[1] To prevent accidental data loss, pressing the trash can icon only once on either the word processor screen or the main menu puts the document into a limbo state represented by a crumpled up piece of paper in the can; it restores the current document into the word processor if the user fails to take action within several seconds.

[1] Magic Desk was mostly the work of John Feagans, a designer of the PET whom Commodore hired in their research and development office in Moorpark, California.

[6] Hartmann tasked Andy Finkel with scouting developers in Santa Clara to ease the resulting crunch time.

On Finkel's suggestion that this demonstration be committed to a full product, Hartmann approved what would become Magic Desk,[4] after the winter edition of the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show.

[13] Reviewing the preliminary version, George Stewart in Popular Computing expressed cautious optimism, singling out the programmers at Commodore for their attention to detail in simulating a real-life typewriter and filing cabinet.

[14] He held reservation with having to create and name new sheets for multiple pages of a document and found the word processor's line limit non-standard.

[16] Mary C. Ware in Run wrote that in its quest for mechanical accuracy, the word processor inherited both the good and the bad aspects of typewriters.

She found the necessity for manual carriage returns frustrating more than nostalgic, however, and decried the lack of uniform margin and line-spacing adjustment.

's Gazette defined the mechanical simulation of a typewriter as "perhaps a bit too cute" and complained that the word processor provided only a fraction of the versatility of others.

[18] Robinson praised the graphics as "clear, effective, and smooth" but found the non-functioning icons frustrating—guessing that their only role was in whetting the user's appetite for further Magic Desk titles.

[3] Robinson disagreed, writing that the six-page brochure that constituted all documentation provided users with only enough hints to meander through the software without knowing how to file a finished page.

[20] Brannon compared Magic Desk to an IBM Selectric, requiring no instruction to use but obsolete to the intermediate computer user.

He felt that Commodore—as well as Microsoft, VisiCorp, and Quarterdeck, who had released GUI-based applications around the same time—underestimated the many man-hours necessary to create a well-crafted graphical user interface, as Apple's Lisa had accomplished.

[13] Despite the mixed reviews, the first Magic Desk proved popular in the home, exposing many purchasers to their first graphical user interface.

[25] Despite the exhibition, Commodore executives ended up scrapping the 364, renaming the 264 as the Plus/4, and abandoning Magic Desk II, instead using Tri Micro's 3-Plus-1 productivity software.

[26] The original Magic Desk release, however, did end up propelling the image of the still-popular Commodore 64 from a gaming-only machine to one with the potential for productivity.

Unlike the original Magic Desk's limited feature set, GEOS supported third-party applications, allowing for seemingly endless capabilities.

[27] A ROM image of a Magic Desk II prototype for the Commodore 64—complete with functional calculator, spreadsheet, and Rolodex address book—surfaced online in August 2021.