Microsoft Works (1986) 55 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

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.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

Adobe Acrobat Reader (1994) 5 Document DOS MacOS

Acrobat Reader is the free software from Adobe used to read, view, and print documents created by the commercial Adobe Acrobat product. Its primary strength is that documents appear and print identically across differing systems.

• 1.0

Calendar Creator Plus (1990) 2 Novelty PIM DOS

Calendar Creator Plus from Vermont Creative Software/Power Up, and later Spinnaker Software, is a tool for creating printed calendars with different styles and custom lists of events.

• 3.x (DOS)

WordPerfect (1983) 34 Word Processor DOS

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.

• 3.x (DOS)
• 4.x (DOS)
• 5.0 (DOS)
• 5.1 (DOS)
• 6.x (DOS)
• 7.x (Unix)

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 2 Graphics Publishing Novelty DOS

Instant Artist, later renamed to Print Artist, is a greeting card and sign creation program that uses vectorized graphics. It was created by The Pixellite Group, the original authors of The Print Shop, and published in 1992 by Autodesk. It was later sold by Sierra On-line. It features a high quality set of generic reusable clip art. The clip art uses vector based technology that was also used in BannerMania.

• 1.0 (DOS)

WordPerfect Library (1998) 0 Utility Editor PIM DOS

WordPerfect Library, introduced in 1986 and later renamed WordPerfect Office (not to be confused with Corel's Windows office suite of the same name), was a package of DOS network and stand-alone utility software for use with WordPerfect. The package included a DOS menu shell and file manager, whose macros allowed text to be moved from one program to another (for example, from WordPerfect to Calendar, and vice versa), a do-all editor, apparently that of Wordperfect 3.0, which could edit binary files as well as WordPerfect or Shell macros, calendar, and a general purpose flat file database program that could be used as the data file for a merge in WordPerfect and as a contact manager.

• 2.0

PrintMaster (1985) 1 Graphics DOS

Print Master was another sign and banner creation program similar to The Print Shop. The earlier version got in to trouble for looking too much like the Print Shop.

• 1.0
• Plus 2.0
• Gold 1.0 (DOS)

Vistapro (1992) 2 Graphics Other DOS

Vistapro is a three-dimensional landscape simulation program. Using U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) files, Vistapro can accurately recreate real world landscapes in vivid detail. It can also create fractal based landscapes, and provides many customizations. Vistapro originated on the Amiga and also had a Macintosh port.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

GroupWise (1997) 0 Communications PIM Server DOS

Originally created by WordPerfect Corp in 1987 as WordPerfect Office (groupware), and acquired by Novell in 1994 where it became GroupWise, GroupWise is a cross-platform collaboration platform that includes email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management.

• 5.x

Microsoft Word (1983) 122 Word Processor 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.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• 4.0 (DOS)
• 5.x (DOS and OS/2)
• 6.x

America Online (1992) 1 Web Browser Chat DOS Windows

America Online was a proprietary dial-up online service that eventually grew to offerer Internet access. In the mid 1990s AOL was very heavily promoted. Every month or two, you were sure to get a free AOL floppy disk or CD-ROM in the mail. AOL originated as PC-Link.

• 1.x

Harvard Graphics (1986) 7 Graphics DOS

Harvard Graphics, from Software Publishing Corporation and initially called Harvard Presentation Graphics, is a graphing/plotting/presentation creation application for DOS. It was extremely popular in the late 1980s. At release, it competed against many graphing products such as PFS:Graph (AKA IBM Graphing Assistant ), Microsoft Chart, ChartMaster, and Cricket Graph, just to name a small few. A Windows port was released in 1991, but it lost out to Microsoft Powerpoint.

• A.00
• A.01
• 2.x
• 3.x

XyWrite (1984) 1 Word Processor DOS

XyWrite is a word processor for MS-DOS and Windows modeled on the mainframe-based ATEX typesetting system. Popular with writers and editors for its speed and degree of customization, XyWrite was in its heyday the house word processor in many editorial offices, including the New York Times from 1989 to 1993. XyWrite was developed by David Erickson and marketed by XyQuest from 1982 through 1992, after which it was acquired by The Technology Group. The final version for MS-DOS was 4.18 (1993); for Windows, 4.13. An offshoot descendant of XyWrite called Nota Bene is still being actively developed.

• II Plus v1.10
• 4

WordStar (1981) 29 Word Processor DOS CPM

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.

• 3.30
• for PCjr
• 2000
• 4.0
• 1512
• 5.0
• COLT
• 5.5
• 6
• 7

Professional Write (1986) 21 Word Processor DOS

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.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 3.0

InfoCentral (1994) 0 PIM DOS

InfoCentral is Personal Information Manager that can create and store outlines, calendars, contacts, and todo lists using an object-oriented tree structure. It features a customizable database, can "connect" to information from other windows programs, a built-in dialer, and bundles several pre-populated reference "ibases". purchased by Novell, and later owned by Corel. It was initially part of WordPerfect's "Main Street" software family. Software Inc Ecco Professional.

• 1.10

Textra (1985) 7 Word Processor DOS

Textra, from the University of Michigan based Ann Arbor Software, was a small and fast word processor highly optimized for speed and rapid data entry. First released in 1982 Textra, like many other early PC word processors, was born out of the lack of a decent IBM PC editor/word processor. Textra featured a full set of text manipulation commands, common text formatting abilities, and full screen editing. It was specifically designed for the IBM PC, giving it faster load and save times and the most responsive user interface possible. It was priced much lower than most other text editors or word processors.

• 3.x
• 6.0
• 7.0

MicroStation (1991) 3 Graphics DOS

First released in 1985, MicroStation is a computer aided design program originally written to read and later write Interactive Graphics Design System (an early single-purpose hardware/software CAD system) design files. It was influenced by Bentley System's 1984 graphics terminal based PseudoStation software. The file format, and therefore the software, became a standard in government agencies.

• 4.0.x
• 5.0.x

WordPerfect Works (1992) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Database DOS

WordPerfect Works was an all-in-one integrated office productivity package that included a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, database, and a communications program. Initially it was just for DOS, but later there was a version for Microsoft Windows. Corporation's smaller lightweight programs. This included LetterPerfect, a scaled down DrawPerfect, PlanPerfect, and the WordPerfect Executive shell. The database was based around the Mailmerge system.

• 1.0

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

Autodesk Animator Pro (1993) 3 Graphics DOS

First released in 1989, AutoDesk Animator was a DOS-based professional animation tool. It could create full motion animations using VGA 320*200 256 color resolutions. It supports a number of animation techniques, and includes a freely redistributable animation player. It saves animations to the .FLI or "QuickFlick" format. This format was extremely popular during the very early 90s, and was one of the few that could do 256 colors, including pallet manipulation.

• 1.x

ChiWriter (1990) 0 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

Freelance Graphics (1985) 0 Presentations Graphics DOS

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 (DOS)
• 2.0 (DOS)
• 4.0 (DOS)

3D FloorPlan Designer (1993) 1 Graphics DOS

3D FloorPlan is a 3-dimensional architectural and space planning program for small business professionals and home users. The user may design a home addition or remodel in 2D and FloorPlan automatically converts the drawing into 3D. The user can then walk through the 3D model in real time.

• 2.0