Lotus SmartSuite

An office suite from Lotus Development Corporation that was available for Microsoft Windows and OS/2, the last few releases were published as IBM Smartsuite although much of the text in the programs themselves refers to either IBM Lotus Smartsuite or just Lotus Smartsuite.

Lotus Smartsuite components

Supplied components varied with versions, there were often more than one version available for each operating system. After the IBM takeover this was eventually simplified into one release for each system.

• AOL Global Network Navigator - Browser (Smartsuite v4 and 96 for Win only)
• Fastsite - Windows 98 versions only
• Lotus Ami Pro - Word processor

Shipped with Windows 3.x versions of Smartsuite up to version 4 and with Alpha OS/2 versions.

• Lotus Approach - Database
• Lotus cc:Mail - E-Mail
• Lotus Freelance Graphics - Business graphics
• Lotus Organizer - PIM
• Lotus Screencam - 16 bit versions only
• Lotus vCard & vCalendar viewer (Only shipped with Smartsuite for Windows 9.8.6 or later)
• Lotus Word Pro - Word processor (Smartsuite v4 and later)
• Lotus 1-2-3 - Spreadsheet

Versions

• Last OS/2 version is Lotus Smartsuite 1.73, any 1.7x version can be updated into 1.73 via free fixpacks. Note that OS/2 and Windows version numbers are not in sync, 1.7x versions of the OS/2 product for the most part share a codebase with the 9.8x version for MS Windows.

16 bit Windows (WinOS/2, Win3.x)

• Lotus Smartsuite 4.0 - July 1995
• Last MS Windows 3.x - WinOS/2 version is Lotus Smartsuite 4.5

32 bit Windows (Windows 95/NT4 and up)

• Last MS Windows 32 bit versions is IBM Smartsuite 9.8.61 for English language Passport Advantage licence holders. 9.8.6 for International Passport Advantage licence holders. 9.8.1 is the last GA version (No Passport Advantage licence needed). Strangely enough, there are international versions of 9.8.61 available, but only for English language Passport Advantage holders, in other words you can get the software currently in the language versions below, but only if you agree to use only English ...

Known issues

• Some components have separate known issues, see the components links above for more info.
• IBM States that IBM and Lotus Smartsuite will not install and work on 64 bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, this is only half true, the use of 16 bit installer code means that the installer and some auxiliary programs supplied with the Lotus/IBM Smartsuite will not install or run. However the bulk of the Smartsuite is actually 32 bit code and will install and work on 64 bit systems if you get hold of a relatively recent IBM branded version which uses a 32 bit installer.

Lotus Word Pro OS/2 beta
Drawing frame, the Drawing palettes and related Infobox

Lotus Word Pro OS/2 beta
Charts generated in Word Pro or inserted from Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Freelance or Lotus Approach

NLP Smartsuite versions for OS/2 1.73 and Windows 9.8.61

• International English (USA, UK, Australia & South Africa)
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Dutch
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Danish
• Norwegian
• Italian

Links

• Software withdrawal and discontinuance of support: Lotus SmartSuite , Lotus Organizer and Lotus 123 - May 14, 2013
• History of lotus Smartsuite - In Italian

Reviews

• Tim Nott: Lotus Smartsuite: A word processor, spreadsheet and database all in one program, but thats not all... - Originally published in Personal Computer World 30 Apr 2004 - Via Archive.org
• Volker Weber: Büroelefanten: Corel Office 7, SmartSuite 97, MS Office 97, StarOffice 4.0 - from c't magazin 1997-05-12

Lotus 1-2-3 N98.0208.1200
Running on Windows 10 64 bit

Licence

Closed source commercial software, currently only available as a part of an extended support contract.

Authors & publishers

• Lotus Development Corporation
• IBM