Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word (or simply Word) is a word

processor developed by Microsoft. It was
first released on October 25, 1983[7] under
the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix
systems.[8][9][10] 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).
 Microsoft Word

A story being written and formatted in Word,

running on Windows 10

Developer(s) Microsoft

Initial release October 25, 1983 (as

Multi-Tool Word)

Stable release(s)

Office 365 1907 (16.0.11901.20218) /

August 13, 2019[1]

One-time 2019 (16.0) / September 24,

purchase 2018[2]

Operating system Windows 10

Operating system Windows 10
Windows 8.1
Windows 7 SP1
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012
R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2008
R2[3]

Platform IA-32, x64, ARM

Type Word processor

License Trialware

Website products.office.com
/word
 Microsoft Word for Mac

Microsoft Word for Mac 2016 on OS X Yosemite

Developer(s) Microsoft

Stable release 16.27 (Build 19071500)

/ July 16, 2019[4]

Operating system macOS Sierra

macOS High Sierra
macOS Mojave[3]

Type Word processor

License Proprietary software

plus services

Website products.office.com
/word
 Microsoft Word for Android

Screenshot of Microsoft Word for Android 16

Developer(s) Microsoft Corporation

Stable release 16.0.11901.20110 /

July 30, 2019[5]

Operating system Android Marshmallow

and later

License Proprietary commercial

software

Website products.office.com
/word
 Microsoft Word for iOS
Developer(s) Microsoft Corporation

Stable release 2.27 / July 15, 2019[6]

Operating system iOS

License Proprietary commercial

software

Website products.office.com
/word
 Word Mobile for Windows 10
Developer(s) Microsoft

Stable release 16001.11929.20170.0 /

August 20, 2019

Operating system Windows 10, Windows

10 Mobile

Type Word processor

License Trialware

Website www.microsoft.com
/store/productid
/9WZDNCRFJB9S

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.

History
Origins

In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi,

the primary developer of Bravo, the first
GUI word processor, which was developed
at Xerox PARC.[11] Simonyi started work on
a word processor called Multi-Tool Word
and soon hired Richard Brodie, a former
Xerox intern, who became the primary
software engineer.[11][12][13]
Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word for
Xenix[11] and MS-DOS in 1983.[14] Its name
was soon simplified to Microsoft Word.[8]
Free demonstration copies of the
application were bundled with the
November 1983 issue of PC World, making
it the first to be distributed on-disk with a
magazine.[8][15] That year Microsoft
demonstrated Word running on
Windows.[16]

Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time,

Microsoft Word was designed to be used
with a mouse.[14] Advertisements depicted
the Microsoft Mouse, and described Word
as a WYSIWYG, windowed word processor
with the ability to undo and display bold,
italic, and underlined text,[17] although it
could not render fonts.[8] It was not initially
popular, since its user interface was
different from the leading word processor
at the time, WordStar.[18] However,
Microsoft steadily improved the product,
releasing versions 2.0 through 5.0 over the
next six years. In 1985, Microsoft ported
Word to the classic Mac OS (known as
Macintosh System Software at the time).
This was made easier by Word for DOS
having been designed for use with high-
resolution displays and laser printers, even
though none were yet available to the
general public.[19] Following the
precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite,
Word for Mac OS added true WYSIWYG
features. It fulfilled a need for a word
processor that was more capable than
MacWrite.[20] After its release, Word for
Mac OS's sales were higher than its MS-
DOS counterpart for at least four years.[11]

The second release of Word for Mac OS,

shipped in 1987, was named Word 3.0 to
synchronize its version number with Word
for DOS; this was Microsoft's first attempt
to synchronize version numbers across
platforms. Word 3.0 included numerous
internal enhancements and new features,
including the first implementation of the
Rich Text Format (RTF) specification, but
was plagued with bugs. Within a few
months, Word 3.0 was superseded by a
more stable Word 3.01, which was mailed
free to all registered users of 3.0.[19] After
MacWrite Pro was discontinued in the mid-
1990s, Word for Mac OS never had any
serious rivals. Word 5.1 for Mac OS,
released in 1992, was a very popular word
processor owing to its elegance, relative
ease of use and feature set. Many users
say it is the best version of Word for Mac
OS ever created.[19][21]

In 1986, an agreement between Atari and

Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST[22]
under the name Microsoft Write. The Atari
ST version was a port of Word 1.05 for the
Mac OS[23][24] and was never updated.

The first version of Word for Windows was

released in 1989. With the release of
Windows 3.0 the following year, sales
began to pick up and Microsoft soon
became the market leader for word
processors for IBM PC-compatible
computers.[11] In 1991, Microsoft
capitalized on Word for Windows'
increasing popularity by releasing a
version of Word for DOS, version 5.5, that
replaced its unique user interface with an
interface similar to a Windows
application.[25][26] When Microsoft became
aware of the Year 2000 problem, it made
Microsoft Word 5.5 for DOS available for
download free. As of July 2018, it is still
available for download from Microsoft's
web site.[27] In 1991, Microsoft embarked
on a project code-named Pyramid to
completely rewrite Microsoft Word from
the ground up. Both the Windows and Mac
OS versions would start from the same
code base. It was abandoned when it was
determined that it would take the
development team too long to rewrite and
then catch up with all the new capabilities
that could have been added in the same
time without a rewrite. Instead, the next
versions of Word for Windows and Mac
OS, dubbed version 6.0, both started from
the code base of Word for Windows 2.0.[21]

With the release of Word 6.0 in 1993,

Microsoft again attempted to synchronize
the version numbers and coordinate
product naming across platforms, this
time across DOS, Mac OS, and Windows
(this was the last version of Word for
DOS). It introduced AutoCorrect, which
automatically fixed certain typing errors,
and AutoFormat, which could reformat
many parts of a document at once. While
the Windows version received favorable
reviews (e.g., from InfoWorld[28]), the Mac
OS version was widely derided. Many
accused it of being slow, clumsy and
memory intensive, and its user interface
differed significantly from Word 5.1.[21] In
response to user requests, Microsoft
offered Word 5 again, after it had been
discontinued.[29] Subsequent versions of
Word for macOS are no longer direct ports
of Word for Windows, instead featuring a
mixture of ported code and native code.

