EMPOWERMENT TECHNOLOGIES

WORD
 HISTORY OF MICROSOFT WORD OR WORD PROCESSING

• Microsoft Word, known also just as ‘Word’ is word processing software and a flagship

product of Microsoft.

• It is an integral part of the Microsoft Office suite of products and is the most widely-

used word processor in the world.

• First released in 1983 under a different name, Word celebrated its 25th birthday in 2018.
 HISTORY OF MICROSOFT WORD OR WORD PROCESSING

• The first ever version of Microsoft Word - Word 1.0 - was launched in October 1983 and

developed by former Xerox programmers, Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie.

• The two were hired by Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, in 1981. At this

time, Word was called Multi-Tool Word. It was designed for use on computers that ran

the UNIX operating system.

• Word was a WYSIWYG ('what you see is what you get') program. Version 2.0 was

released in 1985, with added features including spellcheck and word count.
 HISTORY OF MICROSOFT WORD OR WORD PROCESSING
• Over the following years, Microsoft re-coded the program a number of times so that it

could work on different operating systems, including DOS (disk operating system) and

Macintosh. The name was also changed to the shorter and more memorable ‘Word’.

• In 1993, Microsoft released Word 6.0 which worked on Macintosh, Windows and DOS.

Word 6.0 was the last version created to run on DOS and the last version to be identified

by version number; subsequent versions were named after their year of release.

• Since then, Microsoft has released a new version of Word at least every two years. The

most recent release was at the end of 2018, with Word 2019, part of Office 365.
 THE FUTURE OF WORD
Today, Word and the whole Office suite is highly-integrated and runs on OS X, Android and iOS, as well as
Windows. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has said that Office is the company's most important API
(application programming interface).

The latest version of the software is Word 2019. Like its spreadsheet counterpart, Excel, Word has been given a
number of updates to improve its functionality and ensure it keeps up with the changing computing times.

Recent new features of Word include:

• Translator - Word can now translate words and sentences into other languages using the Microsoft Translator
tool, which sits under the Review tab. This function has also been added to Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint.

• Learning Tools - this feature helps make your documents easy to comprehend and helps with reading fluency.
Use it to change column width for improved focus, page colour so the page can be scanned with less eye
strain, and show breaks between syllables to improve word recognition and pronunciation. You can also use
this tool to read your document aloud to you.

• Digital pen - if you have a touch-enabled device, the latest version of Word (and other Office products) lets
you draw with your finger, a mouse or a digital pen for easy annotation and note-taking.

• Icons and SVGs (scalable vector graphics) - Word now has a library of icons and 3D images which can be
inserted into documents to make them more visually appealing and to make an impact. Users can change
colours and apply effects.
 What is MS Word?
It is the word processing component of the Microsoft Office Suite.
It is used primarily to enter, edit, format, save, retrieve and print documents.
 Several MS Word for Windows
• Word for Windows 1.1, for Windows 3.0 came out in March, 1990.
• Word for Windows 1.1a, for Windows 3.1 came out in June, 1990.
• Word for Windows 2.0, came out in 1991.
• Word for Windows 6.0, came out in 1993.
• Word for Windows 95 (sometimes called Word 7), came out in 1995.
• Word 97 (sometimes called Word 8), came out in 1997.
• Word 2000 (sometimes called Word 9), came out in 1999.
• Word 2002 (sometimes called Word 10 or Word XP), came out in 2001.
• Word 2007 which required Windows XP services pack 2. It is the last version of
Microsoft Word to support Windows XP Professional 64 bit edition.
EMPOWERMENT TECHNOLOGIES

WORD
 Microsoft Word (or simply Word) is a word processor developed
by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983 under the name Multi-Tool
Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other
platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running
the Classic Mac OS (1985), AT&T Unix PC (1985), Atari
ST (1988), OS/2(1989), Microsoft Windows (1989), SCO Unix (1994),
and macOS (formerly OS X; 2001).
Commercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a
component of Microsoft Office, Windows RT or the discontinued Microsoft Works
suite.
 The very first edition of Microsoft Word was
created by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie for Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating
system. Also running on the Xenix OS, the first version of word was
commissioned by Bill Gates and Paul Allen after using Xerox Bravo, a word processing
software developed by Simonyi and Brodie was successful on MS-DOS previously.

While initially unpopular, Microsoft’s move

into a dedicated graphic user interface (GUI) with 1985’s Microsoft Windows,
changed Word’s fortunes. The first GUI-enabled Word platform was released in
1990. The software quickly made up ground on Corel’s WordPerfect, which was the
most popular word processor for much of the late 1980s. Since Corel failed to
produce a Windows-compatible version of WordPerfect, Word was able to corner
Microsoft’s market pretty quickly. It also quickly became the second most
utilized word processor on Macintosh OS (behind WordPerfect). The strategy of
designing software for multiple platforms led to more people using Word than
any other word processing program and has served the company well for decades.
 Microsoft Word is one of the most popular
software titles in the world. It wasn’t always so. Despite competing with a
myriad of separate word processors over literal decades, Word has sustained and
is now more powerful than ever. Today, we’ll take you through the history of
the world’s most recognizable word processor.

Microsoft Word or MS-WORD (often called Word) is a Graphical word processing program that
users can type with. It is made by the computer company Microsoft. Its purpose is to allow users to
type and save documents.
Similar to other word processors, it has helpful tools to make documents.
• Spelling & grammar checker, word count (this also counts letters and lines)
• Speech recognition
• Inserts pictures in documents
• Choice of typefaces
• Special codes
• Web pages, graphs, etc.
• Tables
• Displays synonyms of words and can read out the text
• Prints in different ways
MS Word is a part of Microsoft Office, but can also be bought separately.
• References :
• https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word
• Connie Hutchison & Christopher McCoy