Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software ) is application software used for producing information (such as documents , presentations , worksheets , databases , charts , graphs , digital paintings , electronic music and digital video ). Its names arose from it increasing productivity , especially of individual office workers , from typists to knowledge workers , although its scope is now wider than that. Office suites , which brought word processing , spreadsheet , and relational database programs to the desktop in the 1980s, are the core example of productivity software. They revolutionized the office with the magnitude of the productivity increase they brought as compared with the pre-1980s office environments of typewriters, paper filing, and handwritten lists and ledgers. In the United States, some 78% of "middle-skill" occupations (those that call for more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree ) now require the use of productivity software. In the 2010s, productivity software had become even more consumerized than it already was, as computing became ever more integrated into daily personal life.
40-562: AppleWorks was an integrated office suite containing a word processor , database , and spreadsheet . It was developed by Rupert Lissner for Apple Computer , originally for the Apple II and launched in 1984. Many enhancements for AppleWorks were created, the most popular being the TimeOut series from Beagle Bros which extended the life of the Apple II version of AppleWorks. Appleworks
80-616: A column criticizing companies that developed AppleWorks-related products instead of new ones ("thinks small and innovates nothing"). Two years later Beagle Bros released the TimeOut series for AppleWorks and grossed millions of dollars. Thanks to the UltraMacros programming language they included, many other third-party developers innovated new products that used AppleWorks as a foundation and virtual operating system. Compute!'s Apple Applications reported in 1987 that "AppleWorks has become
120-449: A common clipboard . Previous Apple II application programs had mainly been designed with the older II/II+ line in mind, having only 48K of RAM and 40-column text (in the absence of an add-on card), thus limiting the software's capabilities. In contrast, Appleworks was designed for the IIe and IIc models which have more RAM, standard 80-column text, an optional numeric keypad, cursor keys, and
160-577: A failure to shift into other markets caused Applied Engineering to go out of business by 1994. Some of Applied Engineering's best-known products for the Apple II included: The TransWarp family of Apple II accelerators consisted of multiple products. The original TransWarp took over from the standard 1-MHz 6502 or 65C02 used in the Apple IIe with a 3.6 MHz version of the 65C02 (which could also be run at 1.8 MHz, selectable through hardware) and turned on and off completely through software. The TransWarp
200-493: A frontier for software developers", and predicted that "Soon, the best software on the Apple II computer line will require AppleWorks". Claris contracted with Beagle Bros to upgrade AppleWorks to version 3.0 in 1989; TimeOut developers Alan Bird, Randy Brandt, and Rob Renstrom added new features and incorporated numerous TimeOut functions. By 1989, Claris turned its attention to producing Macintosh and Windows software, letting AppleWorks languish. Claris did, however, agree to license
240-496: A long time. AppleWorks GS can open AppleWorks files without needing to import them first. The second incarnation of AppleWorks began as ClarisWorks, written by Bob Hearn and Scott Holdaway and published by Claris, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, also known as FileMaker Inc. ) The Creator code of ClarisWorks for the Macintosh is "BOBO". ClarisWorks combines these applications: All the components are integrated to provide
280-598: A number of file formats. For example, word processor documents can be saved in Microsoft Word format, and spreadsheet files can be saved in Microsoft Excel format. The software received good reviews during the course of its lifespan for its interface and the tight integration of its modules. For example, like the earlier versions, in AppleWorks a drawing "frame" can be placed in a spreadsheet document,
320-431: A paint frame can be placed in a drawing document, etc. This allows for very elaborate and data-rich layouts. However, the limitations of the product became more apparent as the product aged. The program also only allows for a single undo/redo, and in many cases, if a frame from one module is placed in another module, the frame may no longer be editable in any way as soon as it is deselected. Equation Editor by Design Science
