Ready, Set, Go!

July 31, 2026 by Thor Leave a comment

By the title you might think this was a post about racing. But this is a file format blog, so we will keep on that topic. When I was in school many years ago, I remember using desktop publishing tools like PageMaker for the first time. When I got a job working for a local commercial printer in the early 1990’s, I was introduced to QuarkXPress. This became a career and I spent the next decade and a half working in the PrePress field. I got to know tools like Quark and InDesign extremely well. But even before these layout tools became what they are today, there was an early entry into the desktop publishing market.

Ready, Set, Go! was the “Ultimate Page Processor” released in 1985 for the Macintosh by Manhattan Graphics Corp. But had started advertising as early as Summer 1984.

For a few years it was one of the best layout tools on the market and was not very expensive. It continued to add features which rivaled the more expensive tools. Aldus PageMaker also come out shortly after in 1985, but was almost $500 when released. The software was sold to Letraset in 1987 and used it to replace their MacPublisher/LetraPage product and shortly afterwards released version 4.0 of Ready, Set, Go!. Letraset made some improvements and even tried to make a pro version called DesignStudio in 1989. When sales started to stagnate and Tools like Pagemaker and Quark owning most of the market, Letraset gave the software back to Manhattan Graphics in the USA in 1992 who then released a small update combining the two products back together into version 5.0. Then they released version 6.0 later that year. In 1996 the international rights were sold to Diwan, a company who could make use of the very foreign language capabilities of the software.

Ready, Set, Go! had a great history of foreign language support, thanks in part to the Apple Quickdraw GX software which helped render other language glyphs and writing directions. There were special versions for languages like Hebrew. A GX version of the software was released in 1996 that supported many other languages.

Because of and in spite of the craziness of the software’s ownership, the file format used with the software changed frequently, but mostly kept the same basic structure. Identification of the different versions will be difficult, but that is why we are here, let’s take a look. Remember, these were all very early Macintosh programs, meaning there is no extension and their identification is based on Type/Creator codes. Luckily, there is no Resource Forks we need to account for in their identification or preservation.

Here is a look at a file from version 1.

 % hexdump -C RSG1-s01 | head
00000000  00 78 00 03 00 00 00 48  00 48 00 00 00 00 02 da  |.x.....H.H......|
00000010  02 28 ff e1 ff e2 02 f9  02 46 03 47 05 28 03 fc  |.(.......F.G.(..|
00000020  00 02 00 00 00 48 00 48  00 00 00 00 02 da 02 28  |.....H.H.......(|
00000030  00 01 00 00 00 64 00 00  00 01 00 01 01 01 00 00  |.....d..........|
00000040  00 01 27 0f 00 01 00 01  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |..'.............|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 02 00 19  01 90 00 00 00 00 00 40  |...............@|
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 01 00 01 00 48  |...............H|
00000080  00 48 00 48 00 48 00 01  00 00 00 01 00 00 00 01  |.H.H.H..........|
00000090  00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

% hexdump -C RSG2-s01 | head
00000000  00 78 00 02 00 00 00 48  00 48 00 00 00 00 02 d8  |.x.....H.H......|
00000010  02 28 ff e0 ff e2 02 f8  02 46 03 07 05 28 03 fc  |.(.......F...(..|
00000020  00 02 00 00 00 48 00 48  00 00 00 00 02 d8 02 28  |.....H.H.......(|
00000030  00 01 00 00 00 64 00 00  00 01 00 01 01 01 00 00  |.....d..........|
00000040  00 01 27 0f 00 01 00 01  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |..'.............|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 02 00 19  01 90 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 01 00 13 00 04  |................|
00000080  00 10 00 1c 00 04 00 10  00 10 00 01 00 01 00 00  |................|
00000090  00 03 17 54 00 06 14 9e  00 05 08 ae 00 01 50 ec  |...T..........P.|

% getfileinfo RSG2-s01
file: "RSG2-s01"
type: "RSGI"
creator: "MART"
attributes: avbstclInmedz
created: 04/17/1986 17:31:32
modified: 04/28/1986 10:53:01

% hexdump -C RSG3 | head
00000000  00 1e 00 00 00 86 00 01  b8 2a 00 01 00 03 00 02  |.........*......|
00000010  00 01 b8 12 00 01 b8 1e  00 01 b8 4e 00 00 00 01  |...........N....|
00000020  b8 0a 00 00 80 00 00 00  80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00  |................|
00000030  80 00 00 00 40 00 00 00  40 00 00 04 00 02 00 01  |....@...@.......|
00000040  b8 06 ff fd 52 53 47 33  00 6c 65 64 00 ff ff f0  |....RSG3.led....|
00000050  1f ff ff f0 1f ff ff f0  00 00 00 10 00 00 34 42  |..............4B|
00000060  41 50 50 4c 00 00 00 ff  00 00 00 10 00 00 00 22  |APPL..........."|
00000070  44 52 57 47 00 01 00 ff  00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00  |DRWG............|
00000080  00 10 43 54 00 02 00 01  ff 00 ff ff 00 00 00 78  |..CT...........x|
00000090  00 03 00 00 00 48 00 48  00 00 00 00 02 f0 02 40  |.....H.H.......@|

% hexdump -C RSG4-s01 | head
00000000  01 90 00 00 01 e6 00 00  01 e2 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000010  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 cc  00 04 5b a0 00 01 00 03  |..........[.....|
00000070  00 02 00 04 5b 68 00 04  5b 70 00 04 5b 7c 00 00  |....[h..[p..[|..|
00000080  00 04 5b 5c 00 00 00 04  5b 64 00 00 80 00 00 00  |..[\....[d......|
00000090  80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00  80 00 00 00 40 00 00 00  |............@...|
000000a0  40 00 00 04 00 02 ff 00  00 04 5b 60 ff fe 08 52  |@.........[`...R|
000000b0  53 47 34 2d 73 30 31 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |SG4-s01.........|
000000c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

% getfileinfo RSG4.5 
file: "RSG4.5"
type: "RSGR"
creator: "MEMR"
attributes: avbstclInmedz
created: 11/16/2021 13:39:34
modified: 11/16/2021 13:39:34

If you would like to play around with some samples from version 2. You can download them from here:

We can look at the hexadecimal for all the files, but this table will better explain the differences between versions.

Version	Type	Creator	First two Bytes	Developer	Year
1.0.1	RSGF	MART	0078	Manhattan Graphics Corporation	1985
2.0	RSGI	MART	0078	Manhattan Graphics Corporation	1985
3.0	RSGJ	MRSN	001E	Manhattan Graphics Corporation	1986
4.0	RSGK	MRSN	0190	Letraset	1987
4.5	RSGR	MEMR	138B	Letraset	1988
Design Studio 1.0	RSGS	MRJN	13C9	Letraset	1989
Design Studio 2.0	DSTD	MRJN	13E4	Letraset	1991
6.0.2	MG6F	MROS	1770	Manhattan Graphics	1993
7.0.5 Intl	MG7F	MRDN	1B61	Diwan	1996
7.2.8	MG6F	MROS	1BBC	Diwan	2002
7.7.8	MG6F	MROS	1BBC	Diwan	2011

This table is what I know currently, there is probably many more I can add as I locate samples, such as Version 5.0 and 5.1.

