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AppleWorks

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AppleWorks, by Rupert Lissner, came out from Apple in 1984 and was the program of the //e: a word processor, a spreadsheet and a data base in one, with the same keys in the three, and a Desktop that keeps up to a dozen files in memory at once, with a clipboard between them. For years it was among the best-selling programs for the Apple II, at home, at school and at work.

This page uses AppleWorks 3.0, of 1989, to work out the costs of a trip in the spreadsheet, write a letter in the word processor with that table in it, keep a list of friends in the data base, and save the three.

What you need

a2_AppleWorks_3.0_8-bit.2mg, AppleWorks 3.0 on a disk of 800 KB, from the Internet Archive. ./fetch-disks.sh in this repository downloads it into disks/ and checks it. izapple2 writes the files the page saves into it.

The machine

An enhanced Apple //e with a disk of 800 KB:

izapple2 -model none -board 2e -cpu 65c02 -screen green \
    -rom "<internal>/Apple2e_Enhanced.rom" \
    -charrom "<internal>/Apple IIe Video Enhanced.bin" \
    -s0 language \
    -s7 smartport,image1=disks/a2_AppleWorks_3.0_8-bit.2mg

The enhanced Apple //e izapple2 starts with, its model 2enh, has this machine, with 8 MB more of memory on a RAMWorks card, a No-Slot Clock, a VidHD card, a FASTChip accelerator, a Mockingboard and a Disk II controller more:

izapple2 -screen green disks/a2_AppleWorks_3.0_8-bit.2mg

The main menu

  1. Start izapple2 with the command above. AppleWorks asks for the date; press Return for the one it offers. Its main menu: AppleWorks is used with menus of numbers, Return to choose, and Escape to go back.

    The main menu

  2. Choose 1, Add files to the Desktop: files from the disk, or a new one for each of the three programs.

    Add files

The spreadsheet

  1. Choose 5, Spreadsheet, and From scratch, and type Trip for its name. Type the cells: a word, a number or a formula, and Right Arrow to enter it and go to the next; at the end of a row, Return, Left Arrow back to column A, and Down Arrow.

    A B C D
    Item Days Per day Cost
    Hotel 4 85 +B2*C2
    Car 4 40 +B3*C3
    Food 4 60 +B4*C4
    Museum 1 25 +B5*C5
    Total     @SUM(D2.D5)

    The spreadsheet typed

    A formula starts with +, or @ for a function, as in VisiCalc; the range D2.D5 is shown D2...D5.

  2. Press Open Apple and P, Print, and Return for all of it. Besides the printer and files on disk, there is the clipboard, for the word processor. Choose 2, press Return for no date, and Space.

    Where to print

The word processor

  1. Press Escape for the main menu, choose 1, 3, Word Processor, From scratch, and type To.Ada for its name. Type the start of the letter:

    Dear Ada,
    
    Here is what the trip to the Computer Faire will cost, worked out in the spreadsheet:
    
    

    The lines break by themselves at the end of the screen; Return ends a paragraph.

  2. Press Open Apple and C, Copy, and F, From clipboard: the table comes in, as the spreadsheet printed it, with its heading. Press Open Apple and 9 to go to the end, and type the end of the letter:

    
    See you there.
    
    Grace
    

    Open Apple and 1 goes to the start, to see it all:

    The letter

The data base

  1. Escape, 1, 4, Data Base, From scratch, Friends. A data base has categories, the fields of each record: press Control-Y to clear the first name, and type Name, City and Phone, each with Return.

    The categories

  2. Press Escape, and Space: AppleWorks asks for the first record. Type four, a field and Return at a time:

    Ada Lovelace       London      555-1815
    Grace Hopper       Arlington   555-1906
    Steve Wozniak      Cupertino   555-1950
    Margaret Hamilton  Boston      555-1936
    

    Press Escape for the list of all of them, a record a line, the longer names cut to the width of their column.

    The friends

The Desktop

  1. Press Open Apple and Q: the Desktop Index, the three files in memory at once, and the program of each, SS, WP and DB. Choosing one goes to it, where it was left. Press Escape.

    The Desktop

Saved

  1. Press Escape for the main menu, and choose 6, Quit, and Y. AppleWorks asks what to do with each new file: press Return for Save the file on the current disk, for each of the three.

    Saving on quitting

    AppleWorks ends in the program selector of its disk.

    The program selector

  2. Choose APLWORKS.SYSTEM to start it again, Return for the date, and choose 1 and 1, The current disk: the three files are on the disk, next to the samples that came on it, with the date given to AppleWorks.

    The files on the disk

What next

ProDOS is the system AppleWorks runs on, and Apple II DeskTop the other way of the //e with files, with a mouse.