Microsoft Works (1986) 61 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database MacOS

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 1.x (Mac)

After Dark (1989) 29 Novelty MacOS

After Dark, from Berkeley Systems, Inc, is a set of entertaining screen savers for Mac and Windows. After Dark for Windows started off as "Magic Screen Saver" for Windows 2.x. After Dark was most famous for its "Flying Toasters" screen saver. Afterdark was very popular on both the early Macintosh computers and Windows 3.0, as neither included any kind of screen saver or screen blanker that would help prevent screen burn-in.

• 1.0 for Macintosh

The Print Shop (1984) 6 Publishing MacOS

The Print Shop is a home oriented publisher capable of creating calendars, banners, greeting cards and other printable goods. It started off on the Apple II and Commodore 64 where it became popular for its simplicity and ease of use. From day one, it featured interactive editing, on-screen artwork/layout selection, print previewing, and a library of customizable clipart.

• 1.x (Mac)

Adobe Illustrator (1988) 106 Graphics MacOS

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. It was often sold as a companion product to the bit-map/photo editor Adobe Photoshop. Illustrator was originally released in 1987 for the Apple Macintosh. Early versions were ported to NexT, Silicon Graphics, and Sun Solaris.

• 3.x

Photoshop (1988) 96 Graphics MacOS

Photoshop is a powerful drawing and photo manipulation program for both Mac and Windows. The Macintosh version was released by Adobe in 1990, although a very small number were bundled with Barneyscan slide scanners prior to that. Photoshop contained many advanced features including layered images, advanced color control, and plug-ins. Prior to its release, many of its features were only found in high end dedicated photo pre-processing systems.

• 0.x (beta)

Norton Utilities (1983) 41 Utility MacOS

The Norton Utilities is a suite of disk and system utilities designed to enhance system performance and stability. It started off as a set of disk utilities written by Peter Norton, and later was sold by Symantec. It competed against Central Point PC Tools and the Mace Utilities. In 2003, Norton Utilities was merged with Norton SystemWorks, but later split back out.

• 1.0 for Mac

WordPerfect (1983) 97 Word Processor MacOS

During the late 1980's, WordPerfect was THE standard word processor for DOS based PCs in big business. Under DOS, it competed mostly against Wordstar. WordPerfect for Windows enjoyed some success in the early Windows environments, but was quickly displaced by Microsoft Word for Windows. Later Windows versions were part of Borland Office/Novell PerfectOffice/Corel Office/Corel WordPerfect Office.

• 1.x (Mac)

FileMaker (1984) 15 Database MacOS

FileMaker is a very easy to use graphical flat-file database management tool from Claris that allows for visual form and report creation. Originally for DOS, there were Macintosh versions and later it was ported to Windows.

• 1.00
• 4.0
• Pro 1.x

THINK C (1988) 3 MacOS

THINK C, originally from THINK Technologies and later Symantec, was a C compiler for the Apple Macintosh. Initially released in 1986 under the name "Lightspeed C", it featured libraries and extensions useful to creating native Macintosh applications. It competed with Macintosh Programmers Workshop.

• 3.x
• 4.x

PowerPoint (1987) 11 Presentations MacOS

Microsoft PowerPoint is a graphical presentation tool that is today part of Microsoft Office. Prior to its acquisition by Microsoft, it was known as "Presenter" from Forethought Inc. These are the standalone versions. For the Office bundled versions, see Microsoft Office.

• 1.0

Microsoft Excel (1985) 84 Spreadsheet MacOS OS2

Excel, from Microsoft, is a powerful spreadsheet application for Mac, Windows, and OS/2. Excel was first released for the Mac. When it was ported to Windows 2.x, they started at version "2.0" to one up current Mac version. There was never a DOS version. Instead, DOS and 8-bit platforms used the older Microsoft Multiplan. Excel was later bundled as part of Microsoft Office

• 1.x
• 2.2

QuarkXPress (1986) 3 Publishing MacOS

QuarkXPress was THE standard publishing software during the 1990s. However it failed to update its product line to newer technologies in a timely manager, charged insane amounts for updates or additional features that should have been built in to the software, and became very abusive to their customers. Later versions required a parallel port/ADB copy protection dongle. They lost most of their market share to Adobe InDesign.

