MacLinkPlus was a

file format A file format is a Computer standard, standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary format, pr ...

translation tool for

classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. Th ...

and PowerPC-era

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

made by Dataviz. It could convert and open files created for another operating system, or by programs that may not be available on the user's computer. Thus, it could open a

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the Ro ...

file even if

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a ma ...

was not installed. MacLinkPlus supported, among others, word processing files, spreadsheet files, database programs and graphic formats. Once installed, the application displayed an icon on the desktop onto which users could drag and drop their documents to have them converted. MacLinkPlus was bundled by Apple with new

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

purchases from 1994–1997. It worked in conjunction with Macintosh Easy Open in order to ease the transition of customers' documents from PCs or older Macs. DataViz also sold MacLinkPlus separately at retail, for users who did not have bundled copies. Following the unbundling by Apple, DataViz added the "Deluxe" moniker to the MacLinkPlus Deluxe 10 release in 1998, in order to distinguish it from previously bundled versions. MacLinkPlus Deluxe 13 added native Mac OS X compatibility in 2001. They continued with near annual releases until version 15 in 2004. A final version, MacLinkPlus Deluxe 16, was released in 2007. Because of the age of its code base, MacLinkPlus was never updated to include Intel compatibility, and as such,

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conferen ...

is the last operating system version it will run on. It was quietly discontinued and is no longer sold by DataViz.

References

External links

MacLinkPlus Deluxe website
(

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

) Utilities for macOS {{Mac-software-stub