Word for Windows

Microsoft Word 2007

Word for Windows is available stand-alone

or as part of the Microsoft Office suite.
Word contains rudimentary desktop
publishing capabilities and is the most
widely used word processing program on
the market. Word files are commonly used
as the format for sending text documents
via e-mail because almost every user with
a computer can read a Word document by
using the Word application, a Word viewer
or a word processor that imports the Word
format (see Microsoft Word Viewer).

Word 6 for Windows NT was the first 32-

bit version of the product,[30] released with
Microsoft Office for Windows NT around
the same time as Windows 95. It was a
straightforward port of Word 6.0. Starting
with Word 95, releases of Word were
named after the year of its release, instead
of its version number.[31]

Word 2010 allows more customization of

the Ribbon,[32] adds a Backstage view for
file management,[33] has improved
document navigation, allows creation and
embedding of screenshots,[34] and
integrates with Word Web App.[35]

Word for Mac

The Mac was introduced January 24, 1984

and Microsoft introduced Word 1.0 for
Mac a year later, January 18, 1985. The
DOS, Mac, and Windows versions are quite
different from each other. Only the Mac
version was WYSIWYG and used a
Graphical User Interface, far ahead of the
other platforms. Each platform restarted
their version numbering at "1.0"
(https://winworldpc.com/product/microso
ft-word/1x-mac ). There was no version 2
on the Mac, but version 3 came out
January 31, 1987 as described above.
Word 4.0 came out November 6, 1990, and
added automatic linking with Excel, the
ability to flow text around graphics and a
WYSIWYG page view editing mode. Word
5.1 for Mac, released in 1992 ran on the
original 68000 CPU, and was the last to be
specifically designed as a Macintosh
application. The later Word 6 was a
Windows port and poorly received. Word
5.1 continued to run well till the very last
Classic MacOS. Many people continue to
run Word 5.1 to this day under an
emulated Mac classic system for some of
its excellent features like document
generation and renumbering or to access
their old files.

Microsoft Word 2011 running on OS X

In 1997, Microsoft formed the Macintosh

Business Unit as an independent group
within Microsoft focused on writing
software for Mac OS. Its first version of
Word, Word 98, was released with Office
98 Macintosh Edition. Document
compatibility reached parity with Word
97,[29] and it included features from Word
97 for Windows, including spell and
grammar checking with squiggles.[36]
Users could choose the menus and
keyboard shortcuts to be similar to either
Word 97 for Windows or Word 5 for Mac
OS.

Word 2001, released in 2000, added a few

new features, including the Office
Clipboard, which allowed users to copy
and paste multiple items.[37] It was the last
version to run on classic Mac OS and, on
Mac OS X, it could only run within the
Classic Environment. Word X, released in
2001, was the first version to run natively
on, and required, Mac OS X,[36] and
introduced non-contiguous text
selection.[38]

Word 2004 was released in May 2004. It

included a new Notebook Layout view for
taking notes either by typing or by
voice.[39] Other features, such as tracking
changes, were made more similar with
Office for Windows.[40]

Word 2008, released on January 15, 2008,

included a Ribbon-like feature, called the
Elements Gallery, that can be used to
select page layouts and insert custom
diagrams and images. It also included a
new view focused on publishing layout,
integrated bibliography management,[41]
and native support for the new Office Open
XML format. It was the first version to run
natively on Intel-based Macs.[42]

Word 2011, released in October 2010,

replaced the Elements Gallery in favor of a
Ribbon user interface that is much more
similar to Office for Windows,[43] and
includes a full-screen mode that allows
users to focus on reading and writing
documents, and support for Office Web
Apps.[44]

File formats
 Native file formats

Left: The icon for .doc files that comes with

Microsoft Office 2019.
Right: The icon for .docx files, as seen on
Microsoft OneDrive. The icon seen in Microsoft
Office 2019 is slightly more colorful.

DOC Legacy Word document

DOT Legacy Word templates

WBK Legacy Word document

backup

DOCX XML Word document

DOCM XML Word macro-

enabled document

DOTX XML Word template

DOTM XML Word macro-

 enabled template
DOCB XML Word binary
document

Filename extensions

Microsoft Word's native file formats are

denoted either by a .doc or .docx
filename extension.