360-641: A popular program and saw rapid development. Those applications do not share any code with the 8-bit Apple II original. Apple absorbed Claris and the name ClarisWorks was changed to AppleWorks. It was bundled with all consumer-level Macintoshes sold by Apple until its discontinuation. As of 2007, AppleWorks had not been updated in several years and was unable to run on the Intel processors shipping in new Macs. On August 15, 2007, Apple announced AppleWorks had reached end-of-life status , and would no longer be sold. Apple instead promoted its recently launched iWork suite as
400-404: A replacement, which contains word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications with capabilities similar to AppleWorks, but is not directly compatible with AppleWorks file formats. Developed by Rupert Lissner, the original AppleWorks is one of the first integrated office suites for personal computers, featuring a word processor, spreadsheet, and database merged into a single program. It
440-490: A seamless suite that works in concert; for example, spreadsheet frames can be embedded in a word processing document, or formatted text into drawings, etc. The components are not derived from the contemporary Claris programs MacWrite and MacDraw but written from scratch and then redesigned to match other Claris programs after the purchase by Claris. ClarisWorks 1.0 shipped for the Macintosh in October 1991. ClarisWorks 2.0
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#1732780386916480-726: A substantial market for third-party accessories and support. Apple released version 2.0 in 1986 with the Apple IIGS , and then a year later the program was published by Claris. The September 1986 issue of inCider contained two AppleWorks-related articles; advertisements for two AppleWorks-related expansion cards from Applied Engineering , an application promising to let AppleWorks run on an Apple II Plus with an 80-column display board, an AppleWorks-dedicated newsletter called The Main Menu , and an AppleWorks-related product from Beagle Bros ; many other advertisements that mentioned AppleWorks; and
520-700: A suite, effectively discounted the individual applications, with four or five applications being bundled for the price of two applications bought separately. When faced with such potential savings, customers could be "tempted by the suite, rather than the value of a particular product", and by 1994 more than 60 percent of the sales of Microsoft Word and around 70 percent of the sales of Microsoft Excel were as part of sales of Microsoft Office. Such considerations had an impact on vendors of individual applications, often smaller companies, raising concerns that office suites were "stifling innovation", and even established vendors such as Borland and WordPerfect were having to adapt to
560-530: Is bundled with AppleWorks. Also, the MathType or MathMagic equation editors can be used. Both support automatic baseline alignment for inline equations. In August 2007, Apple declared AppleWorks " end of life " and stated that they would no longer sell the package. The iWork package, which includes a word processing program, a spreadsheet, and a presentation graphics program, is intended to be its replacement. While more feature-rich , iWork still lacks some of
600-425: Is one of the reasons people use personal computers . An office suite is a bundle of productivity software (a software suite ) intended to be used by office workers . The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways that the operating system would not normally allow. The earliest office suite for personal computers
640-650: The Apple IIGS is AppleWorks . No mouse interface, no color, no graphics. Just AppleWorks from the IIe and IIc world". The magazine wondered in an editorial, " AppleWorks , Where Are You?", stating that a IIGS version of AppleWorks or another AppleWorks-like integrated suite "could galvanize the machine's sales" and warned that otherwise "the IIGS may well languish". In 1988, Claris acquired an integrated package called GS Works from StyleWare and renamed it AppleWorks GS, bringing
680-408: The AppleWorks brand to the 16-bit Apple IIGS , though no code from the 8-bit Apple II version is used. In addition to the word processing, database, and spreadsheet functions, AppleWorks GS also includes telecommunications, page layout and graphics modules. Only one major version of AppleWorks GS exists, progressing as far as 1.1; a vaporware 2.0 update was rumored to be "just short of completion" for
720-450: The AppleWorks trademark to Quality Computers. TimeOut developers Randy Brandt and Dan Verkade then created AppleWorks 4.0 in 1993 and AppleWorks 5.0 in 1994, published by Quality Computers along with training videos. The original 8-bit AppleWorks (which included 16-bit memory management on the IIGS) is sometimes referred to as "AppleWorks Classic" to differentiate it from AppleWorks GS and
760-448: The IIGS version, with reportedly 35,000 copies sold in the first three weeks, the magazine warned that they "must forget virtually everything they've learned ... What a pain". Office suite Productivity software traditionally runs directly on a computer. For example, Commodore Plus/4 model of computer contained in ROM for applications of productivity software. Productivity software
