244:, one of Apple's earliest employees, and included Don Breuner and Ed Ruder (co-founders of Encore Systems and also early Apple employees; Gabreal Franklin later joined Encore Systems as President.) Wigginton, who had left Apple in 1981, maintained a relationship with many Apple employees, many of whom were on the Macintosh development team. He agreed to lead the MacWrite development team on a semi-official basis. Before it was released, MacWrite was known as "Macintosh WP" (Word Processor) and "MacAuthor". Allegedly,
237:, but no third-party software would be available for it, nor could users easily write their own. Users would end up with a computer that did nothing. In order to fill this void, several members of the Mac team took it upon themselves to write simple applications to fill these roles until third-party developers published more full-fledged software. The result was MacWrite and MacPaint, which shipped free with every Macintosh from 1984 to 1986.
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353:. This included a common toolbar running down the left side of the screen, and a number of standardized tool palettes. In addition, the Pro series also used common international spelling dictionaries and a thesaurus. The result was a suite of products that all look and work the same way, and are able to read and write each other's formats.
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The resulting MacWrite Pro, released in early 1993, was a major upgrade from previous versions. Reviewers almost universally praised the new release as offering all the required tools while still being very easy to use. However, development had been slow; one developer claimed it was primarily due to
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of their own, but on the Mac, users would instead be expected to stay in the standard GUI both for launching and running programs. Having an approachable, consistent GUI was an advantage for the Mac platform, but unlike prior personal computers, the Mac was sold with no programming language built-in.
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The first versions of MacWrite were rather limited, supporting only the most basic editing features and able to handle just a few pages of text before running into performance problems. (Early versions of MacWrite held the entire document in memory, and early versions of the
Macintosh had relatively
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MacWrite's inclusion with the
Macintosh discouraged developers from creating other word processing software for the computer. Apple unbundled the software with the introduction of the Macintosh Plus, requiring customers to purchase it for the first time. Strong sales continued, and Apple eventually
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requirements. By the time MacWrite Pro was released, Word completely dominated the word processor market. Pro did little to address MacWrite's rapidly dwindling market share, which briefly stabilized at about 5% of the market before starting to slide again. Sales were apparently dismal, and it was
337:
By 1989 Word already dominated the Mac with about 60% market share, but the introduction of MacWrite II changed things dramatically; by 1990 Word had dropped to about 45% of the market, and MacWrite had risen to about 30%. This seemed to demonstrate that it would be worth developing further, but
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Claris formed in 1987 and re-released the existing versions of the Apple products under their own name. Initially it seemed Claris was as uninterested in developing MacWrite as Apple had been. Several minor upgrades were released to allow MacWrite to run on newer versions of the
192:, but further improvements were few and far between. By the mid-1990s, MacWrite was no longer a serious contender in the word processing market, development ended around 1995, and it was completely discontinued in 1998 due to dwindling sales.
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Unfortunately this plan backfired. Users flooded Apple with complaints, demanding newer versions that would keep pace with new features in the Mac, while at the same time developers flooded Apple with complaints about there being any
265:-based word processor, with such features as a toolbar for selecting paragraph formatting options, font and style menus, and a ruler for tabs, margins, and indents. Similar word processors followed, including the first GUI version of
326:
Things changed in the later 1980s with the introduction of MacWrite II. The main changes for this release were an updated user interface, a number of new "style" capabilities, and the inclusion of Claris' file translator technology,
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was very similar to MacWrite Pro. While it was written entirely from scratch, it retained some of the design limitations of MacWrite Pro. However, later versions of AppleWorks are unable to read older MacWrite Pro files.
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In the late 1980s, Claris started a massive upgrade series to produce the "Pro" line of products. The main change would be to integrate all of their products with a consistent GUI based on that of
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When the Mac was first being created, it was clear that users would interact with it differently from other personal computers. Typical computers of the era booted into text-only
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allowed dramatically better output, at a price. However, the possibilities of the GUI/MacWrite/LaserWriter combination were obvious and this, in turn, spurred the development of
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now seems frozen in time ... it lags behind other word processors in power and responsiveness, and it's clearly unsuited for outlining, layout, and other advanced tasks".
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was not convinced of his team's abilities, and secretly commissioned another project just to be sure; its development was eventually released as
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little free memory.) Nevertheless, it increased user expectations of a word processing program. MacWrite established the conventions for a
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Microsoft, on the other hand, did, and soon introduced Word 4.0. MacWrite's share once again started to erode.
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and WriteNow, which addressed many of MacWrite's limitations while adhering to much the same user interface.
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of an upgrade. Apple finally decided the only solution was to spin off the products as a separate company,
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environments, requiring the users to type in commands. Some of these programs may have presented a
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let MacWrite and MacPaint languish with no development resources assigned to improving them.
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The MacWrite development team was a company called Encore
Systems, founded and led by
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748:(shows a chart indicating MacWrite II's brief but meteoric rise in market share)
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one of the first products Claris abandoned in the mid-1990s.
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Claris did not respond quickly with updated versions.
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173:" that propelled the adoption and popularity of the
188:. A further series of improvements produced 1993's
522:"Claris puts old Mac applications out to pasture"
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1425:Classic Mac OS-only software made by Apple Inc.
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378:In a survey of five Macintosh word processors,
716:. Vol. 15, no. 38. pp. 102–104.
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708:"MacWrite Pro: It could be a major contender"
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16:Word processor released with first Macintosh
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283:, but quality was only adequate. The later
184:, which released a major update in 1989 as
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382:in 1987 wrote that "once a bold pioneer,
323:, but few other problems were addressed.
657:Mac Finder..etc.. upgrade available FREE
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177:in general, and the Mac in particular.