Although the .doc extension has been

used in many different versions of Word, it
actually encompasses four distinct file
formats:

1. Word for DOS

 2. Word for Windows 1 and 2; Word 3
and 4 for Mac OS
3. Word 6 and Word 95 for Windows;
Word 6 for Mac OS
4. Word 97 and later for Windows; Word
98 and later for Mac OS

The newer .docx extension signifies

the Office Open XML international
standard for Office documents and is used
by Word 2007 and later for Windows, Word
2008 and later for macOS, as well as by a
growing number of applications from
other vendors, including OpenOffice.org
Writer, an open source word processing
program.[45][46]
Binary formats (Word 97–
2007)

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the

default Word document format (.DOC)
became a de facto standard of document
file formats for Microsoft Office users.
There are different versions of "Word
Document Format" used by default in
Word 97–2007.[47] Each binary word file is
a Compound File,[48] a hierarchical file
system within a file.[49] According to Joel
Spolsky, Word Binary File Format is
extremely complex mainly because its
developers had to accommodate an
overwhelming number of features and
prioritize performance over anything
else.[49]

As with all OLE Compound Files, Word

Binary Format consists of "storages",
which are analogous to computer folders,
and "streams", which are similar to
computer files. Each storage may contain
streams or other storages. Each Word
Binary File must contain a stream called
"WordDocument" stream and this stream
must start with a File Information Block
(FIB).[50] FIB serves as the first point of
reference for locating everything else, such
as where the text in a Word document
starts, ends, what version of Word created
the document and other attributes.

Word 2007 and later continue to support

the DOC file format, although it is no
longer the default.

XML Document (Word 2003)

This section needs expansion.

Learn more

The XML format introduced in Word

2003[51] was a simple, XML-based format
called WordprocessingML.

Cross-version compatibility
Opening a Word Document file in a version
of Word other than the one with which it
was created can cause incorrect display of
the document. The document formats of
the various versions change in subtle and
not so subtle ways (such as changing the
font, or the handling of more complex
tasks like footnotes). Formatting created
in newer versions does not always survive
when viewed in older versions of the
program, nearly always because that
capability does not exist in the previous
version.[52] Rich Text Format (RTF), an
early effort to create a format for
interchanging formatted text between
applications, is an optional format for
Word that retains most formatting and all
content of the original document.

Third-party formats

Plugins permitting the Windows versions

of Word to read and write formats it does
not natively support, such as international
standard OpenDocument format (ODF)
(ISO/IEC 26300:2006), are available. Up
until the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2)
for Office 2007, Word did not natively
support reading or writing ODF documents
without a plugin, namely the SUN ODF
Plugin or the OpenXML/ODF Translator.
With SP2 installed, ODF format 1.1
documents can be read and saved like any
other supported format in addition to
those already available in Word
2007.[52][53][54][55][56] The implementation
faces substantial criticism, and the ODF
Alliance and others have claimed that the
third-party plugins provide better
support.[57] Microsoft later declared that
the ODF support has some limitations.[58]

In October 2005, one year before the

Microsoft Office 2007 suite was released,
Microsoft declared that there was
insufficient demand from Microsoft
customers for the international standard
OpenDocument format support, and that
therefore it would not be included in
Microsoft Office 2007. This statement was
repeated in the following
months.[59][60][61][62] As an answer, on
October 20, 2005 an online petition was
created to demand ODF support from
Microsoft.[63]

In May 2006, the ODF plugin for Microsoft

Office was released by the OpenDocument
Foundation.[64] Microsoft declared that it
had no relationship with the developers of
the plugin.[65]

In July 2006, Microsoft announced the

creation of the Open XML Translator
project – tools to build a technical bridge
between the Microsoft Office Open XML
Formats and the OpenDocument Format
(ODF). This work was started in response
to government requests for interoperability
with ODF. The goal of project was not to
add ODF support to Microsoft Office, but
only to create a plugin and an external
toolset.[66][67] In February 2007, this project
released a first version of the ODF plugin
for Microsoft Word.[68]

In February 2007, Sun released an initial

version of its ODF plugin for Microsoft
Office.[69] Version 1.0 was released in July
2007.[70]
Microsoft Word 2007 (Service Pack 1)
supports (for output only) PDF and XPS
formats, but only after manual installation
of the Microsoft 'Save as PDF or XPS' add-
on.[71][72] On later releases, this was
offered by default.

Features and flaws

This section needs additional citations for
verification. Learn more

Among its features, Word includes a built-

in spell checker, a thesaurus, a dictionary,
and utilities for manipulating and editing
text. The following are some aspects of its
feature set.
Templates

Several later versions of Word include the

ability for users to create their own
formatting templates, allowing them to
define a file in which the title, heading,
paragraph, and other element designs
differ from the standard Word
templates.[73] Users can find how to do
this under the Help section located near
the top right corner (Word 2013 on
Windows 8).

For example, Normal.dot is the master

template from which all Word documents
are created. It determines the margin
defaults as well as the layout of the text
and font defaults. Although normal.dot is
already set with certain defaults, the user
can change normal.dot to new defaults.
This will change other documents which
were created using the template, usually in
unexpected ways.[74]

Image formats

Word can import and display images in

common bitmap formats such as JPG and
GIF. It can also be used to create and
display simple line-art. Microsoft Word
added support[75] for the common SVG
vector image format in 2017 for Office 365
ProPlus subscribers and this functionality
was also included in the Office 2019
release.

WordArt

An example image created with WordArt

WordArt enables drawing text in a

Microsoft Word document such as a title,
watermark, or other text, with graphical
effects such as skewing, shadowing,
rotating, stretching in a variety of shapes
and colors and even including three-
dimensional effects. Users can apply
formatting effects such as shadow, bevel,
glow, and reflection to their document text
as easily as applying bold or underline.
Users can also spell-check text that uses
visual effects, and add text effects to
paragraph styles.