It amazes me how often the Creator code changes, usually this is fairly stable, but since it did change hands a lot, it makes a little sense. The Type code can often indicate changes in file format, so we can see version 1 & 2 are probably compatible, and later versions 6 & 7, but there own read me files helps us understand the compatibility. Version 2 added multiple page support, so it might have more differences.

Ready,Set,Go! 6.0 can open files created with Ready,Set,Go! 4.5, 4.5a, 5.0, and 5.1, and DesignStudio 1.0, 1.01 and 2.0. It cannot open files created with versions 1, 2, 3 or 4 of Ready,Set,Go! Registered users can obtain a special version of RSG 4.5 to open files created with earlier versions of Ready,Set,Go! to convert them to Version 6.0.

Ready,Set,Go! will open an old RSG document down to version 4 and a DesignStudio document down to version 1.0. Ready,Set,Go! 7.1 will automatically save it with the name ‘Copy of (filename)’ in order not to overwrite the old document. Whereas Ready,Set,Go! 7.2 or later can save documents that are compatible with Ready,Set,Go! versions 6 and 7.0.

So it seems you need version 4.5 to open earlier files and version 6 to open versions 4.5 to 5.1, then in 7.2 a change happened separating versions 6-7.1 and 7.2 and greater. Sounds like we will need at least 4 signatures to identify all the major changes.

Here is the problem, the main differences between the versions is the first two bytes. This is not enough to make a strong signature in PRONOM. Let look at some options.

% hexdump -C RSG4-s01 | tail
00000160  00 00 02 da 02 28 00 01  00 00 00 64 00 00 00 01  |.....(.....d....|
00000170  00 01 01 01 00 00 00 01  27 0f 00 01 00 01 00 00  |........'.......|
00000180  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 02 00 19 01 90  |................|
00000190  00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01  |.....@..........|
000001a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001b0  00 00 00 2a 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |...*............|
000001c0  00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01  |................|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00  |................|
000001e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|

Many since version 3 end with at least two bytes of the values FF FF, but that is also pretty common.

% hexdump -C RSG4.5 | head
00000000  13 8b 00 00 04 10 00 00  04 0c 00 00 04 14 00 00  |................|
00000010  04 18 00 00 04 1c 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 01 88  17 62 e1 d4 00 01 00 03  |.........b......|
00000070  00 02 17 62 e1 d0 17 62  e1 dc 17 62 e1 e8 00 00  |...b...b...b....|
00000080  17 62 e1 cc 00 00 17 62  e1 c8 00 00 80 00 00 00  |.b.....b........|
00000090  80 00 00 00 80 00 00 00  80 00 00 00 40 00 00 00  |............@...|
000000a0  40 00 00 04 00 02 ff 00  17 62 e1 50 ff fd 06 52  |@........b.P...R|
000000b0  53 47 34 2e 35 65 64 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |SG4.5ed.........|

The header generally contains two bytes, then 00 00, then repeats for a few bytes, but adding 00 00 to a signature is also not very robust. Comparing version 3 to version 4 file doesn’t show much in common except for zeros. It may not be possible to combine signatures, they may need individual signatures for each version.

But the versions after 6, have an interesting segment of bytes. “050102030102060102030102060102030102060102030102060102030102070102090102070102030102070102090102070102090102070102090102070102090102060102030102060102030102060102030102060102030102050102030102050102030102050102030102050102030102050102030102050102030102060102030102050102030102050102030102050102030102”

% hexdump -C /Users/thorsted/Downloads/ReadySetGo\ \(1\)/RSG6       
00000000  17 70 00 00 34 70 00 00  34 6c 00 00 34 74 00 00  |.p..4p..4l..4t..|
00000010  34 78 00 00 34 90 00 00  34 a4 00 00 38 fe 00 00  |4x..4...4...8...|
00000020  39 20 00 00 39 68 00 00  3b 40 00 00 3b 44 00 00  |9 ..9h..;@..;D..|
00000030  3b 44 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |;D..............|
00000040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001c0  00 03 01 01 00 ff 00 00  00 00 05 01 02 03 01 02  |................|
000001d0  06 01 02 03 01 02 06 01  02 03 01 02 06 01 02 03  |................|
000001e0  01 02 06 01 02 03 01 02  07 01 02 09 01 02 07 01  |................|
000001f0  02 03 01 02 07 01 02 09  01 02 07 01 02 09 01 02  |................|
00000200  07 01 02 09 01 02 07 01  02 09 01 02 06 01 02 03  |................|
00000210  01 02 06 01 02 03 01 02  06 01 02 03 01 02 06 01  |................|
00000220  02 03 01 02 05 01 02 03  01 02 05 01 02 03 01 02  |................|
00000230  05 01 02 03 01 02 05 01  02 03 01 02 05 01 02 03  |................|
00000240  01 02 05 01 02 03 01 02  06 01 02 03 01 02 05 01  |................|
00000250  02 03 01 02 05 01 02 03  01 02 05 01 02 03 01 02  |................|
00000260  00 09 20 60 00 08 80 00  00 0b 00 00 00 01 00 00  |.. `............|
00000270  00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000280  00 00 00 00 00 ea 04 b0  00 64 03 e8 00 00 00 00  |.........d......|
00000290  17 97 50 6c 00 00 00 00  00 3c 00 3d 00 3e 00 3f  |..Pl.....<.=.>.?|
000002a0  00 40 00 41 00 42 00 43  00 64 00 05 00 00 00 00  |.@.A.B.C.d......|
000002b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

It is in all the samples I have for version 6+, most have the same 150 bytes, all starting around the 458th byte (0x1CA). I have no idea what it means, but it makes up for the weak bytes available in the older versions. If anyone out there knows the significance in this byte sequence, I would like to understand. Visually it looks the most interesting in a 3 column view, and some files do have one byte difference.

Ok, so for now, it looks like the best option is to group the signatures into Version 3-4, Version 6-7, and DesignStudio 1-2. I will look at what is best for Version 1-2 of ReadySetGo in the future. For now, you can see my samples and suggested signature on my GitHub page.

Discus

May 22, 2026 by Thor Leave a comment

I found myself in the same situation again with a colleague asking me for help identifying an unknown file. The file in question did not have an extension and to make things harder, the file could not be shared with me, only the header. So not having much to go on I started with some assumptions. Not having an extension leans toward the file being from an early Macintosh system. My favorite. I asked some follow up questions and learned the file was from around 2002, but no longer had any extended attributes that might contain a type creator code to help with identification. There was also mentioned of layers and fonts later in the file I was told.

