Ability Office
Encyclopedia
Ability Office is an office suite developed by Ability Plus Software
and distributed and marketed by Ability Software International and which consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, database, modules for presentation and photo or image editing, plus a photo/image organiser and vector line drawing application. The current version (V5) offers a level of compatibility with Microsoft Office, allowing users to create, load from and save both to Microsoft Office 2010 (*.docx etc.) and earlier (*.doc etc.) file formats. In the same way, the photo and image editing application will create, load from and save to Adobe Photoshop (*.psd) file formats, together with other mainstream graphical file types.
, an existing DOS based integrated package, and a first release was made in 1995 called Ability for Windows and consisted of modules for word processing, spreadsheet, database and communications (a terminal program).
A second version was released in 1998 called Ability Office 98. The framework for the entire suite was changed from Borland's Object Windows Library
to Microsoft Foundation Class Library
resulting in better performance and the database was re-written to use the Microsoft Jet Database Engine
.
Since then, modules have been added (an image editing module in 2000 and a presentation module in 2004) but the architecture has broadly remained the same with the step to a fully Unicode
version being made in 2008. Ability Office is 100% C++, entirely 32-bit and uses the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 compiler.
Ability Plus Software
Ability Plus Software is a software development company, founded in 1991for the purposes of developing and marketing the Ability branded products:Ability Office, an office suite for Microsoft Windows and, earlier,...
and distributed and marketed by Ability Software International and which consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, database, modules for presentation and photo or image editing, plus a photo/image organiser and vector line drawing application. The current version (V5) offers a level of compatibility with Microsoft Office, allowing users to create, load from and save both to Microsoft Office 2010 (*.docx etc.) and earlier (*.doc etc.) file formats. In the same way, the photo and image editing application will create, load from and save to Adobe Photoshop (*.psd) file formats, together with other mainstream graphical file types.
Development history
Development began in 1994 following a decision to replace Ability PlusAbility Plus
Ability Plus is an integrated software package written for DOS in the early 80s. Development ceased in 1995 with the last build made in November 1997. It was succeeded by Ability Office on Windows, described below....
, an existing DOS based integrated package, and a first release was made in 1995 called Ability for Windows and consisted of modules for word processing, spreadsheet, database and communications (a terminal program).
A second version was released in 1998 called Ability Office 98. The framework for the entire suite was changed from Borland's Object Windows Library
Object Windows Library
The Object Windows Library is a Borland C++ object-oriented framework originally designed for WinAPI. It was used in Turbo Pascal for Windows, Borland Pascal and their Borland C++ package. It was a competitor to the Microsoft Foundation Class Library .OWL had incomplete support by the Borland C++...
to Microsoft Foundation Class Library
Microsoft Foundation Class Library
The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...
resulting in better performance and the database was re-written to use the Microsoft Jet Database Engine
Microsoft Jet Database Engine
The Microsoft Jet Database Engine is a database engine on which several Microsoft products have been built. A database engine is the underlying component of a database, a collection of information stored on a computer in a systematic way...
.
Since then, modules have been added (an image editing module in 2000 and a presentation module in 2004) but the architecture has broadly remained the same with the step to a fully Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
version being made in 2008. Ability Office is 100% C++, entirely 32-bit and uses the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 compiler.
Related products
In October 2006, Tesco launched a range of own-brand software that included Tesco Complete Office, a Tesco branded version of Ability Office.Version summary
| Product version | Year (latest update) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ability Office 5 | 2008 (Apr 2010) | Unicode throughout |
| Ability Office 4 | 2004 (Jun 2006) | Presentation module added |
| Ability Office 2002 | 2002 (Dec 2003) | Save to PDF added |
| Ability Office 2000 | 2000 (Mar 2001) | Image editing module (Photopaint) added |
| Ability Office 98 | 1998 (Nov 1999) | MFC based, Communication module dropped |
| Ability for Windows | 1995 (Sept 1996) | Write, Spreadsheet, Database and Communication modules |