Macros

A Macro is a rule of pattern that specifies

how a certain input sequence (often a
sequence of characters) should be
mapped to an output sequence according
to defined process. Frequently used or
repetitive sequences of keystrokes and
mouse movements can be automated.
Like other Microsoft Office documents,
Word files can include advanced macros
and even embedded programs. The
language was originally WordBasic, but
changed to Visual Basic for Applications
as of Word 97.

This extensive functionality can also be

used to run and propagate viruses in
documents. The tendency for people to
exchange Word documents via email, USB
flash drives, and floppy disks made this an
especially attractive vector in 1999. A
prominent example was the Melissa virus,
but countless others have existed.

These macro viruses were the only known

cross-platform threats between Windows
and Macintosh computers and they were
the only infection vectors to affect any
macOS system up until the advent of video
codec trojans in 2007. Microsoft released
patches for Word X and Word 2004 that
effectively eliminated the macro problem
on the Mac by 2006.

Word's macro security setting, which

regulates when macros may execute, can
be adjusted by the user, but in the most
recent versions of Word, is set to HIGH by
default, generally reducing the risk from
macro-based viruses, which have become
uncommon.

Layout issues

Before Word 2010 (Word 14) for Windows,

the program was unable to correctly
handle ligatures defined in TrueType
fonts.[76] Those ligature glyphs with
Unicode codepoints may be inserted
manually, but are not recognized by Word
for what they are, breaking spell checking,
while custom ligatures present in the font
are not accessible at all. Since Word 2010,
the program now has advanced
typesetting features which can be
enabled:[77] OpenType ligatures,[78] kerning,
and hyphenation. Other layout deficiencies
of Word include the inability to set crop
marks or thin spaces. Various third-party
workaround utilities have been
developed.[79]

In Word 2004 for Mac OS X, support of

complex scripts was inferior even to Word
97,[80] and Word 2004 does not support
Apple Advanced Typography features like
ligatures or glyph variants.[81]

Bullets and numbering

Microsoft Word supports bullet lists and
numbered lists. It also features a
numbering system that helps add correct
numbers to pages, chapters, headers,
footnotes, and entries of tables of content;
these numbers automatically change to
correct ones as new items are added or
existing items are deleted. Bullets and
numbering can be applied directly to
paragraphs and convert them to lists.[82]
Word 97 through 2003, however, had
problems adding correct numbers to
numbered lists. In particular, a second
irrelevant numbered list might have not
started with number one, but instead
resumed numbering after the last
numbered list. Although Word 97
supported a hidden marker that said the
list numbering must restart afterwards, the
command to insert this marker (Restart
Numbering command) was only added in
Word 2003. However, if one were to cut the
first item of the listed and paste it as
another item (e.g. fifth), then the restart
marker would have moved with it and the
list would have restarted in the middle
instead of at the top.[83]

Users can also create tables in Word.

Depending on the version, Word can
perform simple calculations — along with
support for formulas and equations as
well.

AutoSummarize

Available in certain versions of Word (e.g.,

Word 2007), AutoSummarize highlights
passages or phrases that it considers
valuable and can be a quick way of
generating a crude abstract or an
executive summary.[84] The amount of text
to be retained can be specified by the user
as a percentage of the current amount of
text.
According to Ron Fein of the Word 97
team, AutoSummarize cuts wordy copy to
the bone by counting words and ranking
sentences. First, AutoSummarize identifies
the most common words in the document
(barring "a" and "the" and the like) and
assigns a "score" to each word – the more
frequently a word is used, the higher the
score. Then, it "averages" each sentence
by adding the scores of its words and
dividing the sum by the number of words
in the sentence – the higher the average,
the higher the rank of the sentence. "It's
like the ratio of wheat to chaff," explains
Fein.[85]
AutoSummarize was removed from
Microsoft Word for Mac OS X 2011,
although it was present in Word for Mac
2008. AutoSummarize was removed from
the Office 2010 release version (14) as
well.[86]

Password protection
There are three password types that can
be set in Microsoft Word:

Password to open a document[87]

Password to modify a document[87]
Password restricting formatting and
editing[88]
The second and the third type of
passwords were developed by Microsoft
for convenient shared use of documents
rather than for their protection. There is no
encryption of documents that are
protected by such passwords, and
Microsoft Office protection system saves
a hash sum of a password in a document's
header where it can be easily accessed
and removed by the specialized software.
Password to open a document offers much
tougher protection that had been steadily
enhanced in the subsequent editions of
Microsoft Office.
Word 95 and all the preceding editions had
the weakest protection that utilized a
conversion of a password to a 16-bit key.

Key length in Word 97 and 2000 was

strengthened up to 40 bit. However,
modern cracking software allows
removing such a password very quickly –
a persistent cracking process takes one
week at most. Use of rainbow tables
reduces password removal time to several
seconds. Some password recovery
software can not only remove a password,
but also find an actual password that was
used by a user to encrypt the document
using brute-force attack approach.
Statistically, the possibility of recovering
the password depends on the password
strength.

Word's 2003/XP version default protection

remained the same but an option that
allowed advanced users choosing a
Cryptographic Service Provider was
added.[89] If a strong CSP is chosen,
guaranteed document decryption
becomes unavailable, and therefore a
password can't be removed from the
document. Nonetheless, a password can
be fairly quickly picked with brute-force
attack, because its speed is still high
regardless of the CSP selected. Moreover,
since the CSPs are not active by the
default, their use is limited to advanced
users only.

