Categories
Apple Thoughts

AppleWorks the end at last..

I loved Appleworks ( previously know as Clarisworks) and it has been finally retired with the addition of the numbers spreadsheet to Apples iWork suite. Not sure where the MacDraw like drawing application replacement is but never mind.

ClarisworksThe long life of Claris/Applework is both a reflection on the perceived dominance of Microsoft Office and a focus on Apple else where, but it is also interesting to note that is was always a very popular application all the way to its end because it was very simple, fast and well integrated. I have only just managed to stop my wife using it exclusively and moved her onto to Pages/Word.

Few users of Office use more than 10% of the capabilty of their applications and while in a business seeting there is always someone who might use more, this is not the case for the vast major of home office, and personal users.

I’m sure there are lessons for GIS designers in recognising the demand for simple applications that offer 10% on the functionality of a tool kit desktop GIS system but to 99% of the users – there are still people hanging on to their copies of ArcView 3.x I’m sure?

Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.

3 replies on “AppleWorks the end at last..”

Just like low-def CRT televisions, vinyl records and AM radio – they all meet the ‘good enough’ criteria in many instances.

Maybe that’s why iWorks 08 doesn’t read/write OpenOffice documents?!!

I completely agree, I can’t remember the last time I used anything much more than symbology controls and basic editing in ArcGIS.

The best example I’ve seen of ‘lightweight’ GIS in AccuGlobe (http://www.accuglobe.net/) which if well worth a try (and it looks a lot like ArcGIS).

I used to love MacWrite Pro, another Claris product – a wonderfully intuitive word-processor/lightweight DTP app – but one that never caught on, reputedly due to spending about two years in QA. Pages owes a lot to it.

These days I just use TextEdit. 🙂

Add a comment?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.