Looking at the header sent to me, there was an obviously first choice to look into.

cd cd 20 07 43 41 4e 56 (ÍÍ CANV)

With the ASCII text “CANV“, the initial thought was this file was related to the popular Canvas software. I did a post on the Canvas formats a couple years ago so I went back through my files and could not find any match. Most uncompressed Canvas files use “CANVAS5” or “CANVAS6”, nothing which was shortened to CANV. I check all the samples I have from many versions. Back to square one.

I looked at other graphics and desktop publishing programs from the time period, I even asked AI to help me narrow it down. AI also recommended Canvas, but also many others I was already aware of and had dismissed. AI did not know what to make of the CANV string in the header, it was not too helpful. I did follow a couple of leads it gave me, but they led to dead ends. One title I looked into was called Desktop Publisher Pro. Files from this software also had a unique header, but nothing resembling what I was looking for. Maybe I will do another post of this software in the future.

So the next step in my process was to scan through all my sample data sets for something that matched or was close. I made a simple signature with the CANV header, but also one with the “CDCD” hex values as it seemed unique as well. I set the scan to run overnight on my sample set and the next morning I was met with disappointment. Not one match. I decided to run the same signatures across a few of my other drives of personal files, just for good measure. The next morning I had a surprise. Within the 10’s of thousands of files scanned, one file popped. The file the scan found also had no extension and the software that created it was no longer on my computer so the file was not associated with any software. But luckily in my case, the Type/Creator code was still attached!

% getfileinfo "MC Wrap" 
file: "Martins Cove Wrap"
type: "DISC"
creator: "ARTD"
attributes: avbstclinmedz
created: 09/06/2005 13:52:35
modified: 09/06/2005 13:52:35

% hexdump -C "MC Wrap" | head
00000000  cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56  00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12  |??..CANV........|
00000010  00 03 00 01 00 05 02 20  00 16 00 00 00 00 00 09  |....... ........|
00000020  00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00  00 01 00 00 34 6e 00 02  |.2PREV......4n..|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43  00 64 00 00 00 00 00 43  |.......C.d.....C|
00000040  00 64 00 10 42 10 42 10  42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10  |.d..B.B.B.B.B.B.|
00000050  42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10  42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10  |B.B.B.B.B.B.B.B.|
*
00000100  42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10  42 10 42 10 42 10 00 21  |B.B.B.B.B.B.B..!|
00000110  00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21  00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21  |.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!|

There it is! The header with CANV. Looking up the Creator code “ARTD” in my TCDB tool, I learned the creator of the file.

% python3 TC-lookup-draft-uni.py "MC Wrap" 
Type Code: DISC
Creator Code: ARTD
Size of Data Fork: 18483930 bytes
Size of Resource Fork: 0 bytes
Rows with Type Code b'DISC' and Creator Code b'ARTD': 
Row index: 11828
File Name: Discus—Disc Lable File
Type: DISC
Creator: ARTD
Comments: Discus
Category: nan
Extension: nan
Dup:  
Data by Ilan Szekely, Jerusalem: nan
------------------------------

The database of Type/Creator codes identified the file as being created by the Discus software. A little search and I remembered the file in question was created by Discus RE which was included with Roxio Toast, a CD/DVD buring software popular on the Macintosh for many years. Discus RE was labeling software bundled with Toast for a few versions, lastly Toast version 7.

I happen to have Toast 6 on my older PowerMac G5 machine which included Discus RE 2.74. I made a few samples to compare.

% hexdump -C DiscusRE2.6-s01 | head
00000000  cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56  00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12  |??..CANV........|
00000010  00 03 00 01 00 00 00 0a  00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000020  00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00  00 01 00 00 4e 2e 00 01  |.2PREV......N...|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64  00 64 00 10 52 94 52 94  |.......d.d..R.R.|
00000040  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000050  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  |R.V?R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000060  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000070  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000080  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  56 b5 52 94 56 b5 5a d6  |R.V?R.R.V?R.V?Z?|
00000090  63 18 42 10 42 10 42 10  42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10  |c.B.B.B.B.B.B.B.|

You may have noticed both my file and this sample have a slightly different header, my samples have “CDCD007” while the header sent to me has “CDCD2007”. A slight difference I am not sure of the meaning. I need to see more samples. Since this was a sample from Discus version 2, I tracked down samples from version 3 and 4.

% hexdump -C DiscusRE3-s01 | head
00000000  cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56  00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12  |??..CANV........|
00000010  00 03 00 01 00 00 00 0a  00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000020  00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00  00 01 00 00 4e 36 00 02  |.2PREV......N6..|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64  00 64 00 00 00 00 00 64  |.......d.d.....d|
00000040  00 64 00 10 52 94 52 94  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  |.d..R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000050  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000060  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000070  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  |R.V?R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000080  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000090  56 b5 52 94 56 b5 5e f7  67 39 42 10 42 10 42 10  |V?R.V?^?g9B.B.B.|

Version 3 seems to have the same structure. Version 4 is a little different and also has an extension this time. The first two bytes are the same, but has 0008 and is missing the CANV, replaced by PREV.

% hexdump -C Discus4-s01.CD4 | head
00000000  cd cd 00 08 50 52 45 56  00 00 00 01 00 01 8e 36  |??..PREV.......6|
00000010  00 02 00 00 00 04 00 00  00 ba 00 8c 00 04 00 00  |.........?......|
00000020  00 ba 00 8c 00 20 32 32  32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32  |.?... 222?222?22|
00000030  32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32  32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32  |2?222?222?222?22|

I learned the Discus software was created by a software company called Magic Mouse Productions. Discus was written by Edward de Jong, the founder of Magic Mouse Productions, who has also created many other software titles. Discus sold millions of copies, many of which were bundled, but also full versions which unlocked many other label templates and a lot more artwork. The Discus software also included a large selection of artwork which could be used in the label design. Looking at a sample from the full version, I was hoping to see the CDCD2007, but found them to be similar to the other samples.

% hexdump -C Discus3.08-s01 | head
00000000  cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56  00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12  |??..CANV........|
00000010  00 03 00 01 00 00 01 f4  00 11 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.......?........|
00000020  00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00  00 01 00 00 4e 36 00 02  |.2PREV......N6..|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64  00 64 00 00 00 00 00 64  |.......d.d.....d|
00000040  00 64 00 10 52 94 52 94  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  |.d..R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000050  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000060  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000070  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5  |R.V?R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000080  52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94  52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94  |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000090  56 b5 52 94 52 94 42 10  31 8c 42 10 42 10 42 10  |V?R.R.B.1.B.B.B.|

I actually reached out to Edward de Jong and asked him about the file format. His response,

The Discus file format is fairly straightforward

The first four bytes are the signature of a Discus file

The Discus software was built for the PowerPC chip for the Macintosh, but also for Windows. The last couple of updates to Discus version 4 added Intel chip support, but then no new versions where created. Edward explained….

I still use Discus myself, but on the Macintosh it stops running after OSX 10.14 because Apple cruelly discontinued their emulator for older operating systems and the Intel instruction set.

