Creative Writer is a

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. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

released by

Microsoft Kids Microsoft Home is a discontinued line of software applications and personal hardware products published by Microsoft. The Microsoft Home brand was first announced by Bill Gates in a presentation on October 4, 1993. These applications were designed ...

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 Clip art (also clipart, clip-art) is a type of graphic art. Pieces are pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively and comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However, most clip art today is creat ...

WordArt Microsoft Office shared tools are software components that are (or were) included in all Microsoft Office products. Delve Office Delve allows Microsoft 365 (formerly called Office 365) users to search and manage their emails, meetings, cont ...

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. Both are now discontinued. The original Creative Writer was announced by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

on 7 December 1993 and was released in 1994. It ran on both

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 op ...

3.2 and the

Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series run as a shell on top of MS-DOS; it was the last Windows 1 ...

operating system.Creative Writer & Fine Artist manual A version was also released for the

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

, compatible with computers running the

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

from the

System 6 System 6 (or System Software 6) is the sixth major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. It was released in 1988. It is a monolithic operating system, with cooperative multitasking bas ...

version up to

Mac OS 9 Mac OS 9 is the ninth and final major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever", highlight ...

. The program took place in McZee's home 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 In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as p ...

. The program runs full screen and creates an all-inclusive environment. The interface was similar to a later product called

Microsoft Bob Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product intended to provide a more user-friendly interface for the Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, supplanting the Windows Program Manager. The program was released on March 10, ...

. Creative Writer featured many of the features found on Microsoft's

Word for Windows Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...

product, including the

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 from a page.

File formats

Creative Writer and its sequel Creative Writer 2 both use different versions of the proprietary .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".

Expansion pack

An expansion pack, titled Ghostwriter Mysteries for Creative Writer, was released in 1994 by Microsoft Kids. It featured elements from the Ghostwriter TV series, including the show's team members and ten different mysteries to solve. It requires Creative Writer.

References

{{Microsoft Kids Discontinued Microsoft software Microsoft franchises Classic Mac OS software

File formats

Expansion pack

See also

References