EMPRESS 4GL is the fourth-generation application development environment designed specifically for developing character based on-line, interactive applications. Features include screen painting, overlapping windows, function key definition, and event-driven execution. Without programming, users can create default applications to access EMPRESS databases. Custom-designed interfaces make data manipulation easier with menus, windows, function keys, and mouse.

Empress 4GL also provides an Application Generator which generates Empress 4GL application code automatically. Users can create an interactive menu-driven application on one or more tables, with function keys to perform SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations on data in the EMPRESS database.