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706:Assadi, Barbara (September 20, 1993).
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1378:List of Apple II application software
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557:. Vol. 3, no. 7. p. 10
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549:Coulter, Leann (November 7, 1993).
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272:The original Mac could print to a
169:, it was one of the two original "
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520:Walsh, Jeff (November 24, 1997).
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622:"A Brief History of ClarisWorks"
484:, the word processor in Apple's
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683:
586:. December 1987. pp. 54–60
580:"Macintosh: The Word Explosion"
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165:systems in 1984. Together with
1420:Classic Mac OS word processors
1386:List of old Macintosh software
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661:
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365:The word-processing module of
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161:released along with the first
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584:Compute!'s Apple Applications
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380:Compute!'s Apple Applications
646:Apple's new MacIntosh: specs
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229:This presented a problem to
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82:; 30 years ago
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180:MacWrite was spun off to
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223:graphical user interface
1415:Classic Mac OS software
690:Re: Claris MacWrite 5.0
477:List of word processors
210:
1410:Discontinued software
724:, University of Texas
215:disk operating system
208:
1382:List of Mac software
1189:Apple Remote Desktop
626:groups.csail.mit.edu
357:extremely demanding
111:System 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
80:Pro 1.5 / 1994
679:New MacDraw release
171:killer applications
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551:"Evolutionary Man"
292:desktop publishing
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154:is a discontinued
21:
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1247:Interface Builder
891:Final Cut Express
792:Operating systems
722:"Word processors"
468:
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408:January 24, 1984
359:quality assurance
149:
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1019:Final Cut Studio
979:Apple Media Tool
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740:Archived version
720:Stan Liebowitz,
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805:Apple III (SOS)
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746:Word processors
738:at mac512.com (
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668:Ramblings 5/85
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267:Microsoft Word
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256:Early versions
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159:word processor
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75:Final release
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1293:iAd Producer
1199:macOS Server
1194:FoundationDB
1137:
1031:Logic Studio
1024:Cinema Tools
967:Professional
840:macOS (OS X)
782:Software by
711:
699:Bibliography
685:
674:
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641:
629:. Retrieved
625:
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590:November 29,
588:. Retrieved
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559:. Retrieved
554:
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532:. Retrieved
530:. p. 35
525:
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348:
345:MacWrite Pro
340:
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212:
209:MacWrite 1.0
190:MacWrite Pro
189:
185:
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151:
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37:Developer(s)
18:
1242:Instruments
1153:Photo Booth
1046:MacTerminal
845:MacWorks XL
605:Assadi 1993
456:March 1993
440:March 1988
424:April 1985
333:Quark, Inc.
314:MacWrite II
304:possibility
285:LaserWriter
281:ImageWriter
279:called the
201:Development
186:MacWrite II
144:Proprietary
1399:Categories
1332:AppleWorks
1204:WebObjects
1093:AppleWorks
1041:MacProject
1014:Compressor
901:GarageBand
618:Hearn, Bob
502:References
432:July 1987
367:AppleWorks
274:dot matrix
246:Steve Jobs
1362:QuickTime
1342:Boot Camp
1232:HyperCard
1224:Developer
1148:Passwords
1077:Classroom
1070:Education
1051:MainStage
1036:Logic Pro
999:FileMaker
896:Front Row
800:Apple DOS
713:InfoWorld
561:August 2,
555:NeXTWorld
534:August 2,
527:InfoWorld
507:Citations
416:May 1984
374:Reception
351:FileMaker
1357:MobileMe
1308:MobileMe
1288:Dashcode
1276:Internet
1173:TextEdit
1163:Podcasts
1138:MacWrite
1133:MacPaint
1123:FaceTime
1118:Messages
1108:Contacts
1103:Calendar
974:Aperture
874:Consumer
860:visionOS
736:MacWrite
631:July 24,
620:(2003).
496:Mac OS X
492:TextEdit
471:See also
461:Pro 1.5
453:Pro 1.0
397:Version
384:MacWrite
250:WriteNow
235:paradigm
167:MacPaint
152:MacWrite
119:System 7
115:System 6
22:MacWrite
1337:Bonjour
1319:Windows
1257:ResEdit
1128:MacDraw
1086:Bundled
946:Numbers
936:Keynote
865:watchOS
835:Lisa OS
277:printer
196:History
156:WYSIWYG
139:License
85: (
60: (
1352:iTunes
1347:iCloud
1182:Server
1168:Safari
1158:Photos
1009:Motion
953:iPhoto
926:iTunes
921:iMovie
906:iCloud
850:ProDOS
825:iPadOS
815:Darwin
308:Claris
182:Claris
46:Claris
1298:iChat
1267:Xcode
1262:Swift
1209:Xgrid
1143:Music
1098:Books
1056:Shake
989:Color
941:Pages
931:iWork
916:iLife
886:Clips
881:Bento
830:GS/OS
784:Apple
488:suite
486:iWork
482:Pages
464:1994
231:Apple
219:BASIC
1303:iWeb
1283:.Mac
1214:Xsan
1113:Mail
911:iDVD
855:tvOS
633:2016
592:2017
563:2021
536:2021
437:5.0
429:4.6
421:4.5
413:2.2
405:1.0
329:XTND
127:Type
87:1994
62:1984
55:1984
1317:on
820:iOS
445:II
263:GUI
217:or
175:GUI
1401::
1384:•
1380:•
710:.
624:.
582:.
571:^
553:.
524:.
310:.
252:.
44:,
775:e
768:t
761:v
742:)
635:.
594:.
565:.
538:.
121:)
109:(
89:)
64:)
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