odds are when you sit down at your computer to write yet another exciting
tps report you're either using microsoft office or google's g suite which
together own nearly the entire market in the united states but it wasn't always
this way so today we're gonna look at some adulting software from yesteryear
in the third installment of our something part series where are they now
let's start with one of the first ever widespread word processors word star not
to be confused by the way with that hip hop youtube channel released in 1978
wordstar was the first word processor to feature what you see is what you get
text editing meaning that what you saw on the screen more or less looked like
what you'd get once you printed out your document it also featured keyboard
shortcuts that we take for granted today such as ctrl u to underline your
highlighted text these interface improvements coupled
with the fact that it was coded to work across a variety of systems meant that
by the mid-1980s wordstar had become immensely popular but as computing power
grew this portability became wordstar's
downfall other word processors written for the
increasingly dominant ibm pc and its compatibles offered pc specific features
that word star couldn't compete with and the product was in trouble by the late
1980s development ultimately ceased in 1999
but that doesn't mean it doesn't still have its fans notably george r.r martin
of game of thrones fame still uses word star for ms-dos to write his novels
maybe that's why it takes them so long to write a damn book
moving on one of the programs that displaced wordstar was word perfect
which brought lots of useful features such as macros support for a wide
variety of printers footnotes and automatic line numbering which is really
important for lawyers and academic writers in fact wordperfect was so
feature packed that it needed a 600 page
manual and a small army of tech support staff they even hired what were called
hold jaw keys to keep their customers entertained while they were waiting to
speak to tech support wait hold on a second is that still a job
where do i apply to be a hold jockey no all right by 1993 wordperfect
controlled over 60 of the market and was eventually sold to corel in 1996 who
envisioned it as becoming the pepsi to microsoft's coke
wordperfect even became integrated into a full office suite but unfortunately
when it came time to release wordperfect on Windows the transition wasn't very
smooth and microsoft took full advantage by releasing the familiar ms word along
with the rest of microsoft office now because microsoft office was designed by
the same company to be far more stable on Windows word perfect was left to play
catch-up especially since word and ms office relied more on the mouse which
was easier for mainstream users to use than trying to memorize key combinations
in the following years wordperfect lost much of its former popularity but some
law offices and government agencies still do swear by it and it's actually
still available to buy from corel with the newest version dating back to only
last year but not every microsoft productivity software was a smash hit
that crushed its competitors if you owned a pc anytime in the 1990s you
probably found a copy of microsoft works pre-installed like other office suites
it had a word processor a spreadsheet and a database manager and a huge part
of its appeal was it's low cost if it wasn't bundled with your pc it was easy
to get a copy for far cheaper than most other suites
now although it was stripped down and didn't offer a feature set nearly as
extensive as the full fat office suites its ease of use made it popular for home
users and unlike the full-blown version of office works was actually just one
program the database manager spreadsheet and word processor all ran in the same
window meaning that it was much easier for lower spec computers to run
however while works could open word
documents works files themselves were stored in a proprietary format making
the program unpopular with larger organizations
and once more robust free alternatives like g suite started hitting the scene
works was eventually replaced by a starter edition of microsoft office in
2010 finally we don't want to forget about our good friends that prefer using a mac
during the 90s a program called clarusworks became very popular and if
you went to school during the era where macs with their fancy graphical
interface were the most coveted systems in the computer lab chances are that you
remember it well claris was actually an apple created software studio that
bought a program called gs works from a different company which became its own
office suite both bundled with macs and sold on store shelves actually there was
even a Windows version designed to compete with microsoft works
clarisworks was very well reviewed and it even added a presentation program in
a later version something ms works didn't have the suite also had drawing
and painting programs making it a do-it-all program in a way that ms works
wasn't in fact clarisworks outsold microsoft works for a good chunk of the
90s but by 2005 claris works having
since been renamed appleworks was being displaced by iwork a more traditional
fully featured office suite that has been apple's main offering ever since
apple stopped selling appleworks in 2007 but you can actually still open old
files created using the software in iwork
so guys is there a rather obscure piece of software that you used to bang out
your school reports on lotus anyone let us know down in the comments but if
you'll excuse me for now i suddenly have an urge to see if i can get my old
typewriter working again but
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