In later versions it also gained additional read only display capabilities for PICT files, as well as other Mac OS built-in formats like Quickdraw GX and QTIF, 3DMF and even QuickTime movies.

[2] SimpleText can even record short sound samples and, using Apple's PlainTalk speech system, read out text in English.

The need for TeachText arose after Apple stopped bundling MacWrite, to ensure that every user could open and read Readme documents.

In Mac OS X, SimpleText is replaced by the more powerful TextEdit application, which reads and writes more document formats as well as including word processor-like features such as a ruler and spell checking.

Apple has released the source code for a Carbon version of SimpleText in the Mac OS X Panther (10.3) Developer Tools.