Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 72 Spreadsheet MacOS

Lotus 1-2-3 was an early spreadsheet application available for MS-DOS. It became extremely popular in the late 1980s, displacing the former leader VisiCalc. Lotus had difficulties adapting 1-2-3 to the Windows environment, and was overtaken by Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet functionality was also included in Lotus Symphony. Later versions were included in Lotus SmartSuite.

• 1.x (Mac)

Norton Utilities (1983) 28 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
• 2.0 for Mac

Microsoft Word (1983) 244 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.

• 4.0 (Mac)
• 5.x (Mac)

Microsoft Project (1984) 15 Planning Windows MacOS

Microsoft Project is a project management chart and gantt chart generator. It is a Microsoft Office family member, and built on the Office code, although it has never shipped with any Office suite.

• 3.0

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.

• r11 (Mac)

FileMaker (1984) 6 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.

• Pro 1.x

Microsoft Excel (1985) 55 Spreadsheet Windows OS2 MacOS

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

• 3.x
• 4.x

QuickBasic (1985) 35 MacOS

Microsoft QuickBasic, not to be confused with the lesser QBasic, was a Basic interpreter and compiler product loosely based on GW-Basic. Version 2.0 for DOS and later included an Integrated Development Environment. Microsoft also produced QuickPascal and QuickC with similar integrated environments.

• 1.0x for Mac

Ventura Publisher (1986) 0 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

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)

PowerPoint (1987) 5 Presentations Windows 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.

• 3.x
• 4.x

Adobe Illustrator (1988) 94 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) 25 Graphics Windows 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.

• 2.x

Grammatik (1988) 0 Utility MacOS

Grammatik is a standalone grammar checker, and was possibly the first grammar checker for personal computers. Later versions were built in to Word Perfect. It competed against RightWriter.

• Mac 2.0

A/UX (1988) 9 MacOS

Apple A/UX is an early port of Unix to Apple's 68k based Macintosh platform. It features a full Unix system with a Mac OS GUI and the ability to run classic Mac OS applications.

• 2.x
• 3.x

Publish-IT (1988) 0 Publishing MacOS

Publish-It! is a WYSIWYG desktop publishing tool originally created by the UK based GST Software for the TOS/GEM Atari ST system. There were versions for IBM PC/GEM, Apple II, Macintosh (as "Publish-It! Easy"), and later Microsoft Windows. desktop publishing tools, it is not a full word processor, but rather imports text and focuses on high-quality formatting and printing. budget title for home users. SoftKey also released a version branded as Key Publisher

• Easy 2.x

HyperCard (1988) 1 Other Database MacOS

Hypercard is a graphical card "stack" oriented application and database programming tool for the Apple Macintosh. It features hypertext and hyperlinking of graphics and buttons, and includes an easy to use scripting language called HyperTalk. In many ways, it resembled a web browser, however it had no networking capability.

• 2.x

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.

• 1.x
• 2.0

THINK C (1988) 0 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.

• 5.x

HyperScan (1988) 0 MacOS

HyperScan is a Macintosh HyperCard program that scans images for use in other HyperCard stacks. You can also copy all or part of an image scanned with HyperScan, then past the copied image into a document in any program that supports pasting graphics. This requires the Ofoto software provided with the scanner.

• 2.x

Claris CAD (1989) 1 Engineering MacOS

Claris CAD is a computer aided design program developed in 1988 by Claris Corporation in a joint effort with Craig S. Young of Computer Aided Systems for Engineering (CASE). It was based on MacDraw II and Young's earlier CAD application, EZ-Draft. Version 1 was released in 1989 for Macintosh computers running System Software 6 or later. The initial releases were plagued with bugs, especially with the bundled plotter driver.

• 2.0

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

FrameMaker (1990) 2 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

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)

DiskDoubler (1990) 0 Utility Archive MacOS

DiskDoubler is an automated file compression program for the Apple Macintosh. It does not compress the entire drive, but rather specified files. It automatically compresses and recompresses files as you use them.

• 3.x