Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 20 Graphics Engineering MacOS 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.

• r10 (Mac)
• r10 (Unix)
• r11 (Mac)
• r11 (Win)
• r12 (Mac)

The Print Shop (1984) 5 Publishing MacOS 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.

• 1.x (Mac)
• Deluxe (Win)
• Deluxe 1.x (Mac)
• Deluxe 2.0 (Win)
• Deluxe III
• Premier 5.x (Win)
• Deluxe 6.0 (Win)
• Ensemble III
• 2002 (Mac)

Sidekick (1984) 13 Utility PIM Windows

Borland Sidekick is a DOS based PIM (Personal Information Manager) and one of the first widely-used TSR (terminate and stay resident) programs. The key feature of Sidekick was that one could use Sidekick's utilities while using most other MS-DOS applications. This was important because MS-DOS had no built-in multi-tasking or task switching capabilities.

• 1.0 for Windows
• 2.0 for Windows

MacPaint (1984) 4 Graphics MacOS

MacPaint was designed as a simplified, easy to use raster/bit-mapped paint program, and was sold along side the original 1984 Apple Macintosh System. A historically notable feature was its ability to copy and paste images to and from other applications such as MacWrite. The final 2.0 version was released and maintained under Claris.

• 1.x

PC Paintbrush (1984) 4 Graphics Windows

ZSoft PC Paintbrush is a bitmap drawing program visually similar to MacPaint. The earlier DOS versions were often bundled with Microsoft and Microsoft compatible mice, and were notable for supporting a huge variety of video adapters. It competed against Mouse Systems PC Paint (not related despite the similar name). ZSoft PC Paintbrush eventually became Microsoft Paintbrush included in Windows 3.x. For Microsoft's rebranded version see Microsoft Mouse and Microsoft Paintbrush

• 1.05 (Win)
• Plus 1.x (Win)

PC Paint (1984) 4 Graphics Windows

PC Paint, from Mouse Systems Corporation, is a Macintosh MacPaint-like paint program for the PC. It was often bundled with Mouse Systems mice. Despite the similar sounding name and appearance, it is NOT related to Microsoft/ZSoft PC Paintbrush.

• 3.x

Microsoft Chart (1984) 0 Presentations MacOS

Microsoft Chart is a presentation graphics tool. You can use it to create line, bar, pie charts and more. It competed against titles such as PFS Graph, Chart Master, DR Graph, Harvard Presentation Graphics, and BPS Business Graphics. It was sometimes sold as a companion product to Multiplan. Microsoft later included charting functionality in Excel and PowerPoint.

• 1.0 (Mac)

PrintMaster (1985) 4 Graphics Windows

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.

• Gold 3.0 (Win)
• Gold 4.0 (Win)

Freelance Graphics (1985) 3 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)

Ability (1985) 22 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

VideoWorks (1985) 0 Presentations Graphics MacOS

VideoWorks is a Macintosh animation program that eventually became Macromedia/Adobe Director.

• 1.00
• II

Lotus Jazz (1985) 0 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database MacOS

Lotus Jazz was a heavily marketed all-in-one integrated office suite that included a word processor, spreadsheet, graphing, database, and communications program. Jazz was targeted as a universal solution for all office workers. Although at release, the program was exclusively for the Apple Macintosh 512k. Despite the marketing effort, it flopped miserably. Although it was from Lotus, the spreadsheet was not related to Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft Works.

• 1.x

Hayden Ensemble (1985) 1 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Database MacOS

Ensemble, created by Controle X and published by Hayden Software, is an integrated office suite that includes Spreadsheet, Graphing, Word Processing, and Database functionality. It was notable as claiming to be the first integrated suite on the Macintosh, before Lotus Jazz or Microsoft Works as well as its ability to run on both the Mac 512k and the original Mac 128k.

• 1.0

Harvard Graphics (1986) 13 Graphics Windows

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.

• 1.0 for Windows
• 2.0 for Windows
• 3.0 for Windows
• 4.0 for Windows

QuarkXPress (1986) 8 Publishing MacOS 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.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 4.0

MacDraw (1986) 1 Graphics MacOS

MacDraw, originally from Apple and later Claris, was an early vector based drawing application for MacOS. The original version was released alongside the Macintosh in 1984. It could be used in conjunction with MacWrite. Unlike MacPaint, MacDraw uses shapes and lines to build drawings, where MacPaint is completely bit-mapped. In 1993 the product was renamed to ClarisDraw as a Windows port was added.

• 1.x
• II

AppleWorks (1986) 3 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Communications Database MacOS Mac OS X

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.

• 5.x
• 6.x

In-a-Vision (1986) 0 Graphics Windows

In-a-Vision is a vector based drawing program that was one of the first commercial programs written for Microsoft Windows. It runs under Windows 1.x. Later versions of this software were called Micrografx Designer

• 1.x

Micrografx Windows Draw (1986) 3 Graphics Windows

Micrografx Draw is a free-form vector based drawing program with a collection of clipart. The earlier versions are especially notable as being among the few programs produced for Microsoft Windows 1.x.

• 1.04
• Plus 1.1
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 5.0
• 6.0

Ventura Publisher (1986) 24 Publishing MacOS 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.x for Macintosh
• 3.0 for Windows
• 4.0 for Windows
• 4.1.x for Windows
• 4.2

Ready Set GO (1986) 2 Publishing MacOS

Ready Set GO, from Manhattan Graphics Corporation, is a desktop publishing program for the Apple Macintosh. It competed against Mac Publisher, Scoop, Quark Xpress, and PageMaker.

• 3
• 4.5
• 6.0

FullPaint (1986) 0 Graphics MacOS

FullPaint, originally created by Ann Arbor Softworks, is a MacPaint work-alike for the Macintosh that adds many enhancements and improvements over MacPaint. It was acquired by Ashton-Tate as an attempt to enter the Macintosh market.

• 1.0

PowerPoint (1987) 15 Presentations MacOS Windows

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.

• 1.0
• 2.0
• 3.x
• 4.x
• 95 (7.0)
• 97/98

PageMaker (1987) 35 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

ACT! (1987) 11 PIM Windows

ACT!, or "Activity Control Technology", originally from Conductor Software, and later Contact Software and then Symantec, is an easy to use business relationship management system targeted at traveling sales professionals. It can track things like billable time and expenses.

• 1.x
• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 2000