Lotus Manuscript is a discontinued

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

-based

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...

from

Lotus Development Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1- ...

Advertisement:Don't hold back now. How do you really feel about working with columns? Lotus Manuscript
Page 263, 13 Oct 1987, PC Mag, ''...our sophisticated table editor, script is not just another word processor....It's a complete document creation system, with more impressive features than 1-2-3...designed to work on most IBM“ PCs and compatibles...'' first released in 1986. The software was distributed on eight 5¼" diskettes and retailed for US$495.

Features

First released in 1986, Lotus Manuscript was one of the first MS-DOS word processors and being sophisticated geared toward scientific technical writing. It features easy table editing, the ability to easily edit and print mathematical equations, and handled very complicated documents (other than a brief). It also includes footnoting, document tracking, import from

Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...

, and mailmerge. Version 2 adds macro and downloadable font support. The word processor had two modes:

structured Structuring, also known as smurfing in banking jargon, is the practice of executing financial transactions such as making bank deposits in a specific pattern, calculated to avoid triggering financial institutions to file reports required by law ...

(outline) which is used in

technical writing Technical writing is writing or drafting technical communication used in technical and occupational fields, such as computer hardware and software, architecture, engineering, chemistry, aeronautics, robotics, finance, medical, consumer electronics, ...

, and unstructured. Manuscript 2.0 was released in 1988 and added a Microlytics-based

thesaurus A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea: Synonym diction ...

, conditional

mail merge Mail merge consists of combining mail and letters and pre-addressed envelopes or mailing labels for mass mailings from a form letter. This feature is usually employed in a word processing document which contains fixed text (which is the same in eac ...

s, multi-line headers and footers. The

like backslash commands were replaced with 40 markers. in addition to distribution on 5¼" diskettes, 3½" diskettes were made available. Manuscript 2.1 was released in 1989 with further improvements to the software. Many of the features of Manuscript were later copied by Wordperfect and

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

, but the ability to easily write scientific ''manuscript''s on a computer has not yet been accomplished.

References

External links

Manuscript
- Lotus Support File Library

DOS software

Manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

Word processors {{DOS-stub