MacWrite Pro - user manual needed

[Yoda]

It's a long shot I know, one of the least popular word processors, long gone and little lamented, but after messing with a few alternatives such as Word 5 and 6, and WordPerfect 3.5e, I've largely settled on MacWrite Pro (1.5.3) as my preferred app. This is mostly because it's actually fairly fast and widely compatible up to Mac OS 9, and 68k-G3 at least, and partly because the simplicity of it appeals as it rarely seems to get in the way as Word 6 does, for example. And, LibreOffice on my M1 Macs can read it's files as-is.

But I would really like a copy of the user manual if there is one out there. I've found the 'MacWrite Pro Book' by Marvin Bryan, and that's better than nothing, but is there a copy of the manual somewhere? Google is its helpful self in believing I must be looking for 'MacBook Pro', and the garden has the software but no links to documentation.

Anyone?!

 

[Crutch]

Have you tried Clarisworks? An awesome product.

Anyway, this isn’t the manual, but it might help a little https://archive.org/details/mac-write-pro-quick-reference

 

[Yoda]

I do have ClarisWorks 4 on most of my old Macs, and the interface is very similar of course. It's also far more complex - as it would be of course since it is capable of a lot more than just word processing - and part of what I am looking for is a bit more 'minimalist' in software terms, whilst still being widely compatible. MacWrite Pro hits a bit of a sweet spot.

Thanks for the quick reference link - that helps! I'm also wondering if there's any way to set documents defaults such as margins and font (somewhat like Word's normal.dot template perhaps), but that did give me the idea of looking through ClarisWorks documentation to see what that can do!

 

[retr01]

Hey @Yoda, is this what you are looking for? I find it odd this screenshot is on the Macintosh Garden. It wasn't even included there. I am pretty sure it was part of the 1993 MacWrite Pro package.

 

[Yoda]

Hey @Yoda, is this what you are looking for? I find it odd this screenshot is on the Macintosh Garden. It wasn't even included there. I am pretty sure it was part of the 1993 MacWrite Pro package.

View attachment 12529

Yes, I think that would be the one, it uses the same artwork as the app. The manual itself must be out there somewhere!!

 

[Crutch]

There is probably one in this sealed box … https://www.ebay.com/itm/1259542073...OlrchesSyG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[Yoda]

A bit pricey for shipping, but eBay seems my only likely option. I know I've seen listings previously from time to time. In the meanwhile, I guess I'll try and wade through the book!

 

[Crutch]

Assuming you’re in the USA, yeah the shipping isn’t nothing but actually it’s not terrible for transatlantic. If you do end up getting it, please consider handing the manual off to VintageApple at some point for (destructive) scanning & preservation! It’s crazy that this isn’t PDFized online anywhere yet. I share your love of simple but good software. Claris had some nice products, too bad Apple never really maximized their potential back then.

 

[Yoda]

To my mind, the simplicity of software back then was a huge benefit to users, and showcased some of the most creative programming the industry has ever seen. As easy as it is to get drawn into the feature creep all over again, it amazing what can be done with an application such as MacWrite Pro, running as it happily does in 1Mb or so, on systems as basic as a Classic II or PowerBook 100-series machine.

Easy to forget too that the reason it lost market share against Word wasn't so much that it lacked features, but that Claris were so slow to update it.

I'm tempted by that one on eBay, and if I do get it, or any other hard copy, I will certainly scan it for sharing.