[1] It hired W. H. Jones & Associates to write word-processing software for the computer that would not require retraining its employees, already familiar with Wang Laboratories word processing systems.
[4] Advertisements stated that MultiMate "mimic[ked] the features and functions of a dedicated system",[5] and that it was "modeled after the Wang word processor".
[3] MultiMate was not marketed heavily to end-users, but was quickly popular with insurance companies, law firms, other business computer users and US government agencies and the military.
Other versions were written to match PCs by Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, the early Grid laptop and the IBM PC Junior.
Early versions of the program came with both color-coded key stickers and a plastic full-keyboard template to make Wang operators more comfortable with the smaller IBM PC keyboard.
MultiMate eventually sold a hardware keyboard with dedicated function keys and issued versions of its software for networked PCs.
PC Magazine in February 1983 stated that MultiMate "virtually remakes your computer into a Wang-like dedicated word processor", and that it was "very fast, easy to learn, and capable" with many features.
The review noted the application's inability to use more than 128K of RAM, but praised the documentation and built-in help, and stated that many commands required half the keystrokes of the WordStar equivalent.
The review, however, called MultiMate "the klunkiest package" of five tested word processors because of the overemphasis on safety, criticized the built-in help and slow performance, and reported being unable to use the spell checker because of its poor quality.