After Toast version 7, Roxio used a different labeling software bundled with their burning software. This and many others still need some research and documentation. For now, a signature for Discus will help in weeding out these labels some might find un-needed, but other may find invaluable.

Take a look at some samples and my signature proposal and let me know what you think.

TurboTax

April 3, 2026 by Thor Leave a comment

With all the different file formats that are found in everyday computing, most formats which find their way to my archive have historical value. We know we can’t keep everything and have to assign value to all we decide to keep in for the long term. Some files have sensitive data and we have to follow guidelines for their proper handling. Identification of files helps us know what type of data might be kept inside the format, so often I need to also identify formats we don’t plan on keeping.

I was recently looking through a large digital collection and a report on the files which did not identify in the initial scan. A few popped out to me because of their extension, TAX. Tax records are one thing we need to identify so we can properly handle them, but not likely keep in our repository.

These tax files come from the popular US based TurboTax software. The software gets a new version for every year as tax laws are constantly changing. The software has also been around since 1984, so there are many versions to be aware of. Add to the fact there are personal and business versions along with DOS, Windows, and Macintosh versions, identification might get complicated. None of which are documented in the PRONOM registry. Wikidata is aware of a couple of the extensions, but does not have any signatures to help in identification.

Luckily, this collection of files I was processing had a number of years worth of records. Using them and a few others I was able to put together a decent timeline of formats used, at least from the early 1990’s on. The format seemed to settle on the .TAX extension around the 1994 Windows version. Before this, a group of files in DOS together stored the data. Let’s look at a sample of the 1994 file from Windows.

% hexdump -C TT1994.TAX | head
00000000  54 75 72 62 6f 54 61 78  0d 0a 46 6f 72 6d 61 74  |TurboTax..Format|
00000010  3d 57 49 4e 0d 0a 56 65  72 73 69 6f 6e 3d 31 33  |=WIN..Version=13|
00000020  0d 0a 45 6e 67 69 6e 65  56 65 72 73 53 74 72 3d  |..EngineVersStr=|
00000030  36 2e 30 30 2e 31 0d 0a  46 6f 72 6d 73 65 74 3d  |6.00.1..Formset=|
00000040  53 31 39 39 34 55 53 31  30 34 30 0d 0a 43 65 6e  |S1994US1040..Cen|
00000050  74 73 3d 59 65 73 0d 0a  53 68 6f 77 43 6f 6d 6d  |ts=Yes..ShowComm|
00000060  61 73 3d 59 65 73 0d 0a  53 68 6f 77 43 6f 6c 6c  |as=Yes..ShowColl|
00000070  61 70 73 69 62 6c 65 57  6f 72 6b 53 68 65 65 74  |apsibleWorkSheet|
00000080  73 3d 59 65 73 0d 0a 44  61 74 61 56 65 72 73 69  |s=Yes..DataVersi|
00000090  6f 6e 3d 31 0d 0a 46 6f  72 6d 46 69 6c 65 53 75  |on=1..FormFileSu|

I love these easy to identify format headers, but then jump to the next year, 1995, and the format changes.

% hexdump -C TT1995.TAX | head
00000000  c0 45 01 5f 0a 00 00 35  b5 06 36 2e 30 30 2e 31  |.E._...5..6.00.1|
00000010  00 00 c7 00 02 00 02 0d  00 00 00 b4 00 00 00 d9  |................|
00000020  00 0e 53 31 39 39 35 55  53 31 30 34 30 50 45 52  |..S1995US1040PER|
00000030  01 01 01 00 00 00 01 00  01 00 00 35 b5 00 0a c8  |...........5....|
00000040  00 01 00 01 09 00 00 00  cf 00 06 00 06 1d 00 00  |................|
00000050  00 3e 00 00 00 3e 00 00  00 64 00 00 00 64 00 00  |.>...>...d...d..|
00000060  00 7e 00 00 00 ce 13 7a  65 7a 50 65 72 73 69 73  |.~.....zezPersis|
00000070  74 65 6e 74 53 74 61 74  75 73 00 65 00 64 00 01  |tentStatus.e.d..|
00000080  00 00 00 00 00 00 ce 12  7a 74 6c 50 65 72 73 69  |........ztlPersi|
00000090  73 74 46 69 6c 65 44 61  74 61 00 00 00 00 00 00  |stFileData......|

The nice easy to read header is gone, but some other patterns start to appear. It seems most of the files from these early versions also used a code near the beginning that may help. “S1995US1040PER”, is similar to the “S1994US1040” in the 1994 file. One could assume the “1040” is the tax form most Americans are used to, along with “US” preceding the number. Then at the end of the string we see “PER”. This may refer to different versions of the Tax software, a Personal for the individual, and a possibly other versions for business as well. I believe TurboTax also had versions for Canadians as well, so there may be many variations on this string. This could get complex. Let’s jump ahead to a 1999 file.

% hexdump -C TurboTax1999.tax | head 
00000000  c0 45 01 5f 0a 00 00 54  6a 16 4c 39 31 30 32 31  |.E._...Tj.L91021|

00000030  00 0e 53 31 39 39 39 55  53 31 30 34 30 50 45 52  |..S1999US1040PER|
00000040  00 00 01 00 00 00 25 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |......%.........|
00000050  01 19 12 8f f1 00 0a 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c8  |................|
00000080  00 04 00 04 15 00 00 00  ec 05 00 00 c3 07 00 00  |................|
00000090  a3 08 00 00 c4 00 05 46  31 30 34 30 00 00 00 01  |.......F1040....|

The same string is visible, but if course with the year “1999”. We can also see a pattern with the first 4 bytes, “c0 45 01 5f” which seem to be consistent with the 1995 file. The file I have for 1998 is consistent as well. Jumping to the new millennium, we see a change.

% hexdump -C TurboTax2000.tax | head
00000000  c0 45 01 64 0a 00 00 2e  4f 18 4c 30 30 39 32 37  |.E.d....O.L00927|

00000030  00 dc 00 0b 53 32 30 30  30 55 53 31 31 32 30 00  |....S2000US1120.|
00000040  00 01 00 00 00 09 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01  |................|

Two changes we see with this file. One, the ASCII string is different. S2000US1120, 1120 being the U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return. So this version of the software was different. The other change is the first 4 bytes. They changed to “c0 45 01 64”, with the last byte changing from 5F to 64. Jumping to 2003, we see the same values.

% hexdump -C TurboTax2003.tax | head 
00000000  c0 45 01 64 0d 00 00 80  1b 26 54 59 30 33 5f 4c  |.E.d.....&TY03_L|

00000040  58 03 00 dc 00 0e 53 32  30 30 33 55 53 31 30 34  |X.....S2003US104|
00000050  30 50 45 52 00 00 01 00  00 6a c6 00 00 00 00 00  |0PER.....j......|

Back to a 1040 form, but with the same header as the 2000 file. I am removing some lines, just to be safe and not exposing any personal data. In 2004 we see a major change in the format.

% hexdump -C TurboTax2004.tax | head 
00000000  54 54 46 4e 01 01 6f 68  dc 62 00 00 00 00 4b 01  |TTFN..oh.b....K.|

Again, removing some lines to ensure safety. This header is very different and their is no human readable ASCII in the file, which means it is binary and probably encoded. This header is new, TTFN is what I assume references TurboTax format? file? or possibly, “Turbo Tax Financial Network“?

This header is then used for the next few years ending in 2013, but before we get there, the extension makes a change as well. In 2008, instead of the simple .TAX extension, the software begins to save the tax file with the extension .TAX2008. I don’t have a 2008 document, but I do have a sample 2009 document.

% hexdump -C TurboTax2009.tax2009 | head
00000000  54 54 46 4e 01 01 b5 68  02 24 00 00 00 00 4b 0b  |TTFN...h.$....K.|
00000010  01 01 19 13 01 01 01 52  01 01 01 0b 01 01 4e 7a  |.......R......Nz|

With the last to use the TTFN header in 2013.

% hexdump -C TurboTax2013.tax2013 | head
00000000  54 54 46 4e 01 01 87 22  6a ec 00 00 00 00 50 bd  |TTFN..."j.....P.|

2014 is where I get a little confused. I have one file which uses the TTFN header and another which uses what becomes the standard going forward. But definitely in 2015, the format starts using the ZIP container as a structure for the format. Here is a sample from 2015

% hexdump -C TurboTax2015.tax2015 | head
00000000  50 4b 03 04 2d 00 02 00  08 00 e5 a6 51 48 ba 4d  |PK..-.......QH.M|
00000010  43 67 15 06 00 00 10 06  00 00 0c 00 14 00 6d 61  |Cg............ma|
00000020  6e 69 66 65 73 74 2e 78  6d 6c 01 00 10 00 00 00  |nifest.xml......|

If we take a look inside the ZIP container of a 2017 dummy sample.

% 7z l TurboTax2017.tax2017
7-Zip [64] 17.05 : Copyright (c) 1999-2021 Igor Pavlov : 2017-08-28
p7zip Version 17.05 (locale=utf8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs LE)

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 769814 bytes (752 KiB)                                              

Listing archive: TurboTax2017.tax2017

--
Path = TurboTax2017.tax2017
Type = zip
WARNINGS:
Headers Error
Physical Size = 769814

   Date      Time    Attr         Size   Compressed  Name
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2026-03-28 20:25:38 .....          576          581  manifest.xml
2026-03-28 20:25:38 .....       768688       768923  084A702A-CD3D-4623-B8B7-EE4800BB151F
------------------- ----- ------------ ------------  ------------------------
2026-03-28 20:25:38             769264       769504  2 files

Warnings: 1

The files all seem to have a manifest.xml and a unique identifier. 7-Zip also mentions a header issue with the ZIP files. Something maybe done on purpose? Now comes the odd part, the manifest.xml file does not render as an XML file, it is binary.

% hexdump -C TurboTax2017/manifest.xml | head
00000000  a1 b1 fe fb 37 18 dd 9c  08 2d 9c 86 23 00 10 fa  |....7....-..#...|
00000010  12 60 92 bb dc 92 a5 df  1a 24 16 4e a9 28 89 80  |.`.......$.N.(..|
00000020  64 33 66 55 c5 93 f0 68  44 d0 7c f9 56 86 42 2c  |d3fU...hD.|.V.B,|
00000030  80 ba 8a 95 2a 82 6d 32  75 84 b1 f1 e2 18 93 5c  |....*.m2u......\|
00000040  82 4d 18 f9 ed 23 4f dc  d6 b5 7f f2 20 1e 30 59  |.M...#O..... .0Y|
00000050  d5 7f 47 7d aa f5 8d bd  8b 10 20 ec 8a c7 43 df  |..G}...... ...C.|
00000060  52 90 a9 70 4d 68 b4 76  fa c8 37 85 f5 56 25 82  |R..pMh.v..7..V%.|
00000070  ea 16 06 54 b0 b4 bc 43  16 fb 70 7b 7a 79 a5 8b  |...T...C..p{zy..|
00000080  3c 79 7d ef ac 32 fc 35  ce 0f fa a2 6f e7 c3 a4  |<y}..2.5....o...|
00000090  92 a1 a4 c8 83 dd 9f 32  f4 ea d3 1a eb 89 15 a3  |.......2........|

Of the samples I have which have a manifest.xml, they all begin with “a1 b1 fe fb”. Which apparently is the header for an AES CBC encrypted file. A clever person was able to decrypt the file to reveal the actual XML.

TurboTax isn’t sold on physical disk anymore, but you can download the current tax year version from their website. I am not a user of their product so I am not sure if the latest version still saves files in the same way. If you do use it currently, I would love to know if it is still the same.

So to recap, the headers are:

1994 “TurboTax Format=WIN Version=13
1995-99 “C045015F”
2000-03 “C0450164”
2004-13 “TTFN”
2014-current “ZIP Container”

This should be enough to create five new signatures for identification. Extensions will be a problem since they change very year, but we can add them to the list. With these signatures we can now identify all the tax files we have and set them aside if not needed.

iView

February 13, 2026 by Thor Leave a comment

It seems to be a common theme through the history of software that some titles, get bought, sold, rebranded, integrated, and discontinued by a number of companies. I find it interesting to find out a popular software title’s humble beginnings. Often when a piece of software gets bought, the file formats don’t change much, at least at first.

A little shareware program called iView started out by a company called Script Software in 1996. They later changed their name to Plum Amazing. iView then became iView Multimedia, then an iView MediaPro version before it was bought by Microsoft where they changed the name to Expression Media. After a couple years the software was bought by Phase One and then discontinued. Let’s take a look at the history.

iView, according to their website in 1997, is simply the easiest and fastest way to view and catalog pictures for the Mac. The software initially only worked on the Macintosh and the Catalog file it produced did not have an extension. But they did have a Type/Creator code. A catalog produced by version 2 of the iView software was IVWc/IVW2.

% hexdump -C iView2-s01 | head
00000000  00 00 00 05 30 32 35 69  47 4f 53 58 3a 4c 69 62  |....025iGOSX:Lib|
00000010  72 61 72 79 3a 41 70 70  6c 69 63 61 74 69 6f 6e  |rary:Application|
00000020  20 53 75 70 70 6f 72 74  3a 41 70 70 6c 65 3a 69  | Support:Apple:i|
00000030  43 68 61 74 20 49 63 6f  6e 73 3a 46 72 75 69 74  |Chat Icons:Fruit|
00000040  3a 47 72 65 65 6e 20 41  70 70 6c 65 2e 67 69 66  |:Green Apple.gif|
00000050  03 46 44 63 00 00 0f ef  03 46 44 63 08 93 65 58  |.FDc.....FDc..eX|
00000060  00 01 5c 50 00 01 5a c8  68 ff f7 40 08 93 65 4b  |..\P..Z.h..@..eK|
00000070  08 13 9a c0 ff d1 3a 80  00 a3 c8 a0 00 00 28 00  |......:.......(.|
00000080  00 05 48 64 00 00 a0 24  00 00 39 ec 00 00 00 0a  |..Hd...$..9.....|
00000090  08 93 65 64 44 00 00 24  3d 14 51 84 3d 9d 74 bc  |..edD..$=.Q.=.t.|

The iView format is a proprietary binary format used to store a catalog of multimedia formats with their metadata and thumbnail. The media viewer had support for quite a few popular formats. The file seems to have paths to each of the files it has cataloged, so some of these iView files can get pretty large.