• 1.x
• 2.x

Microsoft Word (1983) 125 Word Processor MacOS

The Microsoft Word word processor was first introduced for MS-DOS in 1983. Its design made use of a mouse and WYSIWYG graphics. Its crude WYSIWYG/mouse support was a direct response to the Apple Lisa/Mac, and VisiCorp Visi On. Initially it competed against many popular word processors such as WordStar, Multimate, and WordPerfect. Word for DOS was never really successful.

• 1.x (Mac)
• 3.x (Mac)
• 4.0 (Mac)

FreeHand (1988) 0 Graphics Publishing MacOS

FreeHand is a vector based drawing program used to create illustrations. It is similar to CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator. Initially it offered more features and flexibility than illustrator. It was created by Altsys, sold through Aldus, then sold to Macromedia, and then finally was assimilated by Adobe. Later versions repositioned itself as a content creation system for the web through Flash. The final version was Freehand MX (version 11) in 2003.

• 1.0
• 2.0

FrameMaker (1990) 0 Publishing Unix MacOS Other

FrameMaker, originally from Frame Technology Corporation and later Adobe, is a professional document system for creating large, complex documents with highly structured layout. It was often accompanied by FrameReader.

• 2.x

Schedule+ (1990) 0 PIM Windows MacOS

Schedule Plus is a calendar/personal information manager. It is designed to operate using a shared network Microsoft Mail "mailbox" over a LAN.

• 1.x

Mathcad (1989) 5 Mathematics MacOS

Mathcad is computer software primarily intended for the verification, validation, documentation and re-use of engineering calculations.

• 2.0

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 16 Graphics Engineering MacOS

AutoCAD, from Autodesk and first released in 1982, is a powerful Computer Aided Design tool. It was, and still is, often considered the standard for CAD tools. Primarily for the IBM PC platform, it was ported to x86 machines with higher video resolutions such as the Zenith Z-100 and NEC APC. Intermittently, versions for the Macintosh appeared. Later versions use a dongle copy protection.

• r10 (Mac)

MacWrite (1984) 4 Word Processor MacOS

MacWrite was one of two applications released with the Apple Macintosh in 1984 - the other being MacPaint. These applications defined the Macintosh, and helped define what users expected from GUI applications.

• 1.0
• 2.20
• 4.x
• 5.0
• II (1989)

Ventura Publisher (1986) 14 Publishing MacOS

Ventura Publisher, originally from Xerox, is a professional desktop publishing program for the GEM graphical environment and later Windows. It has the distinction of being the first popular publishing program for the IBM PC platform. It competed with Aldus PageMaker, which initially was more popular on the Mac platform. There are also versions for Mac and OS/2.

• 3.x for Macintosh

MacTools (1988) 0 Utility MacOS

Central Point MacTools is a set of disk utilities similar to Central Point PC Tools for the Apple Macintosh. It includes a file system repair tool, disk optimizer, anti virus, hex editor, and more. MacTools 4.0 Pro was the final version after Central Point was bought out by Symantec.

• PC Tools Deluxe (Mac)
• 1.x

Ready Set GO (1986) 0 Publishing MacOS

Ready Set GO, from Manhattan Graphics Corporation, is a desktop publishing program for the Apple Macintosh. It competed against Mac Publisher, Scoop, Quark Xpress, and PageMaker.

• 3
• 4.5

RightWriter (1987) 0 Utility MacOS

RightWriter is a grammar / structure checking utility. You can feed it a document, and it will produce a marked up copy listing high level critiques such as readability, delivery strength, and jargon. It competed with Grammatik, but RightWriter generally produced superior results.

• 3.x (Mac)

Borland Turbo Pascal (1983) 117 MacOS

Borland Turbo Pascal is a Pascal programming language compiler with an Integrated Development Environment targeted at the hobbyist and entry-level market. There were versions for CP/M and DOS. For a time, it was sold along side their professional "Borland Pascal" product line. Borland also produced a set of "toolbox" libraries along side their earlier versions.

• 1.x (Mac)

Pyro (1990) 0 Novelty MacOS

Pyro, from Fifth Generation Systems, is a commercial set of screen savers that started of as a simple black and white fireworks screen saver on the Apple Macintosh. It competed against AfterDark.

• 4.x (Mac)