Lotus Word Pro
Encyclopedia
Lotus Word Pro is word processor
software produced by IBM
's Lotus Software
group for use on Microsoft Windows
-compatible computer
s and on IBM OS/2
Warp. Word Pro can be obtained as part of the Lotus SmartSuite
office suite
.
Word Pro was based upon Ami Pro (originally published by Samna
), but was substantially rewritten (including a new native document format). The predecessor to Ami Pro, Amí
, was released in 1988, and was the first fully functional Windows word processor
. (The Windows version of Microsoft Word
would not debut until early 1989.) Shortly after the release of Amí, the development team added support for tables and renamed the product Ami Pro.
Lotus obtained Ami Pro to round out their office suite by acquiring Samna in 1990. Lotus continued to develop Ami Pro further with version 3 released in 1992. Version 3.1 is the last version of Ami Pro released (all versions were 16 bit). The Windows versions of Ami Pro were also bundled with Adobe Type Manager for Windows, as Windows had poor support for scalable fonts before the introduction of TrueType.
In 1994, Joe Guthridge was one of seven awarded the Windows Pioneer Award
for feedback the Amí development team gave to Microsoft during the early development of Windows.
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
software produced by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's Lotus Software
Lotus Software
Lotus Software is a software company with headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts...
group for use on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-compatible computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s and on IBM OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
Warp. Word Pro can be obtained as part of the Lotus SmartSuite
Lotus SmartSuite
SmartSuite is an office suite from Lotus Software. The company made versions of its office suite for IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows.-Status:SmartSuite is in maintenance mode, and supported with fixes and fixpacks on Windows 2000 and Windows XP...
office suite
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
.
Word Pro was based upon Ami Pro (originally published by Samna
Samna
Samna was an Atlanta, Georgia, USA based computer software company that was bought by Lotus Development Corporation in November 1990 for $65 million USD.Samna Word was a competitor in the DOS market for word processors in the late 80s...
), but was substantially rewritten (including a new native document format). The predecessor to Ami Pro, Amí
Amí
Ami was the name of a word processing program developed and marketed by Samna in the late 1980s. It was the first WYSIWYG word processor and was an obvious threat to command driven word processors such as WordPerfect and Microsoft Word who borrowed their use model from the Wang word processor...
, was released in 1988, and was the first fully functional Windows word processor
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
. (The Windows version of Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
would not debut until early 1989.) Shortly after the release of Amí, the development team added support for tables and renamed the product Ami Pro.
Lotus obtained Ami Pro to round out their office suite by acquiring Samna in 1990. Lotus continued to develop Ami Pro further with version 3 released in 1992. Version 3.1 is the last version of Ami Pro released (all versions were 16 bit). The Windows versions of Ami Pro were also bundled with Adobe Type Manager for Windows, as Windows had poor support for scalable fonts before the introduction of TrueType.
In 1994, Joe Guthridge was one of seven awarded the Windows Pioneer Award
Windows Pioneers
The Windows Pioneers are the seven individuals who received awards from Microsoft in 1994 in recognition of their contributions to Microsoft Windows...
for feedback the Amí development team gave to Microsoft during the early development of Windows.
External links
- Lotus Word Pro page
- Lotus SmartSuite page
- SmartSuite technical forum
- [ftp://ftp.lotus.com/pub/lotusweb/product/smartsuite/Kvlotus.exe Free viewer for Lotus SmartSuite products (EXE)]
- Videogames fanzine made using Ami Pro 3.0, showing off the word processor's desktop publishing-like abilities