xerox Globalview is a desktop environment and office suite originally developed for the Xerox Star. It was developed in the MESA programming language on the Xerox Star, and ported to Sun Solaris, OS/2, and Windows 3.1 (The OS/2 version requires a MESA emulator card).

• 1.05 for X / SunOS