Creative Writer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Creative Writer 1 Screenshot |
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| Developer: | Microsoft |
| Latest release: | 2.0 / 1997 |
| OS: | Windows |
| Use: | Word Processor |
| License: | Proprietary EULA |
| Website: | http://www.microsoft.com/kids/creativewriter/ |
Creative Writer is a word-processing program created by Microsoft's Microsoft Kids subsidiary in 1993. Using this program, which is specifically targeted at children, it is possible to create documents such as letters, posters, flyers and stories complete with different fonts, Clip Art, Wordart and effects. The interface and environment is especially targeted towards children and is set in Imaginopolis with the main helper being a character known as McZee. A sequel, Creative Writer 2 was released in 1996. Creative Writer is no longer available in stores, but it can still be acquired from online stores and auction websites such as eBay.
[edit] Creative Writer
The original Creative Writer was announced by Microsoft on 7 December 1993 [1] and was designed for the Windows 3.1 operating system and was released in 1994. The program took place in the fictional place of Imaginopolis and had several levels of a building each with a different topic (e.g. one for plain writing, one for story templates, one for poster templates). The design of the program was very similar to that of its sister program Fine Artist. The program runs full screen and creates an all inclusive environment.
Creative Writer featured many of the features found on Microsoft's Word for Windows product, including the Wordart feature used to create titles and headlines and the ability to add clip art. Creative Writer also used sounds heavily where each tool would make a different noise. Examples of this include a vacuum cleaner suction to delete and an explosion to denote deleting everything off a page.
Creative Writer (and its sequel Creative Writer 2) both use different versions of the propriotory .max file format. This file format does not open in other word processors such as Word. Files created in Creative Writer can be viewed in Creative Writer 2 but files saved using Creative Writer 2 will not open correctly in Creative Writer. Creative Writer was also able to open .doc files kept in a location known as "Outside Of Imaginopolis".
[edit] Creative Writer 2
Creative Writer 2 was released in 1996. The interface was updated and the program was now designed for Windows 95. The program ran in a windows as opposed to full screen. Also gone was Imaginopolis and the feeling of an all enclosed environment although McZee still survived. The program had become more like Microsoft's Word although still very much aimed at children as shown by the templates enclosed. The sounds for menu items remained but the menu's had been rearranged following a study carried out by Microsoft [2]. Creative Writer 2 also shipped with Microsoft's Paint It! from their Plus for Kids pack. Support for creating and publishing websites was also included in Creative Writer 2 through Microsoft's Web Publishing Wizard.
Also available free of charge was a Microsoft Creative Writer 2 Document Viewer which allowed users without Creative Writer 2 to view (but not edit) .max files created with Creative Writer 2.