Word 2007 offers a significantly more

secure document protection which utilizes
the modern Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES) that converts a password to a 128-
bit key using a SHA-1 hash function 50000
times. It makes password removal
impossible (as of today, no computer that
can pick the key in reasonable amount of
time exists), and drastically slows the
brute-force attack speed down to several
hundreds of passwords per second.
Word's 2010 protection algorithm was not
changed apart from increasing number of
SHA-1 conversions up to 100000 times,
and consequently, the brute-force attack
speed decreased two times more.

Reception
This section needs expansion.
Learn more

BYTE in 1984 criticized the documentation

for Word 1.1 and 2.0 for DOS, calling it "a
complete farce". It called the software
"clever, put together well, and performs
some extraordinary feats", but concluded
that "especially when operated with the
mouse, has many more limitations than
benefits ... extremely frustrating to learn
and operate efficiently".[90] PC Magazine's
review was very mixed, stating "I've run
into weird word processors before, but this
is the first time one's nearly knocked me
down for the count" but acknowledging
that Word's innovations were the first that
caused the reviewer to consider
abandoning WordStar. While the review
cited an excellent WYSIWYG display,
sophisticated print formatting, windows,
and footnoting as merits, it criticized many
small flaws, very slow performance, and
"documentation apparently produced by
Madame Sadie's Pain Palace". It
concluded that Word was "two releases
away from potential greatness".[91]

Compute!'s Apple Applications in 1987

stated that "despite a certain
awkwardness", Word 3.01 "will likely
become the major Macintosh word
processor" with "far too many features to
list here". While criticizing the lack of true
WYSIWYG, the magazine concluded that
"Word is marvelous. It's like a Mozart or
Edison, whose occasional gaucherie we
excuse because of his great gifts".[92]

Compute! in 1989 stated that Word 5.0's

integration of text and graphics made it "a
solid engine for basic desktop publishing".
The magazine approved of improvements
to text mode, described the $75 price for
upgrading from an earlier version as "the
deal of the decade", and concluded that
"as a high-octane word processor, Word is
definitely worth a look".[93]

During the first quarter of 1996, Microsoft

Word accounted for 80% of the worldwide
word processing market.[94]

Despite its commercial success, it has

also been argued in the scientific
community that Word might not be well-
suited for large-scale projects with high
typographical demands, due to issues
such as file compatibility, poor typography,
low image quality and limited feature
scalability.[95]

Release history
Old version, no Older version, still
Legend: Current stable version
support supported

Microsoft Word 2010 running on Windows 7

Microsoft Word for Windows release history
Year
Name Version Comments
Released

Word for
1989 Windows 1.0 Code-named Opus [96]
1.0

Word for
1990 Windows 1.1 For Windows 3.0.[97] Code-named Bill the Cat
1.1

Word for On March 25, 2014 Microsoft made the source code to Word for
1990 Windows 1.1a Windows 1.1a available to the public via the Computer History
1.1a Museum.[98][99]

Word for
1991 Windows 2.0 Included in Office 3.0.
2.0

Version numbers 3, 4 and 5 were skipped, to bring Windows

Word for version numbering in line with that of DOS Mac OS and
1993 Windows 6.0 WordPerfect (the main competing word processor at the time).
6.0 Also a 32-bit version for Windows NT only. Included in Office 4.0,
4.2, and 4.3.

Word for
1995 Windows 7.0 Included in Office 95
95

1997 Word 97 8.0 Included in Office 97

1998 Word 98 8.5 Included in Office 97

Word
1999 9.0 Included in Office 2000
2000

Word
2001 10.0 Included in Office XP
2002

Microsoft
2003 Word 11.0 Included in Office 2003
2003

2006 Microsoft 12.0 Included in Office 2007; released to businesses on November 30,
 Word 2006, released worldwide to consumers on January 30, 2007.
2007 Extended support until October 10, 2017.

Word
2010 14.0 Included in Office 2010
2010

Word
2013 15.0 Included in Office 2013
2013

Word
2016 16.0 Included in Office 2016
2016

Word
2019 16.0 Included in Office 2019
2019
Microsoft Word for classic Mac OS and macOS release history
Year
Name Version Comments
Released

Word
1985 1.0
1

Word
1987 3.0
3

Word
1989 4.0 Part of Office 1.0 and 1.5
4

Part of Office 3.0

Word
1991 5.0 Requires System 6.0.2, 512 KB of RAM (1 MB for 5.1, 2 MB to use
5
spell check and thesaurus), 6.5 MB available hard drive space[19]

Word Part of Office 3.0

1992 5.1
5.1 Last version to support 68000-based Macs[19]

Part of Office 4.2

Word Shares code and user interface with Word for Windows 6
1993 6.0
6
Requires System 7.0, 4 MB of RAM (8 MB recommended), at least
10 MB available hard drive space, 68020 CPU[19]

Part of Office 98 Macintosh Edition

Word
1998 8.5 Requires PowerPC-based Macintosh
98
Renumbered alongside contemporary Windows version

Word Part of Microsoft Office 2001

2000 9.0
2001 Last version compatible with Classic Mac OS (Mac OS 9 or earlier)

Word Part of Office v. X

2001 10.0
v. X First version for Mac OS X only

Word
2004 11.0 Part of Office 2004
2004

Word
2008 12.0 Part of Office 2008
2008

2010 Word 14.0 Part of Office 2011. Version number 13 was superstitiously skipped
 2011 because of potential triskaidekaphobia.[100]

