AppleWorks
AppleWorks is an office suite of software applications sold by Apple Computer. Versions of AppleWorks exist that are compatible with Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, and Microsoft Windows. It started out as ClarisWorks, published by the Apple software division, Claris. It combined a word processor, a drawing program, a painting program, a spreadsheet, and a terminal program for communications. All the components were integrated to provide a seamless suite that worked in concert; for example, spreadsheets could be embedded in a word processing document, or formatted text into drawings, etc. A common misconception is that the components were derived from the existing Claris programs MacWrite, MacDraw, etc. In fact ClarisWorks was written from scratch, externally to Claris, and was then tailored to look more Claris-like after Claris bought the program from the original developers. Feature-wise, they are actually somewhat inferior to the MacDraw-line of applications.
With version 3.0 of ClarisWorks, the Assistants feature was introduced -- comparable to the Wizards of Microsoft Office. To this day, some Assistants remain in service, even in the Mac OS X version.
When the Claris company was disbanded and reabsorbed into Apple, the suite was renamed AppleWorks. (In fact, version 5 of the software was first called ClarisWorks; following the reabsorption, it was renamed AppleWorks.) The most recent version no longer contains the communications feature, mainly due to the rise of easy-to-use Internet service providers, and adds a presentation feature. It has also been Carbonized to work on Mac OS X. Although some consider 2005's iWork to be a replacement for AppleWorks, the newer product does not include spreadsheet, database, and illustration tools, and AppleWorks remains on the market.
AppleWorks can create, open, and save files in a number of file formats. For example, word processor documents can be saved in Word format, and spreadsheet files can be saved in Microsoft Excel format.
While AppleWorks is available for purchase, it is also bundled with all consumer level computers, including the iMac, iBook, eMac and Mac mini. AppleWorks is an international program, with different versions in different languages available. Communities of AppleWorks users are linked with resources by Apple online, and by the AppleWorks User Group. AppleWorks was originally the name of a similar office suite program available for the Apple II series of computers.
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