800-487: The Macintosh and Commodore Amiga lines. However, because of stiff competition in already active markets, and AE's late entries, Applied Engineering could not duplicate the success it had experienced with the Apple II. Around the same time, cost-cutting measures were implemented, such as shortening warranty periods, charging for technical support (via a 1-900 number) and a using inferior parts, turning off loyal and long-time customers. Eventually dwindling Apple II sales and
840-475: The Serial Pro serial interface card was a typical example. Besides offering a standard RS-232 serial port , the card included a ProDOS -compatible real-time clock , thus combining two cards into one and freeing up an extra slot. When used with a dot-matrix printer , the Serial Pro offered several screen-dump print options, such as printing either of the two Apple II high-resolution pages alone, both in
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#1732780386916880-402: The command-line interface for LibreOffice. There is no Apple-supplied application to open AppleWorks database, painting, or drawing files without converting them to a different format. EazyDraw Retro supports the import of the AppleWorks drawing formats. This software runs on Mojave and older. AppleWorks User Group continues support, and migrating away from AppleWorks is possible. Several of
920-519: The core engineers behind ClarisWorks left to form Gobe Software whose main product, GoBe Productive, would be released on BeOS , Windows, and Linux . II Computing listed AppleWorks ninth on the magazine's list of the top Apple II non-game, non-educational software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. BYTE ' s reviewer in December 1984 called AppleWorks "easy to use, genuinely user-friendly, and well documented". She called
960-490: The early 1990s, as Apple Computer, Inc. , began to withdraw support for the Apple II series and focus on the Macintosh line, the market for Apple II hardware and software began to wane. Many Apple II users began to migrate to other platforms, such as the Macintosh and IBM PC -compatibles. In an attempt to capitalize on its well-known brand name among previous Apple II owners, Applied Engineering began to market products for
1000-417: The later product for Macintosh and Windows. Observers had expected AppleWorks 2.0 to have a Macintosh-like mouse-driven graphical user interface, but inCider reported before its release that such a revision had been delayed because of "problems between Apple and [Lissner]". It was nonetheless very popular among IIGS owners; in December 1987 Compute!'s Apple Applications reported that "the hottest product on
1040-489: The limit of eight pages in the word processor with 64K RAM—made it "not good enough as a business product to warrant much consideration". Compute! in 1989 stated that "Though not a speed demon" like the original 8-bit AppleWorks, the GS version "isn't as slow as many had feared"; although a fast typist could still outrun the computer's display, it performed better than other Apple IIGS software. Although many original users bought
1080-676: The modules and the tight integration of AppleWorks. AppleWorks will not run on any versions of Mac OS X later than Snow Leopard because it is compiled for the PowerPC CPU architecture. AppleWorks word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation files can be opened in earlier versions of iWork applications Pages, Numbers, and Keynote respectively, but not since 2013. Collabora Online , LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice can open AppleWorks word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation files. A script exists for batch converting Appleworks (.cwk) files to MS Word (.docx) format (usable by Pages) using
1120-506: The new ProDOS operating system in place of DOS 3.3 which had been standard on 48K machines. AppleWorks debuted at #2 on Softalk 's monthly bestseller list and quickly became the best-selling software package on any computer, ousting even Lotus 1-2-3 from the top of the industry-wide sales charts. Apple's software subsidiary Claris sold the one millionth copy of AppleWorks in December 1988. Apple and Lissner provided limited technical information on modifying AppleWorks, helping to create
1160-540: The product's return to Apple and was briefly called ClarisWorks 5. ClarisWorks/AppleWorks 5 requires System 7.0.1, though the 5.0.4 patch can only be applied in Mac OS 9. It is the last version to support the 68k CPU architecture. The last major version, AppleWorks 6.0, released at MacWorld Expo in January 2000, requires a PowerPC CPU and replaces the communications module with a presentation module (in prior versions there
