Word processing programs Programs still available and in use Proprietary

Microsoft Word — the most popular word processor at present

WordPerfect — the most popular word processor of the 1990s, still the gold standard for lawyers and other professionals

EasyOffice Premium — EasyOffice is the third most popular word processor in the world at present

AppleWorks — contains word processor unit derived from MacWrite II

Framework

WordMARC — A multi-platform, scientific word processor which ran on both minicomputers (such as Prime and Digital VAX) and PCs.

Lotus Word Pro (originally Amí Pro)

StarOffice Writer — a branded version of OpenOffice.org marketed by Sun Microsystems

Adobe FrameMaker — also used for desktop publishing

Mellel — multilingual word processor for Mac OS X

Nisus Writer Express for Mac OS X

TextMaker — a multi-platform word processor marketed by SoftMaker

Pages — a word processor and layout engine for Mac OS X from Apple

Free software

AbiWord (GPL)

KWord (GPL)

OpenOffice.org Writer (LGPL)

EasyOffice Freeware

TeX/LaTeX

• LyX

• GNU TeXmacs (GPL)

Emacs

Freeware

Hieroglyph, a Russian language word processor with excellent Russian spell checker

Historically important programs

TJ-2 (http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/tj2.html) — One candidate for "first word processor" (command-based, not WYSIWYG); in use in 1963

Amí — Notable early word processor for Windows 3.x, and arguably the first full-featured WYSIWYG word processor for Windows. Preceded Microsoft Word for Windows to market by over a year. When Word for Windows appeared, many regarded the two word processors as broadly similar in overall quality and capabilities.

Bravo — First bitmap-based multifont WYSIWYG word processor, completed at Xerox PARC by Charles Simonyi and colleagues in 1974

Gypsy, 1975 — Follow-on to Bravo, by Larry Tesler and colleagues; graphic user interface, cut-and-paste modeless editing

IBM DisplayWrite — Similar in design to IBM's dedicated DisplayWriter word processor. Widely used within IBM shops (most large U. S. corporations), but awkward, slow and expensive, so almost no use elsewhere.

Xerox Document Editor

MacWrite — Free word processor included with early versions of the Apple Macintosh

MultiMate — Briefly popular word processor with similarities to Wang's dedicated machines.

WordStar — Widely considered at the time to be the first "full-featured" word processor. The dominant word processor for the CP/M operating system, it retained some popularity under MS-DOS.

XyWrite — Not the easiest to learn, this program for MS-DOS and then Windows still has a small following thanks to its speed and great ability to be reconfigured and programmed.

EasyWriter — Briefly a leading word processor for the IBM PC, notable firstly for having been written by legendary hacker John Draper ("Cap'n Crunch") and secondly for having been written in FORTH

MindWrite

Magic Wand — For CP/M-based computers

lexicon

“Microsoft Excel”