Which outdated technology do you miss the most, and why?
ClarisWorks was a magical piece of software that combined word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, painting and database in one package. Whilst Pages, Numbers and Keynote can make stunning documents and animations, and present data with exceptional fidelity, I still prefer Claris Works on Mac OS.
I miss ClarisWorks because it is limited, and it can’t produce anything like what the iWork Applications or Microsoft Office of the present day can output. What ClarisWorks can do is connect the user intimately with the task of using a simple computer to make documents mostly for printing. For letter writing a ClarisWorks word processor has all that you need for a professional page layout, simple writing tools, mail merge from database, the ability to make drawings then put them into the document, and the magical ability to add in a working spreadsheet that automatically updates! Pages or Microsoft Word cannot integrate with their companion applications as completely as this.
When all is typed, drawn and done you have a tiny little .cwk file on your desktop that easily fits onto a floppy disk, or transfers to an AppleShare in a blink.
Let’s be clear that Apple Creator Studio and modern Microsoft Office are far superior products, but they are nowhere near as enjoyable to work with. The old documents themselves are like a piece of art from a different time in history. ClarisWorks became AppleWorks 6 and will run on Mac OS X up to version 10.6.8 with Rosetta installed for PowerPC compatibility. .cwk files can convert and open in iWork ‘09, and LibreOffice.
