For those who use Microsoft Windows as the operating system in PC or laptop must have been familiar with Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is a word processor that may also be the most used application among Microsoft Office applications. Though Microsoft Word is famous, many people still don’t know its history, its benefits, and its features. Therefore, we present the Microsoft Word overview to you. Have a look.
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Microsoft Word history
Microsoft Word was established in 1981 by Charles Simonyi, a word processor developer, and Richard Brodie, a software engineer. In 1983, Microsoft Word was released to the public as Xenix and MS-DOS program. At that time, Microsoft Word was called Multi-Tool Word.
Since the beginning, Microsoft Word has been designed to be used with a mouse which made it distinguish from other MS-DOS programs. However, Microsoft Word sales were not as good as it was expected because it had a tough competitor, WordStar.
In 1985, Microsoft Word turned to Mac OS and gained popularity much more than Word for MS-DOS. Microsoft always tries to create new features and upgrades to compete with MacWrite, the word processor from Apple.
In 1992, Microsoft Word which had no significant competitor since MacWrite Pro was stopped, became the most popular word processor for Mac OS with its Word 5.1 version.
Microsoft Word for Windows was introduced for the first time in 1989, and in short moment, it became the lead word processor until now. Currently, Microsoft Word file has been used as a standard file for corresponding via e-mail. It’s because Word files can be read by any computers that use Word application or Word Viewer.
Nowadays, Microsoft Word features are greatly advanced that allows multiple users to work together on the same document at the same time, and allow the users to share and publish their documents in the cloud storage. It also allows users to set the privacy setting, so that only the chosen ones that can access the files.
Microsoft Word features
Word templates
For those who have bored with standard Word templates, now Microsoft Word provides a feature that allows users to create new Word templates that fit their preference and taste.
WordArt
WordArt allows the users to create additional texts such as watermark or title, formatting effects such as glow, shadow, or mirrored effects, and graphical effects such stretching, narrowing and rotating over the document texts.
Bullets and Numbering
Bullets and numbering are the features that allow users to create a list in a text paragraph. The feature will automatically create sequential numbers each time user adds the new item in the document.
The numbering system is not only applied for the document texts, but it also can be applied for pages, chapters, table of contents, headers, and footers.
AutoSummarize
AutoSummarize collects phrases that are considered important and highlights them for easier use. However, this feature doesn’t exist anymore in Microsoft Word.
Up until this article is made, the very new version of Microsoft Word is Microsoft Word 2016 with an Office 365 subscription which can work in a PC or laptop with operating system Windows 7, 8, or 10.
Download Microsoft Word for Windows 10
You can download Microsoft Word legally from here:
or you can try Microsoft Word 365 for free from here:
If you are a student or educator, you can get Microsoft Word 365 for free from here:
