As customers requested the program for their specific computers and operating systems he ported the word processor to each, resulting in 78 versions including the NorthStar Horizon and TRS-80.
Many imitators appeared, however, including WordStar and Magic Wand, both of which surpassed the original's popularity as Shrayer became bored with programming and sold its rights to others.
Electric Pencil remained on the market into the 1980s, including a version for the IBM PC in 1983,[2][6][7][5] but by 1982 James Fallows described it as "outdated and crude" compared to newer products like Perfect Writer and Scripsit.
[8] Jerry Pournelle is recognized as the first author to have written a published portion of a book using a word processor on a personal computer, using Electric Pencil for that purpose.
In 1977, Pournelle was shown the program and decided it would help his productivity by making it easier to produce a final manuscript without requiring a complete retyping of edited pages.