In 2003 the iView software was ported to Windows. With that brought a formal extension to the catalog format. This was also the time the iView software made the switch from the classic MacOS to MacOSX and extensions were also encouraged at this time. iView had two different version a standard shareware version and a Media Pro version, each had their own version numbers. iView MediaPro was not compatible with Macintosh 68K machines or systems earlier than 8.6. The last Media Pro version was version 3.8.6. You can get most of the old software versions here.

% hexdump -C iViewPro302-s01.ivc | head
00000000  00 00 00 00 30 32 35 69  46 53 4d 21 00 00 00 2e  |....025iFSM!....|
00000010  66 6c 64 72 00 00 00 2e  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06  |fldr............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  3c 72 6f 6f 74 3e 42 4c  |........<root>BL|
00000040  44 4f 00 00 00 0c 31 00  02 00 00 00 01 01 00 00  |DO....1.........|
00000050  00 00 55 53 46 33 00 00  00 02 01 03 43 4d 52 53  |..USF3......CMRS|
00000060  00 00 01 ed 01 00 00 02  0a 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 02 f2 01 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 a2 01 00 00  |................|
00000080  00 00 02 01 03 00 00 00  a1 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000090  00 00 48 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 03 01 00 00  |..H.............|

This time with an extension, IVC, but with a familiar pattern at the beginning. The string 025i, hex values “30323569” at byte 4. The iView files from previous versions have the same bytes, but only version Media Pro 2 & 3 files match an existing PRONOM identification.

% sf iViewPro302-s01.ivc 
filename : 'iViewPro302-s01.ivc'
filesize : 3757
modified : 2025-09-17T17:39:27-06:00
errors   : 
matches  :
  - ns      : 'pronom'
    id      : 'fmt/647'
    format  : 'Microsoft Expression Media'
    version : '2'
    mime    : 
    class   : 'Presentation'
    basis   : 'extension match ivc; byte match at [[4 4] [3737 16]]'

These are iView Media Pro files, why are they identifying as Microsoft Expression Media files? That is because Microsoft bought iView Media Pro on June 27, 2006. Microsoft rebranded the software as Expression Media, not to be confused with Expression Studio. It was available for Windows and Macintosh, but not everyone was happy with the purchase. Version 1 of Expression Media was released the next year and was a free upgrade for iView Media Pro users. The format doesn’t appear to have changed much at all. In fact a comparison of an iView Media Pro 3 file with no content and an Expression Media 1 file are practically identical.

% hexdump -C Expression1-s01.ivc | head
00000000  00 00 00 00 30 32 35 69  46 53 4d 21 00 00 00 2e  |....025iFSM!....|
00000010  66 6c 64 72 00 00 00 2e  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06  |fldr............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  3c 72 6f 6f 74 3e 42 4c  |........<root>BL|
00000040  44 4f 00 00 00 0c 31 00  02 00 00 00 01 01 00 00  |DO....1.........|
00000050  00 00 55 53 46 33 00 00  00 02 01 03 43 4d 52 53  |..USF3......CMRS|
00000060  00 00 01 ed 01 00 00 02  0a 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 02 f2 01 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 a2 01 00 00  |................|
00000080  00 00 02 01 03 00 00 00  a1 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000090  00 00 48 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 03 01 00 00  |..H.............|

The next year brought a version 2 of Expression Media, often found bundled with a Special Edition of Office 2008 for Mac, but also a standalone product for Windows. But the catalog format remained the same.

% hexdump -C Expression2-s01.ivc | head       
00000000  00 00 00 04 30 32 35 69  3a 43 3a 5c 44 4f 43 55  |....025i:C:\DOCU|
00000010  4d 45 7e 31 5c 41 4c 4c  55 53 45 7e 31 5c 44 4f  |ME~1\ALLUSE~1\DO|
00000020  43 55 4d 45 7e 31 5c 4d  59 50 49 43 54 7e 31 5c  |CUME~1\MYPICT~1\|
00000030  53 41 4d 50 4c 45 7e 31  5c 57 69 6e 74 65 72 2e  |SAMPLE~1\Winter.|
00000040  6a 70 67 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |jpg.............|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

Even though all of these versions have the same 4 bytes at the beginning, not all of them match the current PRONOM signature. fmt/647 is specifically for Expression Media version 2 files, but also identifies iView Media Pro 2 & 3 and Expression Media 1 files. It doesn’t identify earlier files because the signature is also looking for some bytes near the end of the file.

% hexdump -C iViewPro302-s01.ivc | tail       

00000e90  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 53 56 61 72 00 00 00  |.........SVar...|
00000ea0  04 00 00 01 f4 30 32 35  69 00 00 00 08           |.....025i....|

There is the same 4 bytes at the end of the file as well. There is also a string used in the signature at the end, “SVar”. Not sure what the string is used for but it is not in earlier versions.

% hexdump -C iView157-01 | tail 

00000420  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 30 32 35 69  |............025i|
00000430  00 00 00 08                                       |....|

And the even earlier versions are missing the “025i” at the end.

% hexdump -C iView2-s01 | tail

000062b0  2a ae ed d4 1a eb d4 04  c4 88 76 88 c4 d6 d4 04  |*.........v.....|
000062c0  c4 79 69 79 c4 d6 d4 04  c4 78 67 78 c4 ec d4 04  |.yiy.....xgx....|
000062d0  81 d4 f1 d4 00 ff                                 |......|

Microsoft Expression Media was short lived. Microsoft decided to sell off the software to Phase One in 2010. Phase One is the developer of Capture One, a professional photo editing program. It makes sense they would want a cataloging tool to go with their flagship product. Phase One retained the name Media Pro from the original iView Media Pro software.

Phase One took the software and did make modifications, starting with the extension used to store the catalogs. They also decided to adjust the format slightly, changing the “025i” bytes to “030i”.

% hexdump -C PhaseOneMediaProv1.mpcatalog | head 
00000000  00 00 00 05 30 33 30 69  4a 4d 61 63 31 30 37 3a  |....030iJMac107:|
00000010  4c 69 62 72 61 72 79 3a  41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74  |Library:Applicat|
00000020  69 6f 6e 20 53 75 70 70  6f 72 74 3a 41 70 70 6c  |ion Support:Appl|
00000030  65 3a 69 43 68 61 74 20  49 63 6f 6e 73 3a 46 72  |e:iChat Icons:Fr|
00000040  75 69 74 3a 47 72 65 65  6e 20 41 70 70 6c 65 2e  |uit:Green Apple.|
00000050  67 69 66 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |gif.............|
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

The Phase One Media Pro software uses the extension MPCATALOG, but can also open the older IVC catalogs as well.

