Editing XyWrite (section)

==History and current usage==
XyQuest was founded in June 1982 by former [[Atex (software)|ATEX]] employees Dave Erickson and John Hild. Its most successful product was XyWrite III Plus, which attracted a devoted following among professional writers.

Announced in September 1989,<ref name=infoworld1990_1112>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[InfoWorld]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tDwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA5
| title = Word Perfect, Borland Scramble To Join GUI Fray
| date = 12 November 1990
| page = 5
| first = Paul
| last = Worthington
| volume = 12
| issue = 46
}}</ref> XyWrite IV promised a lot to users,<ref name=pcmag1990_0213>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[PC Magazine]]
| title = Improved XyWrite IV
| date = 13 February 1990
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ByIl6BeV7z8C&pg=PT55
| page = 54
| volume = 9
| issue = 3
}}</ref> it entered beta-test after a year in November 1990 hoping to release by year end.<ref name=infoworld1990_1112 /> By February 1991 it still hadn't shipped.<ref>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[InfoWorld]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cFAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT32
| title = IBM
| pages = 1,101
| date = 4 February 1991
| volume = 13
| issue = 5
}}</ref> The turning point for XyWrite came in the form of a disastrous near-partnership with [[IBM]], which was seeking a modern replacement for its venerable [[DisplayWrite]] word processor.<ref name=":0" /> Working under an agreement signed in June 1990{{cn|date=October 2021|reason=Can't find a date. Computerworld dates the agreement to early 1991}}, XyQuest devoted nearly all of its development resources to revising Erickson's XyWrite IV to IBM's specifications, including [[IBM Common User Access]]-style menus, mouse support and a [[graphical user interface]]. Publicized in early 1991, the agreement envisioned as a marriage between XyQuest technology and IBM marketing, the product was to be called '''Signature''', and would ship for [[MS-DOS]], [[Microsoft Windows]] and IBM [[OS/2]]. [[DisplayWrite]] would be discontinued at the same time in favor of the new software.<ref name=cw1991_0311>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[Computerworld]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bJfLxHMXCSkC&pg=PA6
| title = DisplayWrite, XyWrite on the way out
| date = 11 March 1991
| page = 6
| first = Patricia
| last = Keefe
| volume = XXV
| issue = 10
}}</ref><ref name=pcmag1992_0526>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[PC Magazine]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hnvCf6WlcYcC&pg=PA11-IA16
| title = Signature
| first = Edward
| last = Mendelson
| page = 206-210
| date = 26 May 1992
| volume = 11
| issue = 10
}}</ref>

But on the eve of Signature's release, IBM announced a strategic decision to withdraw completely from the desktop software market, shocking XyQuest and leaving Signature in limbo.<ref name=pcmag1992_0526 /> When a prospective new alliance with [[Lotus Software|Lotus]] did not materialize,{{cn|date=October 2021}} XyQuest regained the marketing rights to the software and restickered the ready-to-ship Signature packages pasting over the IBM logo.<ref>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[PC Magazine]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uEkrL23rU98C&pg=PP39
| title = Signature: XyWrite's Power Plus WYSIWYG Editing
| first = Edward
| last = Mendelson
| pages = 37,39
| date = 28 January 1992
| volume = 11
| issue = 2
}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine
| magazine = [[PC Magazine]]
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rNcvvlvuwlIC&pg=PA21
| title = XYQUEST RELEASES LONG-AWAITED UPGRADE TO DISPLAYWRITE AND XYWRITE
| page = 59
| date = 14 January 1992
| volume = 11
| issue = 1
}}</ref> Following mixed reviews and poor performance, it was later improved and renamed as XyWrite 4.0.<ref name=":0" />

However, the changes IBM had insisted on were a liability where the III Plus user base was concerned. Some key reviews (such as in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'') were harsh, and there were complaints that 4.0 was buggy and slow. Moreover, in the years since the last major XyWrite release, [[WordPerfect]] had cemented its hold on the DOS word processor market. Already financially strained by the long development cycle for Signature, by the end of 1992 XyQuest was bleeding money. The sale to ''The Technology Group'' ensued.

While there were a few maintenance releases of 4.0 after the acquisition, The Technology Group's major commitment was to developing XyWrite for Windows.<ref name=pcmag1993_0914 /> But XyWrite remained a niche product, unable to compete for the business user against [[Word for Windows]], [[WordPerfect for Windows]], and [[Ami Pro]], despite added versatility and customization potential. The Technology Group was dissolved in 2003.

Several versions of XyWrite were also localized for use in European countries. For example, the programs were offered in Germany under the name "euroscript" by North American Software GmbH.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Eine-kleine-Geschichte-der-Textverarbeitung-4558977.html |title=Eine kleine Geschichte der Textverarbeitung | date=22 October 2019 | first=Detlef |last=Borchers |website=C't |lang=de}}</ref>

===Nota Bene===
A descendant of XyWrite called [[Nota Bene (word processor)|Nota Bene]] is still being actively developed. Nota Bene, which runs on the XyWrite engine,{{sfnb|Bender|1994|page=13}} is popular among academics. As of January 2020, Nota Bene for Windows is at version 12. NotaBene is supported on native Windows, Mac and on Linux running [[Wine (software)|WINE]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.notabene.com/system_req.html |title=System requirements |website=Nota Bene}}</ref>

===Current usage===
In 2015, work started on using XyWrite within the vDos program shell in 32 and 64 bit windows.  This was successful in October 2016, resulting in an x86 PC and DOS emulator for Windows based on Jos Schaars's vDos. Formerly known as vDos-lfn, vDosPlus allows XyWrite 4, XyWrite III+, and Nota Bene for DOS to run under the latest versions of Microsoft Windows (including 64-bit Windows). VdosPlus.org<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdosplus/|title=VDosPlus}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://vdosplus.org/ |title=vDosPlus Home Page}}</ref> shows the various functions, and XyWWWeb<ref>{{cite web| title=XyWWWeb 
|url=http://xywrite.org/xywwweb/ |access-date=15 October 2019}}</ref> shows usage.

XyWrite does not have as many features as Word or OpenOffice.org. For example, XyWrite is unaware of Windows ANSI or Unicode character sets and Nota Bene does not support languages (such as Chinese) that require double-byte characters.