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concluded: "Judging from recent sales, however, a good proportion of BSW users are adults. Designing a program for children, the Bank Street team inadvertently responded to a challenge the entire software industry faces: making computers accessible to people who do not understand machines and do not want to read manuals."
173:
and included a series of workbooks and other teacher and student materials. The Bank Street Writer became the leading word processor used in elementary schools throughout most of the 1980s. During this period, Bank Street
College, led by its president, Richard Ruopp, did pioneering work in the use of
229:
about how the Bank Street Writer ("BSW") was introducing word processing into the classroom. From the article: "Children who once struggled to write two-page stories are churning out five pages or more." and "Most important, the children cheerfully tackle the messy business of revision." The article
183:
The interface contains menus listing the operations the word processor can perform, such as "cut" and "paste", and brief directions for how to perform each function. The design addressed the need for a word processor that would enable elementary school children to use a computer to write stories and
238:
stated that Bank Street Writer was suited for home users wanting to write letters and school reports, albeit lacking footnotes. The author criticized the slow speed of the word processor for documents of three or more pages, reporting that he gave up on using it to write the review, but concluded
198:
published a successful home version of the Bank Street Writer, which did not contain the additional school materials and was published as a retail software product. The Bank Street Writer was for several years the best-selling product in the "home software" category on what was then the most
168:
The Bank Street Writer was initially designed for use in schools. The name was a modern-day reference to the Bank Street
Readers, a widely respected early learning book series created in the 1960s by Bank Street College. The school version of the Bank Street Writer was published by
160:
character to represent an actual capital letter. Microcomputer word processors of the early 1980s typically had no menus; so to perform basic functions such as copying and pasting, a writer had to type a series of keystrokes. The Bank Street Writer operated in
131:
in New York City, software developer
Franklin E. Smith, and programmers at Intentional Educations in Watertown, Massachusetts. The software was sold in two versions: one for elementary school students published by
252:
said that it was "a good word processor, but it has limited uses". While approving of its ease of use, the magazine criticized its 38x18 screen as "simply too small to display any but the simplest documents".
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that "in spite of its shortcomings, BSW is the easiest word processor program" for Atari 8-bit computers and that it "has almost everything going for it—it is up to the user to decide if it goes far enough".
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wrote, "The Bank Street Writer was designed for use at home by the family, and for those whose writing needs are on a small scale. This is a really good first word processor - for someone new to the Atari."
259:
said of an updated version, "There will probably never be a perfect word processor ... but Bank Street Writer Plus brings us a little closer to the unattainable."
220:
listed Bank Street Writer eighth on the magazine's list of top Apple II non-game, non-educational software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data.
148:
Prior to the advent of the Bank Street Writer, most word processors ran on networked minicomputers. The most popular word processor for the personal computer was
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approach of only offering one way to access functionality as limiting for more experienced users, saying there should be a way to bypass the menus.
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praised the software's ease of use, stating that they used their review copy for 2 hours before opening the manual.
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technology in elementary schools. Among the results were the Bank Street Writer and
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At its introduction, the program was the subject of a laudatory story in
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where all text consisted of uppercase letters. Apple Writer used a
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computers. It was designed in 1981 by a team of educators at the
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367:"Softsel Hotlist Charts Biggest Hits in Software and Hardware"
152:, which (prior to the version II release) operated in Apple's
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305:"In the beginning, there was the word processor"
192:key toggled between editing mode and menu mode.
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329:"Richard Ruopp, 65; Led Bank Street College"
199:respected sales chart in the industry - the
180:, a groundbreaking science-based TV series.
595:
440:
588:
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441:Leyenberger, Arthur (July–August 1983).
482:"Low-cost Word Processing on the Apple"
479:
1123:
569:
327:Saxon, Wolfgang (November 30, 1997).
500:
480:Gingras, Daniel J. (December 1984).
398:"Top Software / A List of Favorites"
13:
14:
1162:
561:Other Bank Street Software Titles
556:Popular Apple II software of 1983
549:
503:"Review: Bank Street Writer Plus"
396:Ciraolo, Michael (Oct–Nov 1985).
618:of early word processor programs
184:essays. Bank Street Writer is a
129:Bank Street College of Education
527:
513:
494:
385:Softsel/Merisel Company Profile
205:, from Softsel Distributing of
991:The First XLEnt Word Processor
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416:
378:
360:
340:
321:
297:
1:
1146:Atari 8-bit computer software
423:"Words at the Flick of a Key"
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212:
7:
501:Bobo, Ervin (August 1987).
