This fantastic program facilitates all the tasks that have to do with create, edit, view and share files. So if you are a student, writer, journalist, project manager or anyone else who works With documentation, you may have used them more than once.
As you should know that since its arrival in 1983, it has been constantly updated to provide a good service; With this, it has managed to improve its characteristics and incorporate new functionalities. Reason why you have had numerous versions available especially on operating systems such as Mac and Windows.
Being so used, today is the perfect reference in the field of word processors. That is why in this article we will know a little more about its history and evolution. In this way you will see how versatile it has been for so many years.
Index:
Microsoft Word History Who created it and when it was released first edition?
As we know, This application is now part of Microsoft Office, a computer suite that covers the entire main desktop tools market. It made its appearance in 1989 on a Mac and later in 1990 on Windows. Since then, it contains the famous Microsoft Word program, where more than one has benefited from its orientation towards word processing.
But, it should be noted that this was part of another office suite, known at the time as MS-DOS. A computer operating system founded by Microsoft Corporation, from QDOS and commonly used in equipment manufactured by IBM. From there different versions have been created for different systems such as DOS, Apple Macintosh and Windows, the latter being the most used.
Origin
Its first version was developed by programmers Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, both Xerox employees. The first version of this tool began to be formed in 1981, but it was in 1983 when it began its commercialization, known as Word 1.0 and available for the Xenix and MS-DOS systems. Although other versions followed, none of them had recognition from its users.
Reason why in 1986 Microsoft reached an agreement with Atari (an American video game production company), to launch Word on one of its first teams; the Atari ST. In 1988, under the name of Microsoft Write it was distributed, but without hope of any update.
On Windows, it started in 1989, where it was easier to work. Already in 1990 when the Windows 3.0 version was introduced, its success began. Where they gradually improved their services, to the point that today it is known as the Office standard. Such success was developed in 1990, when Windows 3.0 was launched.
Evolution
As we saw earlier, this program ran mainly in MS-DOS, and although it seems weird, its first version was released on Mac, later it came out on Windows; When it emerged it was baptized as Word 1.0. It should be noted that the versions for MS-DOS were in update 6.0.
One of the curious facts about its evolution is that Microsoft Office did not incorporate a version 13, this is because they were not made by superstitions about this number about bad luck. And as they had it at first, they didn’t want to go through that again. So version 12 was developed in 2007 and update 14 in 2010.
There was also no Microsoft Office 2013 for Mac, this because the Windows version was designed for touch devices.
Another point is that since 2003 Microsoft did not include the known “Easter eggs” in its applications. This taking into consideration that in previous versions following certain steps, games or curious images could be opened in this one.
Complete timeline of all existing versions of Microsoft Word
In the beginning this application took more than 5 years to achieve success in the market. However, once he succeeded he did not stop. As of today, 36 years later has become the most representative text editor of today.
So it is well worth recognizing and taking a walk through all its evolution, which has certainly gained versatility in all its features and features.
Versions for MS-DOS
MS-DOS refers to the acronym MicroSoft Disk Operating System, an operating system developed by Microsoft and based on text. It started in 1981 but was officially released in 1982, as MS-DOS 1.0. It had different versions (9), but at the time it was replaced by other systems such as Windows.
In 1983 the Microsoft company had created a product that we used to date, its Word word processor. It was released in this one, but it did not obtain the expected success, since WordPerfect was handled in the system. However, it had some versions that we will show you below.
1983 Word 1
It first came out in 1983 and was marketed on the MS-DOS system for IBM computers. Its design used WYSIWYG graphics; The latter meant that users could technically see the on-screen format of what would be printed on the document. However, the screen format that these teams had limited such a fact.
As it was his first outing, he didn’t have a very friendly environment or many functions, he basically had some keys like the ones currently in Notepad or TextEdit.
Initially this did not cause the expected effect in terms of sales. As competed against many processors, that were very popular for the time, among them we can highlight WordStar, Multimate and WordPerfect. So for this it was nothing successful.
