computer science

History of Microsoft Word

History of Microsoft Word is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand History of Microsoft Word rather than just read about it. In short: The first version of Microsoft Word was developed by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981. Both programmers worked on Xerox Bravo, the first WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor.

Key takeaways

History of Microsoft Word belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect History of Microsoft Word to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of History of Microsoft Word from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The first version of Microsoft Word was developed by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981. Both programmers worked on Xerox Bravo, the first WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor. The first Word version, Word 1.0, was released in October 1983 for Xenix, MS-DOS, and IBM; it was followed by four very similar versions that were not very successful. The first Windows version was released in 1989, with a slightly improved interface. When Windows 3.0 was released in 1990, Word became a huge commercial success. Word for Windows 1.0 was followed by Word 2.0 in 1991 and Word 6.0 in 1993. Then it was renamed to Word 95 and Word 97, Word 2000 and Word for Office XP (to follow Windows commercial names). With the release of Word 2003, the numbering was again year-based. Since then, Word versions include Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, and most recently, Word for Office 365. In 1986, an agreement between Atari and Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST. The Atari ST version was a translation of Word 1.05 for the Apple Macintosh; however, it was released under the name Microsoft Write (the name of the word processor included with Windows during the 1980s and early 1990s). Unlike other versions of Word, the Atari version was a one-time release with no future updates or revisions. The release of Microsoft Write in 1988 was one of two major PC applications to be released for the Atari ST (the other application being WordPerfect). In 2014, the source code for Word for Windows version 1.1a was made available to the Computer History Museum and the public for educational purposes.

Word for DOS The first Microsoft Word was released in 1983 as Multi-Tool Word at the same time as the first Microsoft Mouse. Costing $395, it featured graphics video mode and mouse support in a WYSIWYG interface. It could run in text mode or graphics mode but the visual difference between the two was minor. In graphics mode, the document and interface were rendered in a fixed font size monospace character grid with italic, bold and underline features that were not available in text mode. It had support for style sheets in separate files (.STY). The first version of Word was a 16-bit PC DOS/MS-DOS application. A Macintosh 68000 version named Word 1.0 was released in 1985 and a Microsoft Windows version was released in 1989. The three products shared the same Microsoft Word name, the same version numbers but were very different products built on different code bases. Three product lines co-existed: Word 1.0 to Word 5.1a for Macintosh, Word 1.0 to Word 2.0 for Windows and Word 1.0 to Word 5.5 for DOS. Word 1.1 for DOS was released in 1984 and added the Print Merge support, equivalent to the Mail Merge feature in newer Word systems. Word 2.0 for DOS was released in 1985 and featured Extended Graphics Adapter (EGA) support. Word 3.0 for DOS was released in 1986. Word 4.0 for DOS was released in 1987 and added support for revision marks (equivalent to the Track Changes feature in more recent Word versions), search/replace by style and macros stored as keystroke sequences. Computer Intelligence estimated that year that Microsoft had 4% of the Fortune 1000 PC word processor market. By 1988 Word and WordPerfect were the two leading word processors, each competing with the other in frequently adding features and lowering prices, and with significantly more market shares than DisplayWrite 4 and MultiMate. Word 5.0 for DOS, released in 1989, added support for bookmarks, cross-references and conditions and loops in macros, remaining backwards compatible with Word 3.0 macros. The macro language differed from the WinWord 1.0 WordBasic macro language. Word 5.5 for DOS, released in 1990, significantly changed the user interface, with popup menus and dialog boxes. Even in graphics mode, these graphical user interface (GUI) elements got the monospace ASCII art look and feel found in text mode programs like Microsoft QuickBasic. Word 6.0 for DOS, the last Word for DOS version, was released in 1993, at the same time as Word 6.0 for Windows (16-bit) and Word 6.0 for Macintosh. Although Macintosh and Windows versions shared the same code base, the Word for DOS was different. The Word 6.0 for DOS macro language was compatible with the Word 3.x-5.x macro language while Word 6.0 for Windows and Word 6.0 for Macintosh inherited WordBasic from the Word 1.0/2.0 for Windows code base. The DOS and Windows versions of Word 6.0 had different file formats.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with History of Microsoft Word

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what History of Microsoft Word claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to History of Microsoft Word before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about History of Microsoft Word ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of History of Microsoft Word

In research: History of Microsoft Word appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses History of Microsoft Word in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: History of Microsoft Word is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics History of Microsoft, History of software, Microsoft Office, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for History of Microsoft Word outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study History of Microsoft Word in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what History of Microsoft Word means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain History of Microsoft Word out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is History of Microsoft Word in simple terms?

Why does History of Microsoft Word matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study History of Microsoft Word?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on History of Microsoft Word.