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136:and a general version from
30:; 43 years ago
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24:
1141:Apple II word processors
1110:Category:Word processors
1087:IBM Displaywriter System
462:"The Bank Street Writer"
285:Bank Street Music Writer
16:Word processing software
906:MobiSystems OfficeSuite
870:Atlantis Word Processor
597:Word processor programs
521:"InfoWorld Mar. 5 1984"
177:The Voyage of the Mimi
1151:Commodore 64 software
207:Inglewood, California
105:Atari 8-bit computers
961:Atari Word Processor
916:Scientific WorkPlace
849:Nisus Writer Express
535:"Bank Street Writer"
443:"Bank Street Writer"
348:"Bank Street Writer"
541:. January 28, 1986.
490:. pp. A30–A37.
451:. pp. 125–126.
21:
1082:Friden Flexowriter
996:IBM Lotus Symphony
971:Bank Street Writer
883:IBM Lotus Word Pro
334:The New York Times
93:Bank Street Writer
20:Bank Street Writer
19:
1118:
1117:
934:
933:
875:Corel WordPerfect
769:Corel WordPerfect
470:. September 1983.
431:. March 14, 1983.
375:. March 20, 1988.
271:criticized BSW's
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89:
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854:Nisus Writer Pro
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684:Collabora Online
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448:ANALOG Computing
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235:ANALOG Computing
202:Softsel Hot List
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1136:Word processors
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1077:CPT Corporation
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986:Electric Pencil
976:Cut & Paste
930:
896:Microsoft Works
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878:(since v. 10.0)
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792:Kingsoft Writer
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523:. 5 March 1984.
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188:- pressing the
171:Scholastic Inc.
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25:Initial release
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772:(up to v. 9.0)
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757:Cross-platform
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727:
725:(since v. 3.x)
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712:Adobe Buzzword
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649:Calligra Words
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644:(up to v. 2.x)
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550:External links
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356:. 15 May 1984.
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65:Classic Mac OS
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981:davka writer
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951:Apple Writer
939:Discontinued
823:Nisus Writer
764:Adobe InCopy
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406:. Retrieved
404:. p. 51
402:II Computing
401:
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312:. Retrieved
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254:
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240:
233:
232:
224:
222:
218:II Computing
217:
216:
200:
194:
186:modal editor
182:
175:
167:
150:Apple Writer
147:
109:Commodore 64
92:
91:
57:Commodore 64
1021:SpeedScript
966:AtariWriter
839:Apple Pages
777:Google Docs
689:LibreOffice
654:GNU TeXmacs
629:Open-source
539:PC Magazine
353:PC Magazine
268:PC Magazine
53:Atari 8-bit
1125:Categories
1072:AlphaSmart
1039:StarOffice
1006:Magic Desk
956:AppleWorks
891:(enhanced)
750:Commercial
733:(standard)
694:OpenOffice
613:Comparison
408:28 January
314:2022-06-03
291:References
196:Broderbund
138:Broderbund
134:Scholastic
1092:IBM MT/ST
1054:NeoOffice
1011:PaperClip
901:Nota Bene
807:TextMaker
802:Scrivener
738:TextMaker
262:InfoWorld
213:Reception
154:text mode
1065:Hardware
1031:WordStar
1001:MacWrite
946:1st Word
911:PolyEdit
787:Ichitaro
705:Freeware
674:TextEdit
507:Compute!
279:See also
256:Compute!
101:Apple II
99:for the
49:Apple II
44:Platform
1035:Writer
926:XyWrite
921:WordPad
863:Windows
636:AbiWord
144:History
33: (
1026:Sprint
844:Mellel
782:Hangul
741:(2008)
679:Writer
123:, and
121:IBM PC
69:IBM PC
1049:Go-oo
888:Jarte
832:macOS
730:Jarte
659:KWord
509:: 56.
467:Antic
309:ZDNet
242:Antic
95:is a
1097:Wang
722:Bean
641:Bean
608:List
487:Byte
428:Time
410:2015
249:Byte
226:Time
125:PCjr
80:Type
73:PCjr
35:1981
28:1981
669:Ted
664:LyX
190:Esc
117:Mac
113:MSX
61:MSX
1127::
537:.
505:.
484:.
464:.
445:.
425:.
400:.
369:.
350:.
331:.
307:.
209:.
140:.
119:,
115:,
111:,
107:,
103:,
71:,
67:,
63:,
59:,
55:,
51:,
589:e
582:t
575:v
412:.
337:.
317:.
37:)
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