% sf PhaseOneMediaProv1.mpcatalog 

filename : 'PhaseOneMediaProv1.mpcatalog'
filesize : 21353
modified : 2025-09-16T20:37:07-06:00
errors   : 
matches  :
  - ns      : 'pronom'
    id      : 'fmt/648'
    format  : 'Media View Pro'
    version : 
    mime    : 
    class   : 'Presentation'
    basis   : 'extension match mpcatalog; byte match at [[4 4] [21329 16]]'

MPCATALOG files are identified in PRONOM using a similar signature as the one used for the IVC files. Although the name of the format isn’t quite right, MediaPro is probably a better name.

So it seems the identification is already available in PRONOM for the later MediaPro files, both iView MediaPro and Expression Media, and a second identification for the PhaseOne catalog. So we will need to either adjust the identification to include the earlier iView versions and adjust the names or we can create a new signature for the older versions. It would be good to find out what version added the change to the format, but with all the different software versions, it might be hard to nail down.

Enjoy some samples.

December 5, 2025 by Thor Leave a comment

The main subject of these posts is about Obsolete software and file formats. I prefer to focus on older software titles and collect them when I can. I have also found older Macintosh software to be particularly interesting as many of the qualities of early Macintosh use is lost today. In researching a very early Macintosh title, I came across an article from 1999 written by the Washington Post, the article, now 26 years old, was already commenting about “antique” software which was less than 20 years old at the time. Is there a term for even more antique? The title of the article? “Old Enthusiasts Are Scouring the Web to Find ‘Antique’ Software”. I feel this hasn’t changed, I still scour the web to find old software, and if the enthusiasts were “old” 26 years ago, then I am ancient.

Back in 1983, a little company called Living Videotext run by Dave Winer, who had developed a couple products for the Apple II, saw an opportunity to bring their product to the Macintosh. Their product, ThinkTank, was the fourth title to ship for the new Macintosh released in 1984.

Thinktank was an “idea processor“, not a word processor, but “a tool for organizing your thoughts on a computer screen. You could create an outline, then indent, move an item up a list, or out a level. Flesh out the details, and quickly record a top-level idea you had overlooked.” It was the beginning of outliner tools created by the company.

% hexdump -C Sample | head
00000000  2e 48 45 41 44 20 30 20  2b 20 20 4d 61 6a 6f 72  |.HEAD 0 +  Major|
00000010  20 4c 65 61 67 75 65 20  42 61 73 65 62 61 6c 6c  | League Baseball|
00000020  20 54 65 61 6d 73 0d 2e  48 45 41 44 20 31 20 2b  | Teams..HEAD 1 +|
00000030  20 20 4c 65 61 67 75 65  73 20 61 6e 64 20 44 69  |  Leagues and Di|
00000040  76 69 73 69 6f 6e 73 0d  2e 48 45 41 44 20 32 20  |visions..HEAD 2 |
00000050  2b 20 20 41 6d 65 72 69  63 61 6e 20 4c 65 61 67  |+  American Leag|
00000060  75 65 0d 2e 48 45 41 44  20 33 20 2b 20 20 57 65  |ue..HEAD 3 +  We|
00000070  73 74 65 72 6e 20 44 69  76 69 73 69 6f 6e 0d 2e  |stern Division..|
00000080  48 45 41 44 20 34 20 2d  20 20 43 61 6c 69 66 6f  |HEAD 4 -  Califo|
00000090  72 6e 69 61 20 41 6e 67  65 6c 73 0d 2e 48 45 41  |rnia Angels..HEA|

The files created by ThinkTank are plain text with the ASCII “HEAD”. There was also a DOS version of ThinkTank, but the files used were .DB and .SAV, although the templates in the .TXT format did use this same format.

% hexdump -C SAMPLE.TXT | head
00000000  2e 48 45 41 44 20 30 20  2b 20 20 50 65 72 66 6f  |.HEAD 0 +  Perfo|
00000010  72 6d 61 6e 63 65 20 52  65 76 69 65 77 0d 0a 2e  |rmance Review...|
00000020  48 45 41 44 20 31 20 2d  20 20 4e 61 6d 65 3a 20  |HEAD 1 -  Name: |
00000030  0d 0a 2e 48 45 41 44 20  31 20 2d 20 20 4a 6f 62  |...HEAD 1 -  Job|
00000040  20 54 69 74 6c 65 3a 20  0d 0a 2e 48 45 41 44 20  | Title: ...HEAD |
00000050  31 20 2d 20 20 52 65 76  69 65 77 20 44 61 74 65  |1 -  Review Date|
00000060  3a 20 0d 0a 2e 48 45 41  44 20 31 20 2d 20 20 52  |: ...HEAD 1 -  R|
00000070  65 76 69 65 77 20 70 65  72 69 6f 64 20 66 6f 72  |eview period for|
00000080  3a 20 0d 0a 2e 48 45 41  44 20 31 20 2b 20 20 4f  |: ...HEAD 1 +  O|
00000090  62 6a 65 63 74 69 76 65  73 20 4d 65 74 2f 4e 6f  |bjectives Met/No|

Turns out this was a special format they called “dot-head“, aptly named for the head of the file. It was used as an interchange format to move outlines between ThinkTank, another program called Ready!, and the later product MORE.

MORE was developed to be multiple tools in one. Meant to “Unite idea processing technology with the desktop publishing revolution“. MORE replaced ThinkTank in 1986 and promised more flexibility by creating charts and presentations quickly from your outline. MORE used the same dot-head format initially, also the ASCII could be in lowercase.

% hexdump -C MORE1 | head
00000000  2e 68 65 61 64 20 30 20  2b 20 20 48 6f 6d 65 0d  |.head 0 +  Home.|
00000010  2e 68 65 61 64 20 31 20  2d 20 20 0d 2e 68 65 61  |.head 1 -  ..hea|
00000020  64 20 31 20 2d 20 20 54  65 73 74 69 6e 67 0d 2e  |d 1 -  Testing..|
00000030  68 65 61 64 20 31 20 2d  20 20 0d                 |head 1 -  .|

In 1987 Living Videotext was purchased by Symantec. Shortly after Symantec released MORE II and a rebranded DOS application called GrandView based on ThinkTank.

Let’s take a look at GrandView, it was built from the DOS version of ThinkTank and compatible with the same formats. It had great reviews at the time and provided the first outliner for Symantec. It was written by the developer, John Friend, who created PC Outline which was often bundled with WordStar.

GrandView could import and export into any of the other products.

GrandView version 1 went with a new file format.