1200-486: The rights to distribute both the Apple III and Apple II versions of the program. However, Apple decided to drop support for the Apple III and sold the rights for the Apple III version to Haba Systems, who marketed it as III E-Z Pieces and released it shortly before Apple released AppleWorks. The two products shared the same file formats. All three AppleWorks programs have the same user interface and exchange data through
1240-402: The suite phenomenon, Borland ultimately deciding to sell its Quattro Pro spreadsheet to WordPerfect as the latter sought to assemble its own suite product. The dominant suite vendors, Microsoft and Lotus, downplayed competition and innovation concerns, claiming that users were still able to exercise choice and that "user-driven development" was guiding the evolution of office suites. Another view
AppleWorks - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-443: The word processor "my favorite part ... well above average" and the spreadsheet and database "good but certainly not standouts". As a package for novice and casual users, the reviewer concluded, "Appleworks is excellent". InfoWorld that month disagreed, calling it "a study in limitations ... this package is not strong". While approving of the shared clipboard and user interface, the magazine stated that Appleworks' limitations—such as
1320-592: Was MicroPro International 's StarBurst in the early 1980s, comprising the WordStar word processor, the CalcStar spreadsheet and the DataStar database software. Other suites arose in the 1980s, and Microsoft Office came to dominate the market in the 1990s, a position it retains as of 2024 . During the 1990s, office suite products gained popularity by offering bundles of applications that, when bought as part of
1360-481: Was a leading third-party hardware vendor for Apple II computers from the early 1980s until the mid-1990s. In its day, Applied Engineering built a solid reputation among Apple II owners for their innovation, excellent build quality, and generous warranty support. AE was quick to fill in gaps in the market for Apple II add-on boards and expansion options, often developing products for the Apple II line that neither Apple Computer nor other third-party vendors offered. By
1400-518: Was later followed by a TransWarp II and TransWarp III, the latter of which was announced but never actually went into production. With Apple Computer's release of the Apple II GS , Applied Engineering followed with a TransWarp GS, which provided an accelerated version of the 65C816 processor on which the II GS was based. Multi-function cards were a mainstay of AE's product offerings, of which
1440-490: Was later reworked for the Macintosh platform. AppleWorksGS was developed for the Apple IIGS using the graphical desktop interface instead of the text-based filecard interface of the Apple II. AppleWorksGS was slow and buggy; a planned version 2.0 never materialized. Beagle Bros created a BeagleWorks program that was eventually sold to the Apple subsidiary Claris . ClarisWorks for Macintosh (1991), and Windows (1993) became
1480-531: Was only rudimentary support for presentations through the other modules). It was also ported to the Carbon API to work on Mac OS X, but as an early Carbon application, it does not take advantage of many of the newer features of Mac OS X and portions of the interface still retain elements of the Platinum appearance of Mac OS 8/9. Using Claris's XTND framework, AppleWorks can create, open, and save files in
1520-672: Was released in 1984 as a demonstration product for the new 128K models of the Apple II line. In 1982, Apple published Lissner's Quick File, a database program that closely resembled what would become the AppleWorks database module, on both the Apple III and Apple II. Apple favored Apple Pascal at the time, so Lissner initially wrote Quick File in that language at Apple's request. Lissner preferred coding in assembly language, however, and soon rewrote Quick File in assembly on his Apple III and, by summer of 1983, he had added word processor and spreadsheet modules as well. Apple initially purchased
1560-460: Was released on March 24, 1993. ClarisWorks 3.0 was released in October 1994. It is the last version to run on the 68000 CPU with at least System 6.0.7. ClarisWorks 4.0 was released on June 14, 1995. It requires a 68020 CPU and System 7. When the Claris company was disbanded and absorbed back into Apple, the product was renamed AppleWorks; version 5.0 was released on August 24, 1997, shortly before
1600-524: Was that component-based software would eventually emerge, focusing development on more specialised components used by productivity software, empowering "a plethora of third-party developers", and that a "mix and match" approach of such components would adapt to the user's way of working. The base components of office suites are: Other components include: 931267214 Applied Engineering Applied Engineering , headquartered in Carrollton, Texas ,
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