Microsoft celebrates 40 Years of Word with a glance lower back and in advance

In a nutshell: This week has been a unique one for Microsoft Word because the venerable software program reached its fortieth birthday. To rejoice, Microsoft is looking again at the phrase processor's history and what lies ahead, which include its new consciousness on AI.

It changed into lower back on October 25, 1983, while Multi-Tool Word, aka the primary version of this system, become launched for Xenix and MS-DOS. It boasted guide for a mouse, which was some thing maximum MS-DOS programs lacked on the time, and came with sixteen-bit pics and text mode guide.

That unique Word, which Microsoft defined as a WYSIWYG utility, failed to discover a huge quantity of success because of its interface being so distinct from WordStar, the leading phrase processor on the time. But Microsoft steadily progressed Word over the years till the final DOS version, Word 6.Zero, arrived in 1993, bringing with it AutoCorrect and AutoFormat.

In 1989, Microsoft introduced Word for Windows, although it failed to actually take off until Windows 3.0 arrived a yr later, main Microsoft to turn out to be the market leader for IBM PC-compatible phrase processors. During the primary zone of 1996, Microsoft Word accounted for eighty% of the worldwide word processing market.

With Word for Windows, Microsoft skipped version numbers three, 4, and 5 to carry Windows model numbering in keeping with that of DOS, Mac OS, and WordPerfect (the main competing word processor on the time). The release of Windows ninety five noticed Microsoft begin naming Word after the yr it was launched, in preference to the version quantity. This endured till 2021. Now, it's called the much less-catchy Word for Office 365.

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Looking on the destiny of its phrase processor, Microsoft highlights the continuing integration of AI partner Microsoft 365 Copilot into Word, which it says is supplying a fundamental shift in writing and reading. It also mentions the continuing funding inside the free Word for the internet, which lets in customers to create documents and share the documents with others.

Word's function because the primary Word processor is not as sturdy these days due to the likes of Google Docs, however it still sits on the pinnacle of the pile. Whether it stays there for every other 40 years is a extraordinary rely.