The history of Microsoft

Word

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. In fact, it’s estimated that Word is running on more than a billion devices
worldwide.
First released in 1983 under a different name, Word celebrated its 25th birthday in 2018. Its
popularity lies in its ease of use, plus the fact that it can be used on different operating systems
including Macintosh and of course, Windows.
Word can be bought as a standalone product or as a part of Microsoft Office, which also includes
programs like Excel and PowerPoint.
So, just how did Word come to dominate the market during the last 25 years and become the
most-used word processing software in the world? And what does the future hold for the
product?
Rise to popularity
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. This meant that however a
document looked on screen was how it would look once printed. Word let users create, save and
print text documents, but it wasn't an instant success; perhaps because it was competing with the
hugely popular WordPerfect and WordStar word processing programs.
Version 2.0 was released in 1985, with added features including spellcheck and word count.
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 color 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 colors and apply effects
 Microsoft Excel, spreadsheet application launched in 1985 by the Microsoft Corporation.
Excel is a popular spreadsheet system, which organizes data in columns and rows that
can be manipulated through formulas that allow the software to perform mathematical
functions on the data.

 Lotus 1-2-3, first sold by the Lotus Development Corporation in 1982, dominated the
mid-1980s spreadsheet market for personal computers (PCs) that ran MS-DOS,
an operating system sold by Microsoft. Microsoft developed a competing spreadsheet,
and the first version of Excel was released in 1985 for Apple Inc.’s Macintosh computer.

 PowerPoint was created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a

software startup in Silicon Valley named Forethought, Inc. Forethought had been
founded in 1983 to create an integrated environment and applications for future personal
computers that would provide a graphical user interface, but it had run into difficulties
requiring a "restart" and new plan.
 On July 5, 1984, Forethought hired Robert Gaskins as its vice president of product
development to create a new application that would be especially suited to the
new graphical personal computers, such as Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh.
Gaskins produced his initial description of PowerPoint about a month later (August 14,
1984) in the form of a 2-page document titled "Presentation Graphics for Overhead
Projection." By October 1984 Gaskins had selected Dennis Austin to be the developer for
PowerPoint. Gaskins and Austin worked together on the definition and design of the new
product for nearly a year, and produced the first specification document dated August 21,
1985.[27] This first design document showed a product as it would look in
Microsoft Windows 1.0, which at that time had not been released.
 Development from that spec was begun by Austin in November 1985, for Macintosh
first.[23]: 104  About six months later, on May 1, 1986, Gaskins and Austin chose a second
developer to join the project, Thomas Rudkin. Gaskins prepared two final product
specification marketing documents in June 1986; these described a product for both
Macintosh and Windows. At about the same time, Austin, Rudkin, and Gaskins produced
a second and final major design specification document, this time showing a Macintosh
look