Spinnaker

This is the User's Guide for an office suite of applications marking Spinnaker's unsuccessful early 1990s foray into the business world.

Before this venture into the world of business and commerce, the Spinnaker Software Corporation was known primarily for its line of popular Apple II-based educational software, a major seller during the 1980s. But suddenly, in the early 1990s, Spinnaker made two radical changes in their business model: (1) a wholesale transition from Apple to IBM PC-based show more machines in schools and (2) an entry into the low-cost business market with their PFS:WindowWorks office suite. The new ventures failed and the company went defunct in 1994.

In 1992, PFS:WindowWorks Version 2.0 was sold as an office suite of seven applications: Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Chart Maker, Address Book, Terminal, and Label Maker. At the same time, Microsoft Office was making its first appearance in the marketplace with four applications in their office suite: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Mail. These were the days of Windows 3.x. This meant that the applications were a bit clunky because they were made to run in Windows on top of DOS.

In spite of PFS's bad fortune, I was a satisfied user of two of the PFS:WindowWorks 2.0 applications -- the Word Processor and the Spreadsheet. I especially liked the ease with which I could link a spreadsheet into a word processing document. Changes made in the spreadsheet would be instantly reflected in the word processing document. As a testimonial to the robustness of the PFS software, as of October 2008, I still occasionally use these applications on my Windows XP desktop and laptop machines.

This well-written User's Guide served as my tutorial to all of the modules in the PFS:WindowWorks office suite, a chapter being devoted to each application.

If you are looking for specific menu-by-menu details in the use of PFS:WindowWorks 2.0, turn to the Reference Guide. If you are looking for general instructions and tutorials in the use of PFS:WindowWorks 2.0, this User's Guide is the book for you. show less

This is the Reference Guide for an office suite of applications marking Spinnaker's unsuccessful early 1990s foray into the business world.

The PFS:WindowWorks 2.0 office suite consists of seven applications: Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Chart Maker, Address Book, Terminal, and Label Maker.

If you are looking for general instructions in the use of PFS:WindowWorks 2.0, turn to the User's Guide. If you are looking for specific details in the use of PFS:WindowWorks 2.0, this Reference show more Guide is the book for you.

This well-written Reference Guide devotes a chapter to each of the seven applications in order, menu-by-menu, function-by-function, and keystroke-by-keystroke.

The Reference Guide concludes with a handy appendix which lists all of the WindowWorks short-cut keys. Users are given a choice. Either use the pull-down menus and click the buttons or use the keyboard equivalents. show less