Application Software
Chapter 5 of Computers:
Understanding Technology
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Importance of Operating System
• Most application software is platformdependent, i.e. it will run only with a
particular operating system and must be
modified to work with another operating
system
• The modification of application software to
work with another operating system is a
major endeavor and thus often takes many
months, if it occurs at all
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Operating System (cont.)
• For example
• Office 2008 for Macintosh was released January 15,
2008 whereas Office 2007 for Windows was released
January 30, 2007
• Quicken, the popular personal finance software, runs
on Windows only although a Macintosh beta version
is available
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Operating System (cont.)
• For this reason, the choice of an operating
system will determine the range of
application software choices available
• Thus, many people choose Windows
machines because there is more
application software than with Mac
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Categories of Application Software
• Individual application software
• Workgroup, collaborative software
• Vertical application software – complete
package of programs designed to work
together to perform core business
functions
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Categories of Application Software
• Packaged software – the manufacturer
owns the copyright and licenses it to the
individual, often sold to the public on a
retail basis
• Customized software
• Shareware and freeware, including opensource software (owned by the developer,
but programming code made available
free to the general pulbic)
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Application Software for Individual
Use
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Productivity Software
Software for household use
Graphics and multimedia software
Communications software
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Productivity software
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Word processing
Desktop publishing
Spreadsheet
Database
Presentation
Personal information manager
Web publishing
Project management
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Word Processing
• Creating text
• Editing text – spelling, grammar checker
• Formatting
– Text – font type, size, color, style, leading (space
between lines), kerning (space between characters)
– Paragraph – Alignment, double or single-space
– Document – page numbers, headers, footers, page
size, margin width
• Saving and Printing
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Word Processing Programs
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Microsoft Word
Corel WordPerfect
Lotus (now IBM) WordPro
Openoffice.org Writer
Google Docs
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Desktop Publishing
• Microsoft Publisher – part of some editions
of Microsoft Office
• Adobe PageMaker (still sold, but not being
developed further)
• Adobe InDesign
• QuarkXPress
• Publisher and PageMaker for home and
small office market, whereas InDesign and
QuarkXPress for professional market
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Spreadsheets
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Microsoft Excel (ITE 140)
Lotus Development (now IBM) 1-2-3
Corel Quattro Pro
Openoffice.org CALC
Google Docs
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Database
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Microsoft Access (ITE 150)
Lotus Development (now IBM) Approach
Corel Paradox
Openoffice.org Base
Larger applications
– Oracle
– Microsoft SQL Server
– mySQL
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Presentation
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Corel Presentations
• Lotus Development (now IBM) Freelance
Graphics
• Openoffice.org Impress
• Google Docs
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Software Suites
• Word processing, spreadsheet, database, and
presentation typically are purchased as part of
an office suite of programs rather than
purchased individually
• Suites provide a common user interface (more
standardization than just using Windows)
• Suites offer ability to make content from one
program available to another, either by pasting
or object linking and embedding (OLE) –
embedded file can be changed but changes
aren’t reflected in original, whereas with linking
they are
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Personal Information Manager
• Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop
• Helps organize contact information,
appointments, tasks, and notes
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Web Publishing
• Adobe Dreamweaver (ITE 170, ITD 210)
• Microsoft Expression Web (successor to
FrontPage)
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Project Management
• Project management software is used to
manage project so that resources are
available when needed
• Microsoft Project
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Software for Household Use
• Distinction: Productivity software can be used for
anything whereas the following are for particular uses
• Personal finance – Intuit Quicken, Microsoft Money
• Tax preparation – Intuit TurboTax, H&R Block TaxCut
• Legal software – Intuit WillMaker Plus
• Games and entertainment
• Educational and Reference Software – Encylopedias,
dictionaries, and tutorials
• Accounting – Peachtree (ACC 215), Intuit QuickBooks
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Graphics and Multimedia Software
• Painting - Paint
• Drawing – CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator,
Macromedia (now Adobe) Freehand
• Image-editing (ITD 112) – Adobe Photoshop,
Macromedia (now Adobe) Fireworks (ITE 170),
Adobe Photoshop Elements
• Animation - Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash
(ITE 170)
• Video and Audio Editing – Adobe Premiere
• Computer-aided design (CAD)
William Pegram - September 16,
2009
Communications Software
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Email
Web browsers
Instant messaging
Groupware or collaboration software – e.g.
company wikis (see Vauhini Vara, “Wikis
at Work”, Wall Street Journal, June 18,
2007 , p. R11), Google Docs
• Video conferencing software
William Pegram - September 16,
2009