WEBVTT

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odds are when you sit down at your computer to write yet another exciting

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tps report you're either using microsoft office or google's g suite which

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together own nearly the entire market in the united states but it wasn't always

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this way so today we're gonna look at some adulting software from yesteryear

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in the third installment of our something part series where are they now

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let's start with one of the first ever widespread word processors word star not

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to be confused by the way with that hip hop youtube channel released in 1978

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wordstar was the first word processor to feature what you see is what you get

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text editing meaning that what you saw on the screen more or less looked like

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what you'd get once you printed out your document it also featured keyboard

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shortcuts that we take for granted today such as ctrl u to underline your

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highlighted text these interface improvements coupled

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with the fact that it was coded to work across a variety of systems meant that

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by the mid-1980s wordstar had become immensely popular but as computing power

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grew this portability became wordstar's

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downfall other word processors written for the

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increasingly dominant ibm pc and its compatibles offered pc specific features

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that word star couldn't compete with and the product was in trouble by the late

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1980s development ultimately ceased in 1999

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but that doesn't mean it doesn't still have its fans notably george r.r martin

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of game of thrones fame still uses word star for ms-dos to write his novels

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maybe that's why it takes them so long to write a damn book

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moving on one of the programs that displaced wordstar was word perfect

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which brought lots of useful features such as macros support for a wide

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variety of printers footnotes and automatic line numbering which is really

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important for lawyers and academic writers in fact wordperfect was so

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feature packed that it needed a 600 page

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manual and a small army of tech support staff they even hired what were called

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hold jaw keys to keep their customers entertained while they were waiting to

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speak to tech support wait hold on a second is that still a job

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where do i apply to be a hold jockey no all right by 1993 wordperfect

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controlled over 60 of the market and was eventually sold to corel in 1996 who

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envisioned it as becoming the pepsi to microsoft's coke

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wordperfect even became integrated into a full office suite but unfortunately

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when it came time to release wordperfect on Windows the transition wasn't very

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smooth and microsoft took full advantage by releasing the familiar ms word along

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with the rest of microsoft office now because microsoft office was designed by

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the same company to be far more stable on Windows word perfect was left to play

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catch-up especially since word and ms office relied more on the mouse which

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was easier for mainstream users to use than trying to memorize key combinations

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in the following years wordperfect lost much of its former popularity but some

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law offices and government agencies still do swear by it and it's actually

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still available to buy from corel with the newest version dating back to only

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last year but not every microsoft productivity software was a smash hit

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that crushed its competitors if you owned a pc anytime in the 1990s you

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probably found a copy of microsoft works pre-installed like other office suites

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it had a word processor a spreadsheet and a database manager and a huge part

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of its appeal was it's low cost if it wasn't bundled with your pc it was easy

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to get a copy for far cheaper than most other suites

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now although it was stripped down and didn't offer a feature set nearly as

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extensive as the full fat office suites its ease of use made it popular for home

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users and unlike the full-blown version of office works was actually just one

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program the database manager spreadsheet and word processor all ran in the same

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window meaning that it was much easier for lower spec computers to run

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however while works could open word

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documents works files themselves were stored in a proprietary format making

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the program unpopular with larger organizations

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and once more robust free alternatives like g suite started hitting the scene

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works was eventually replaced by a starter edition of microsoft office in

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2010 finally we don't want to forget about our good friends that prefer using a mac

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during the 90s a program called clarusworks became very popular and if

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you went to school during the era where macs with their fancy graphical

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interface were the most coveted systems in the computer lab chances are that you

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remember it well claris was actually an apple created software studio that

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bought a program called gs works from a different company which became its own

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office suite both bundled with macs and sold on store shelves actually there was

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even a Windows version designed to compete with microsoft works

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clarisworks was very well reviewed and it even added a presentation program in

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a later version something ms works didn't have the suite also had drawing

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and painting programs making it a do-it-all program in a way that ms works

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wasn't in fact clarisworks outsold microsoft works for a good chunk of the

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90s but by 2005 claris works having

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since been renamed appleworks was being displaced by iwork a more traditional

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fully featured office suite that has been apple's main offering ever since

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apple stopped selling appleworks in 2007 but you can actually still open old

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files created using the software in iwork

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so guys is there a rather obscure piece of software that you used to bang out

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your school reports on lotus anyone let us know down in the comments but if

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you'll excuse me for now i suddenly have an urge to see if i can get my old

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typewriter working again but

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the link in the video description so thanks for watching guys like dislike

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check out our other videos and leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a

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future fast as possible