1985 Word 2
They launch Word 2.o, here it remains the same as its predecessor; Basic and elementary. The reality is that by this time Microsoft was more focused on underpinning issues of its flagship operating system, that at the time was moving in a very competitive market.
1986 Word 3
Word 3.0 arrives, with this version it was observed that its sales were still in a tailspin. However, with this it was possible to incorporate some features as a strategy to increase them, among these are 16-color graphics CGA and IBM EGA, as well as some text modes with EGA.
1987 Word 4
Word 4.0 appears for IBM; said computer incorporated a graphics card. So with this a configuration for text modes was offered. It was based on a Windows 2.x application, called Microsoft Pageview for preview and graphic manipulation.
1989 Word 5
This update is born and with it we can say that the application was established a little by the use of graphic mode. To use it, you had to configure the program for your graphics card and then specify the video mode wanted. Up to this date Microsoft Word had been a DOS application.
1991 Word 5.1
It was the last years of the MS-DOS and at this time Microsoft did not bet much on the operating system, so that this version was an almost exact replica of the previous one, with certain improvements in the mode graphic, as well as with slight changes in its interface.
1993 Word 6.8
This would be the latest version of the Microsoft word processor for MS-DOS. So it continued in the same trend as the previous one. However, it tested certain functions that would serve to shape what the program would be in the next decade with the modern OS that we all know today.
Versions for Microsoft Windows
Over the years we have noticed that for Windows, Microsoft is a treasure. Although, curiously it was not released in this operating system, but appeared 6 years after its launch. Strange but true.
1989 Word
This same year came the first Word for Windows 1.0 and 2.0. It worked under a graphic environment and was easier to handle. Although it should be noted, sales also failed to increase significantly. This is because there were already several word processors.
Despite this, it brought a toolbar, dialog boxes and the possibility of incorporating images.
1990 Word for Windows 3.0
This emergence was due to the evolution of personal computers, when the interfaces began to take a graphical environment and not only based on text. This release gave him the commercial boost this program needed.
1991 Word for Windows 2.0
This year, update 2.0 was published as part of Microsoft Office 3.0. With this he became the leader thanks to the update of the Windows operating system, which no doubt had a significant impact on him. From there it began to be a key piece for office automation operations, leaving aside its main competitor WordPerfect, who failed to produce a version for this OS.
1993 Word for Windows 6.0
The jump and the omission of the versions is because Microsoft tried to synchronize the numbers of the updates with the versions of the operating systems of DOS, Mac and Windows, who sought to adapt to the news of interfaces.
With it the screen resolution was improved, it incorporated the toolbar at the bottom, annex 8 instruments, in addition to a contextual menu, the “Help” section, dialog table and the “Office Assistant”.
1995 Word for Windows 95
As expected, they broke up with the synchronization in the aforementioned way and now the way they applied this was by naming the versions after the year of their release, example: Word 95 for Windows and Word 98 for Mac.
This is known as Word 7.0, since then it was no longer just a simple word processor, since it included some things that others did not, for example: 9 more instruments, a drawing tool, support language, spelling checker, among others. One point in favor is that it was already included in the Office package.
1996 Word 97
This update had a very particular feature, that for many was a nuisance, while for others it was somewhat innovative. It was a kind of assistant called «Clippy», sure if you used this Word or any Office program you saw it many times.
It became a kind of pet for the software and continued in later versions until 2002. Each time it was updated, it sought to adapt to the needs of the users.
Also, incorporated a programming language known as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), that remained in use in Word 2016. It tried to make it easier for people to extend the functionality of the Office suite already automate tasks.
1999 Word 2000
It was the latest version that supported Windows 95 and was launched with 23 new tools. In this, it was incorporated into the Office Genuine Advantage, which was a system created by Microsoft that was used to detect anti-piracy. It was also used to allow legal copying and updates from the Office suite website.
2003 Word 2003
Microsoft Office Word was called from Microsoft Word, this to indicate that this program belongs to the office application and to be considered an integrated system. Excel, PowerPoint, Access and others are included in it. With the update, 32 additional tools, a Task Pane, labels and some commands that allow actions to be taken are incorporated.