CLARISWORKS seems to do nothing but get better all the time. It is now available on both the Windows and the Macintosh platform. The two programs are not alike because there are things that can be done on the Macintosh that simply cannot be done in Windows. For some people, ClarisWorks may well be all they need. It contains a word processor, drawing program, painting program, spreadsheet, database and communications program.
All of these are more than just basic applications, they are all almost capable of standing alone.
This does not mean that the word processor in ClarisWorks will have everything that Microsoft Word or WordPerfect has, but not many people really need everything that these heavyweight applications now provide.
Some people are bothered by the fact that every new release of Word from Microsoft gets bigger and bigger. It certainly must be asked if for everyday use one needs a word processor that nearly rivals the professional layout programs. The word processor has all the functions most people are looking for, including footnotes, headers, footers, and columns. It supports multiple fonts, of course, as well as various styles of character such as bold, italic, condensed and outline. It even has outline facilities. One of the great abilities the ClarisWorks word processor has is the ability to mix graphics and text.
If you click on the View menu and choose Show Tools, you will see a typical set of drawing tools on the left of the screen. At any time while you are entering text you may click on one of the tools - the oval, for example - and draw anywhere on the page.
You may draw below where you are typing or may even draw directly on top of what you have just entered. What Claris is doing is treating the entire page as a sheet for you to work on.