% hexdump -C PROJECT.GV | head
00000000  0b 00 01 00 1a 4a 4c 46  5f 49 44 06 00 02 00 01  |.....JLF_ID.....|
00000010  01 0a 00 03 00 16 00 26  00 2c 00 05 00 05 00 78  |.......&.,.....x|
00000020  06 00 07 00 ff ff 06 00  1a 00 01 00 26 00 08 00  |............&...|
00000030  26 00 ee 4d 02 00 00 00  c0 a8 00 00 00 00 00 00  |&..M............|
00000040  01 00 00 00 00 00 01 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01  |................|
00000050  00 00 22 00 0a 00 20 1c  00 00 20 1c 00 00 d0 b6  |.."... ... .....|
00000060  00 00 10 ef 00 00 20 1c  00 00 20 1c 00 00 60 35  |...... ... ...`5|
00000070  01 00 01 00 05 00 10 00  62 15 00 13 00 cc 93 88  |........b.......|
00000080  10 54 54 59 2e 50 44 56  00 00 00 00 00 00 2c 00  |.TTY.PDV......,.|
00000090  1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

GrandView 2.0 also used the same format.

% hexdump -C TEST.GV | head
00000000  0b 00 01 00 1a 4a 4c 46  5f 49 44 06 00 02 00 01  |.....JLF_ID.....|
00000010  02 0a 00 03 00 02 00 2b  00 3a 00 05 00 05 00 78  |.......+.:.....x|
00000020  06 00 07 00 ff ff 26 00  08 00 2b 00 d5 3e 02 00  |......&...+..>..|
00000030  00 00 d0 b6 00 00 00 00  00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000040  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 01 00 00 22 00 0a 00  |............"...|
00000050  20 1c 00 00 20 1c 00 00  d0 b6 00 00 10 ef 00 00  | ... ...........|
00000060  20 1c 00 00 20 1c 00 00  60 35 01 00 01 00 05 00  | ... ...`5......|
00000070  10 00 60 15 00 13 00 9b  5d 83 14 48 50 4c 33 2e  |..`.....]..HPL3.|
00000080  50 44 56 00 00 00 00 00  2c 00 1c 00 00 00 00 00  |PDV.....,.......|
00000090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

GrandView was also compatible with the Macintosh counterpart, MORE.

Symantec then released a new version of the MORE software for the Macintosh in 1988, adding new presentation features. MORE II went away from the dot-head format and used a new proprietary format.

% hexdump -C MORE2-s01 | head
00000000  00 03 4d 52 49 49 00 80  00 00 00 80 00 00 00 78  |..MRII.........x|
00000010  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 f8 00 00 00 a8  |................|
00000020  00 00 01 a0 00 00 00 28  00 00 01 c8 00 00 00 18  |.......(........|
00000030  00 00 01 e0 00 00 00 00  00 00 01 e0 00 00 00 0c  |................|
00000040  00 00 01 ec 00 00 00 0c  00 00 01 e0 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000080  00 03 00 00 00 48 00 48  00 00 00 00 02 d8 02 28  |.....H.H.......(|
00000090  ff e1 ff e2 02 f9 02 46  03 47 05 28 03 fc 00 02  |.......F.G.(....|
000000a0  00 00 00 48 00 48 00 00  00 00 02 d8 02 28 00 01  |...H.H.......(..|

Then in 1990 Symantec released MORE 3.0 with even more features and improvements to the user experience. Also adding a companion tool, MORE Graph.

% hexdump -C MORE3-s01 | head
00000000  00 06 4d 4f 52 33 00 80  00 00 00 80 00 00 00 78  |..MOR3.........x|
00000010  00 00 00 f8 00 00 01 b4  00 00 02 ac 00 00 00 a8  |................|
00000020  00 00 11 16 00 00 00 32  00 00 11 48 00 00 00 20  |.......2...H... |
00000030  00 00 11 68 00 00 00 00  00 00 11 68 00 00 00 10  |...h.......h....|
00000040  00 00 11 83 00 00 00 0c  00 00 11 68 00 00 00 00  |...........h....|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 03 54  00 00 0d c2 00 00 11 78  |.......T.......x|
00000060  00 00 00 0b 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000080  00 03 00 00 00 48 00 48  00 00 00 00 02 d8 02 28  |.....H.H.......(|
00000090  ff e1 ff e2 02 f9 02 46  03 47 05 28 03 fc 00 02  |.......F.G.(....|

The MORE 3 format got a new header but appears similar in structure to the previous version. And the new companion tool MORE Graph had yet another format.

% hexdump -C MORE3-graph | head 
00000000  00 01 00 00 01 09 00 00  00 0c 00 01 09 19 80 00  |................|
00000010  01 09 54 65 73 74 00 00  00 07 00 01 00 03 00 00  |..Test..........|
00000020  00 0b 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000030  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000610  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01  06 47 65 6e 65 76 61 00  |.........Geneva.|
00000620  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000670  01 00 00 1f ca 33 a0 00  2b 00 04 02 d8 03 d8 09  |.....3..+.......|
00000680  57 6f 72 6b 73 68 65 65  74 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |Worksheet.......|

Luckily these early Macintosh based formats didn’t use a resource fork, making them fully compatible with their PC counterpart.

One of the coolest parts of this long list of outline software, is that years later, after Symantec discontinued the product, the original creator, Dave Winer, petitioned Symantec to allow him to release the antique software free and clear to the public. How cool is that? I would really like to see this happen more as other software titles die and get swept under the rug leaving the community to try and find copies, preserve them and make sense of the formats. Not only were the early versions made available, a tool was built to migrate the MORE format to more open XML, allowing the ideas trapped in these ancient formats to be re-imagined.

MORE 3.1 was the final version of the software to be released by Symantec. The files produced by MORE 3.1 have an identical header to the standard 3.0 version. Probably only need one signature for the two versions.

% hexdump -C MORE31-s01 | head 
00000000  00 06 4d 4f 52 33 00 80  00 00 00 80 00 00 00 78  |..MOR3.........x|
00000010  00 00 00 f8 00 00 01 b4  00 00 02 ac 00 00 00 a8  |................|
00000020  00 00 11 16 00 00 00 32  00 00 11 48 00 00 00 20  |.......2...H... |
00000030  00 00 11 68 00 00 00 00  00 00 11 68 00 00 00 10  |...h.......h....|
00000040  00 00 11 83 00 00 00 0c  00 00 11 68 00 00 00 00  |...........h....|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 03 54  00 00 0d c2 00 00 11 78  |.......T.......x|
00000060  00 00 00 0b 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000070  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000080  00 03 00 00 00 48 00 48  00 00 00 00 02 d8 02 28  |.....H.H.......(|
00000090  ff e1 ff e2 02 f9 02 46  03 47 05 28 03 fc 00 02  |.......F.G.(....|

If you would like to try out the MORE software, download this disk image, and drag onto the Macintosh emulator below. The image will automatically mount and you should be able to take MORE 3.1 for a spin!

Outlining software still has a good place in idea generation and presentation. OmniOutliner can probably trace its roots to these “Antique” titles! Stay tuned for some PRONOM signatures to go along with these many format examples. For now you can gather some of the samples from my Github page.