Word
2015 16.0 Part of Office 2016. Version number 15 was skipped.
2016

Word
2019 16.0 Part of Office 2019
2019

Word for MS-DOS release history

Year released Name Version Comments

1983 Word 1 1.0 Initial version of Word

1985 Word 2 2.0

1986 Word 3 3.0

1987 Word 4 4.0

1989 Word 5 5.0

1991 Word 5.1 5.1

1991 Word 5.5 5.5 First DOS version to use a Windows-like user interface

1993 Word 6 6.0 Last DOS version.

Word release history on other platforms
Year
Platform Name Comments
released

Atari ST 1988 Microsoft Write Based on Microsoft Word 1.05 for Mac OS

Word 5.0 ran both under DOS and under

OS/2 1989 Microsoft Word 5.0 OS/2 dual mode as a native OS/2
application

Word 5.5 ran both under DOS and under

OS/2 1991 Microsoft Word 5.5 OS/2 dual mode as a native OS/2
application

Microsoft Word for OS/2

OS/2 1990 Presentation Manager version
1.1

Microsoft Word for OS/2

OS/2 1991 Presentation Manager version
1.2

SCO 1994– Microsoft Word for Unix

Unix 1995 version 5.1

References
1. "Release notes for Monthly Channel
releases in 2019" . Microsoft Docs.
Retrieved August 15, 2019.
2. Tom Warren (September 24, 2018).
"Microsoft launches Office 2019 for
 Windows and Mac" . The Verge.
Retrieved August 15, 2019.
3. "System requirements for Office" .
Office.com. Microsoft. Retrieved
March 30, 2019.
4. "Update history for Office for Mac" .
Microsoft Docs. Retrieved July 16,
2019.
5. "Microsoft Word: Write, Edit & Share
Docs on the Go APKs" . APKMirror.
Retrieved July 30, 2019.
6. "Microsoft Word" . App Store.
Retrieved July 15, 2019.
7. "Version 1.0 of today's most popular
applications, a visual tour – Pingdom
 Royal" . Pingdom. June 17, 2009.
Retrieved April 12, 2016.
8. A. Allen, Roy (October 2001). "Chapter
12: Microsoft in the 1980's" (PDF). A
History of the Personal Computer: The
People and the Technology (1st ed.).
Allan Publishing. pp. 12/25–12/26.
ISBN 978-0-9689108-0-1. Retrieved
November 7, 2010.
9. "Microsoft Office online, Getting to
know you...again: The Ribbon" .
Archived from the original on May 11,
2011.
10. "The history of branding, Microsoft
history" . Archived from the original
 on May 28, 2009.
11. Edwards, Benj (October 22, 2008).
"Microsoft Word Turns 25" . PC World.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
12. Tsang, Cheryl (1999). Microsoft First
Generation. John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 978-0-471-33206-0.
13. Schaut, Rick (May 19, 2004). "Anatomy
of a Software Bug" . MSDN Blogs.
Archived from the original on
February 1, 2010. Retrieved
December 2, 2006.
14. Markoff, John (May 30, 1983). "Mouse
and new WP program join Microsoft
 product lineup" . InfoWorld. p. 10.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
15. Pollack, Andrew (August 25, 1983).
"Computerizing Magazines" . The New
York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
16. Lemmons, Phil (December 1983).
"Microsoft Windows" . BYTE. p. 48.
Retrieved October 20, 2013.
17. Advertisement (December 1983).
"Undo. Windows. Mouse. Finally" .
BYTE. pp. 88–89. Retrieved
October 20, 2013.
18. Peterson, W.E. Pete (1994). Almost
Perfect: How a Bunch of Regular Guys
 Built Wordperfect Corporation . Prima
Publishing. ISBN 0-7881-9991-9.
19. Knight, Dan (May 22, 2008). "Microsoft
Word for Mac History" . Low End Mac.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
20. "Whole Earth Software Catalog" . "For
a year, I waited for a heavier-duty word
processor than MACWRITE. I finally
got it— WORD."
21. Schaut, Rick (February 26, 2004). "Mac
Word 6.0" . Buggin' My Life Away.
MSDN Blogs. Archived from the
original on May 14, 2004. Retrieved
June 21, 2010.
22. "Atari announces agreement with
Microsoft" . Atarimagazines.com. April
25, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
23. "Feature Review: Microsoft Write" .
Atarimagazines.com. April 25, 2008.
Retrieved June 21, 2010.
24. "Today's Atari Corp.: A close up look
inside" . Atarimagazines.com. April 25,
2008. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
25. Miller, Michael J. (November 12,
1990). "First Look: Microsoft Updates
Look of And Adds Pull-Down Menus to
Character-Based Word 5.5" .
InfoWorld. p. 151. Retrieved
November 7, 2010.
26. Needleman, Raphael (November 19,
1990). "Microsoft Word 5.5: Should
You Fight or Switch?" . InfoWorld.
p. 106. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
27. "Microsoft Word 5.5 for MS-DOS (EXE
format)" . Microsoft Download Center.
Retrieved August 19, 2011.
28. "War of the Words" . InfoWorld.
February 7, 1994. pp. 66–79. Retrieved
November 7, 2010.
29. Lockman, James T.W. (May 15, 1998).
"UGeek Software Review: Microsoft
Office 98 Gold for Macintosh" .
Archived from the original on
 December 3, 2010. Retrieved
November 7, 2010.
30. "Archived copy" . Archived from the
original on January 27, 2015.
Retrieved May 15, 2015.
31. Ericson, Richard (October 11, 2006).
"Final Review: The Lowdown on Office
2007" . Computerworld. Retrieved
November 8, 2010.
32. Mendelson, Edward (May 11, 2010).
"Microsoft Office 2010" . PC
Magazine. Retrieved November 8,
2010.
33. Mendelson, Edward (May 11, 2010).
"Microsoft Office 2010: Office 2010's
 Backstage View" . PC Magazine.
Retrieved November 8, 2010.
34. Mendelson, Edward (May 11, 2010).
"Microsoft Office 2010: The Word on
Word" . PC Magazine. Retrieved
November 8, 2010.
35. "Introduction to Word Web App" .
Microsoft. Retrieved November 8,
2010.
36. McLean, Prince (November 12, 2007).
"Road to Mac Office 2008: an
introduction (Page 3)" . AppleInsider.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
37. Tetrault, Gregory (January 2001).
"Review: Microsoft Office 2001" .
 ATPM: About This Particular
Macintosh. Retrieved November 7,
2010.
38. Negrino, Tom (February 1, 2002).
"Review: Microsoft Office v. X" .
Macworld. Retrieved November 7,
2010.
39. Lunsford, Kelly; Michaels, Philip; Snell,
Jason (March 3, 2004). "Office 2004:
First Look" . Macworld. Retrieved
November 7, 2010.
40. Friedberg, Steve (May 25, 2004).
"Review: Microsoft Office" . MacNN.
Archived from the original on April 5,
2010. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
41. McLean, Prince (November 14, 2007).
"Road to Mac Office 2008: Word '08 vs
Pages 3.0" . AppleInsider. Retrieved
November 7, 2010.
42. McLean, Prince (November 12, 2007).
"Road to Mac Office 2008: an
introduction (Page 4)" . AppleInsider.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
43. McLean, Prince (March 29, 2010).
"New Office 11 for Mac sports dense
ribbons of buttons" . AppleInsider.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
44. Dilger, Daniel Eran (October 25, 2010).
"Review: Microsoft's Office 2011 for
 Mac (Page 2)" . Apple Insider.
Retrieved November 7, 2010.
45. "DOCX Transitional (Office Open XML),
ISO 29500:2008-2016, ECMA-376,
Editions 1-5" . www.loc.gov. January
20, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
46. "OpenOffice.org 3.0 New Features —
Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters" .
Retrieved April 26, 2010.
47. "5 Appendix A: Product Behavior" .
[MS-DOC]: Word (.doc) Binary File
Format (PDF). Redmond, WA:
Microsoft.
48. "2.1 File Structure" . [MS-DOC]: Word
(.doc) Binary File Format (PDF).
 Redmond, WA: Microsoft.
49. Spolsky, Joel (February 19, 2008).
"Why are the Microsoft Office file
formats so complicated? (And some
workarounds)" . Joel on Software.
50. "2.1.1 WordDocument Stream" . [MS-
DOC]: Word (.doc) Binary File Format
(PDF). Redmond, WA: Microsoft.

