Apple Writer

This was certainly not the first word processor for the Apple II, but it was one of the most popular. During the four years that Softalk magazine was in print, Apple Writer rarely (if ever) disappeared from their best selling software list. Even if it was not in the Top Thirty, it usually held some spot on their list of top Word Processors.

The original version was released in 1979. Apple Writer 1.0 had to deal with the limitations of the Apple II in the form of its uppercase-only keyboard and 40-column display. Clearly, a document produced on a computer could be uppercase only, but it was more valuable if it could look more like that produced on a typewriter. To achieve entry of upper and lowercase characters, Apple Writer used inverse text to display uppercase, and normal text to display lowercase.

Apple Writer 1.0 ran from 13-sector DOS 3.2 disks, and the binary files it produced had names that began with the prefix "TEXT." (a file named "LETTER" would appear on disk as "TEXT.LETTER"). Apple Writer 1.1 was released in 1980 when DOS 3.3 became available. It ran under the newer 16 sector format, and contained some minor bug fixes. This version also had available a companion spell checker called
Goodspell.

The next version released was called Apple Writer ][. This one came out in 1981, was copy-protected, and still ran on an Apple II Plus under DOS 3.3, but now produced standard Text files instead of the older Binary files, and could properly display 40-column lowercase characters when the character generator ROM was replaced.

The first version to run under the ProDOS operating system was called Apple Writer 2.0. It came out in September 1984, was not copy-protected, and it fixed the MouseText problem. This version also had the capability of connecting the keyboard directly to the printer or to a modem, allowing it to be used as a rudimentary terminal program.

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