View source for WordMARC

{{short description|Word processing software}}
'''WordMARC Composer'''<ref>The name on the software distribution media, (C) 1983, 1986
by MARC Software International, Inc</ref><ref name=VsWP>{{cite web  |website=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/business/the-executive-computer-discovering-a-common-language.html|title=The Executive Computer |date=June 21, 1987
|quote=... WordMARC Composer ... WordPerfect}}</ref> was a scientifically oriented [[word processor]]<ref>{{cite magazine  |magazine=PC Magazine |title=MARC Software fonts
|date=January 28, 1986  |page=125
|quote=MARC Software ... creating scientific or mathematical characters within these fonts ... 
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Yei7rPaT4kC}}</ref> developed by MARC Software, an offshoot of MARC Analysis Research Corporation<ref name=NYT.buying>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 29, 1999
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/29/business/company-news-macneal-schwendler-to-buy-marc-analysis-research.html
|title=Macneal-Schwendler to buy MARC Analysis Research}}</ref> (which specialized in high end [[Finite element method|Finite Element Analysis]] software for mechanical engineering).  It ran originally on minicomputers such as [[Prime computer|Prime]] and [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] [[VAX]].  When the [[IBM PC]] emerged as the platform of choice for word processing, WordMARC allowed users to easily move documents from a minicomputer (where they could be easily shared) to PCs.

WordMARC was the creation of Pedro Marcal,<ref>{{cite web |title=MARC Software International
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hdeC0k_JHwC
|quote=Pedro V. Marcal President MARC Software International Inc. Palo Alto|date = July 1986}}</ref> who pioneered work in finite element analysis and needed a technical word processor that both supported complex notations<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PA3RA3f6mi0C
|quote=WordMarc Composer .. technical character .. handles scientific and technical text so well.
|title=WordMarc Composer |date=1988}}</ref> and was capable of running on minicomputers and other high-end machines such as Alliant and AT&T.<ref>{{cite web |title=WordMarc release for Ultrix adds X Window support
|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/102718265?q&versionId=116104950|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113025945/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/102718265?q&versionId=116104950|url-status=dead|archive-date=2018-11-13}}</ref>

WordMARC was originally known as MUSE (MARC Universal Screen Editor),<ref>{{cite journal
|title=WordMARC Word Processing  |date=May 1, 1985
|url=http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/699661/wordmarc-word-processing
|journal=Annals of Internal Medicine
|volume=102
|issue=5
|pages=727–728
|doi=10.7326/0003-4819-102-5-727_2
|quote=WordMARC ... formerly known as MUSE}}</ref> but the name was changed because of a trademark conflict with another company when the product was ported to the [[IBM PC]].

==Features==
In comparison with [[WordPerfect]], WordMARC's formatting metadata was always hidden.  This was considered friendlier to novice users, and less likely to result in mangled documents.

Although it was billed as a [[WYSIWYG]] system, it did not provide for display of proportional fonts.  It did, however allow the use of proportional fonts by adjusting the margins based on the current text size using an estimated average character width in version 1. Primeword v2 had font character width tables, and were given a utility that could generate them from HP font files.

Advanced features (for its time) included Document Assembly (maintaining each chapter of a book in separate files and combining them for printing or to produce a table of contents or index), automatic paragraph numbering, footnotes, endnotes, support for mixed fonts, multi-level equations and scientific characters.<ref>{{cite web  |title=Experiments in cold fusion|url=https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5628318
|author=E. P. Palmer |date=1986 |quote=... reports and manuals, ... WordMARC ... formatting}}</ref>

An early version offered support for Japanese characters. The [[Unix]] version of WordMARC supported [[PostScript]].<ref>{{cite web
|title=Unix WordMARC supporting Postscript 
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DAEAAAAMBAJ |date=February 16, 1987 
|quote=Unix-Based Wordmarc To Support Postscript}}</ref>

==Company history==
In 1999 the company became MSC Software<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1025304
|title=MARC Analysis Research Corp|website=[[Bloomberg News]] }}</ref> and in May was purchased by MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times
|url=http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/marc-analysis-research-corp
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209120113/http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/marc-analysis-research-corp
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=December 9, 2015
|title=Marc Analysis Research Corp}}</ref><ref name=NYT.buying/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Word processors}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wordmarc}}
[[Category:Word processors]]
[[Category:Science software]]
[[Category:Discontinued software]]
[[Category:History of software]]