51. "What You Can Do with Word XML

[Word 2003 XML Reference]" . MSDN.
2004.
52. Casson, Tony; Ryan, Patrick S. (May 1,
2006). "Open Standards, Open Source
Adoption in the Public Sector, and
Their Relationship to Microsoft's
 Market Dominance". In Bolin, Sherrie
(ed.). Standards Edge: Unifier or
Divider?. Sheridan Books. p. 87.
SSRN 1656616 .
53. "Microsoft Expands List of Formats
Supported in Microsoft Office, May 21,
2008" . News Center. Microsoft. May
21, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
54. Fulton, Scott M. III (May 21, 2008).
"Next Office 2007 service pack will
include ODF, PDF support options" .
Betanews.
55. Andy Updegrove. "Microsoft Office
2007 to Support ODF – and not
OOXML, May 21, 2008" .
 Consortiuminfo.org. Retrieved
June 21, 2010.
56. "Microsoft: Why we chose ODF
support over OOXML, 23 May 2008" .
Software.silicon.com. Archived from
the original on July 21, 2009.
Retrieved June 21, 2010.
57. "Fact-sheet Microsoft ODF support"
(PDF). odfalliance. Archived from the
original (PDF) on June 11, 2009.
Retrieved May 24, 2009. "Microsoft
Excel 2007 will process ODF
spreadsheet documents when loaded
via the Sun Plug-In 3.0 for Microsoft
Office or the SourceForge
 "OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for
Office," but will fail when using the
"built-in" support provided by Office
2007 SP2."
58. Microsoft. "What happens when I save
a Word 2007 document in the
OpenDocument Text format?" .
Archived from the original on March
18, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
59. Goodwins, Rupert (October 3, 2005).
"Office 12 to support PDF creation, 3
October 2005" . News.zdnet.co.uk.
Retrieved June 21, 2010.
60. Marson, Ingrid (October 6, 2005).
"Microsoft 'must support
 OpenDocument', 6 October 2005" .
News.zdnet.co.uk. Retrieved June 21,
2010.
61. March 23, 2006, Gates: Office 2007
will enable a new class of application
Mass. holding tight to OpenDocument
– ZDNet Archived July 21, 2009, at
the Wayback Machine
62. "May 08, 2006 – Microsoft Office to
get a dose of OpenDocument" .
Zdnet.com.au. Retrieved June 21,
2010.
63. OpenDocument Fellowship (October
20, 2005). "OpenDocument Support:
Tell Microsoft You Want It!, 20 October
 2005" .
Opendocumentfellowship.com.
Archived from the original on March
23, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
64. "Coming soon: ODF for MS Office, May
04, 2006" . Linux-watch.com. May 4,
2006. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
65. LaMonica, Martin (May 5, 2006).
"Microsoft Office to get a dose of
OpenDocument" . CNET News. CBS
Interactive. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
66. "Microsoft Expands Document
Interoperability, July 5, 2006" .
Microsoft.com. July 5, 2006. Archived
 from the original on February 4, 2007.
Retrieved June 21, 2010.
67. Jones, Brian; Rajabi, Zeyad (July 6,
2006). "Open XML Translator project
announced (ODF support for Office)" .
Brian Jones: Office Solutions.
Microsoft. Archived from the original
on January 18, 2010. Retrieved
April 24, 2013.
68. LaMonica, Martin (February 1, 2007).
"Microsoft to release ODF document
converter" . CNet News. CBS
Interactive. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
69. Lombardi, Candace (February 7, 2007).
"Sun to release ODF translator for
 Microsoft Office" . News.cnet.com.
Retrieved June 21, 2010.
70. Paul, Ryan (July 7, 2007). "Sun
releases ODF Plugin 1.0 for Microsoft
Office, July 07, 2007" .
Arstechnica.com. Retrieved June 21,
2010.
71. "Download details: 2007 Microsoft
Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF
or XPS" . Microsoft.com. November 8,
2006. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
72. Microsoft to remove PDF support from
Office 2007 in wake of Adobe dispute,
Friday, June 2, 2006 Microsoft to
remove PDF support from Office 2007
 in wake of Adobe dispute | TG Daily
Archived February 1, 2009, at the
Wayback Machine
73. Klein, Matt. "Word Formatting:
Mastering Styles and Document
Themes" . How-To Geek. Retrieved
July 9, 2019.
74. in depth explanation of Normal.dot
Archived June 20, 2005, at the
Wayback Machine
75. "Edit SVG images in Microsoft Office
365" . Office Support. Microsoft.
Retrieved February 4, 2019.
76. What's new in Word 2010 . Retrieved
July 1, 2010.
77. Improving the look of papers written in
Microsoft Word , Retrieved May 30,
2010.
78. How to Enable OpenType Ligatures in
Word 2010 , Oreszek Blog, May 17,
2009.
79. Such as "How to delete a blank page in
Word" . Sbarnhill.mvps.org. Archived
from the original on May 5, 2010.
Retrieved June 21, 2010.
80. Alan Wood. "Unicode and Multilingual
Editors and Word Processors for Mac
OS X" .
81. Neuburg, Matt (May 19, 2004).
"TidBITS : Word Up! Word 2004, That
 Is" . Db.tidbits.com. Archived from the
original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved
June 21, 2010.
82. McGhie, John (March 26, 2011).
"Word's numbering explained" .
word.mvps.org.
83. Aldis, Margaret (March 26, 2011).
"Methods for restarting list
numbering" . Word.mvps.org.
84. "How To Access Auto Summarize in
Microsoft Word 2007" . Sue's Word
Tips. December 14, 2011. Retrieved
July 9, 2019.
85. Gore, Karenna (February 9, 1997).
"Cognito Auto Sum" . Slate.com.
 Retrieved June 21, 2010.
86. Changes in Word 2010 (for IT pros) .
Technet.microsoft.com (May 16,
2012). Retrieved on July 17, 2013.
87. "Password protect documents,
workbooks, and presentations" .
Microsoft Office website. Microsoft.
Retrieved April 24, 2013.
88. "How to Restrict Editing in Word
2010/2007" . Trickyways. June 22,
2010. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
89. "How safe is Word encryption. Is it
really secure?" . Oraxcel.com.
Retrieved April 24, 2013.
90. Cameron, Janet (September 1984).
"Word Processing Revisited" . BYTE
(review). p. 171. Retrieved October 23,
2013.
91. Manes, Stephen (February 21, 1984).
"The Unfinished Word" . PC Magazine.
p. 192. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
92. McNeill, Dan (December 1987).
"Macintosh: The Word Explosion" .
Compute!'s Apple Applications.
pp. 54–60. Retrieved September 14,
2016.
93. Nimersheim, Jack (December 1989).
"Compute! Specific: MS-DOS" .
Compute!. pp. 11–12.
94. "Data Stream". Next Generation.
No. 21. Imagine Media. September
1996. p. 21.
95. "The Definitive, Non-Technical
Introduction to LaTeX, Professional
Typesetting and Scientific
Publishing" . Math Vault. September 5,
2015. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
96. http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaco
nsumercase.org/011607/8000/PX088
75.pdf
97. "Microsoft Word 1.x (Windows) –
Stats, Downloads and Screenshots ::
WinWorld" . WinWorld. Retrieved
July 3, 2016.
 98. Shustek, Len (March 24, 2014).
"Microsoft Word for Windows Version
1.1a Source Code" . Retrieved
March 29, 2014.
99. Levin, Roy (March 25, 2014).
"Microsoft makes source code for MS-
DOS and Word for Windows available
to public" . Official Microsoft Blog.
Archived from the original on March
28, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
100. For the sake of superstition the next
version of Office won't be called '13' .
Office Watch.

Further reading
 Tsang, Cheryl. Microsoft: First
Generation. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-33206-0.
Liebowitz, Stan J. & Margolis, Stephen E.
Winners, Losers & Microsoft: Competition
and Antitrust in High Technology
Oakland: Independent Institute.
ISBN 978-0-945999-80-5.

External links

Wikiversity has learning resources

about Microsoft Office/Word

Media related to Microsoft Word at

Wikimedia Commons
 Microsoft Word – official site

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Microsoft_Word&oldid=912579777"

Last edited 18 hours ago by Sek-2

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.