What is the newest microsoft word

Microsoft Office 365 version of Microsoft Word, with the new redesign applied
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	October 25, 1983; 39 years ago (as Multi-Tool Word)
Stable release	2209 (16.0.15629.20208) / October 11, 2022; 6 months ago[1]
Repository	none
Written in	C++ (back-end)[2]
Operating system	Windows 10 and later, Windows Server 2016 and later Office 365 only Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 and later[3]
Platform	IA-32, x64, ARM, ARM64
Type	Word processor
License	Trialware
Website	microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/word

Word for Mac running on macOS Ventura (13.2)
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	16.64 (Build 22081401) / August 16, 2022; 7 months ago[4]
Repository	none
Written in	C++ (back-end), Objective-C (API/UI)[2]
Operating system	macOS
Type	Word processor
License	Proprietary software plus services
Website	products.office.com/word

Screenshot of Microsoft Word for Android 13
Original author(s)	Microsoft Corporation
Developer(s)	Microsoft Corporation
Initial release	January 29, 2015; 8 years ago[5]
Stable release	16.0.15427.20090 / July 14, 2022; 8 months ago[6]
Repository	none
Operating system	Android Pie and later
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	products.office.com/word

Developer(s)	Microsoft Corporation
Initial release	March 27, 2014; 9 years ago[7]
Stable release	2.63.2 / July 18, 2022; 8 months ago[8]
Repository	none
Operating system	iOS 14 or later IPadOS 14 or later
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	products.office.com/word

Developer(s)	Microsoft
Repository	none
Operating system	Windows 10 and later, Windows 10 Mobile
Type	Word processor
License	Freemium
Website	www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9WZDNCRFJB9S

Microsoft Word is a word processor developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983,^[9] under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems.^[10][11][12] 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 (1990), macOS (2001), Web browsers (2010), iOS (2014) and Android (2015). Using Wine, versions of Microsoft Word before 2013 can be run on Linux.

Commercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a component of Microsoft Office suite of software, which can be purchased either with a perpetual license or as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription.

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi, the primary developer of Bravo, the first GUI word processor, which was developed at Xerox PARC.^[13] 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.^[13][14][15]

Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word for Xenix^[13] and MS-DOS in 1983.^[16] Its name was soon simplified to Microsoft Word.^[10] 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.^[10][17] That year Microsoft demonstrated Word running on Windows.^[18]

Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, Microsoft Word was designed to be used with a mouse.^[16] 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,^[19] although it could not render fonts.^[10] It was not initially popular, since its user interface was different from the leading word processor at the time, WordStar.^[20] 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.^[21] It was also notable for its very fast cut-and-paste function and unlimited number of undo operations, which are due to its usage of the piece table data structure.^[22]

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.^[23] After its release, Word for Mac OS’s sales were higher than its MS-DOS counterpart for at least four years.^[13]

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.^[21] 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.^[21][24]

In 1986, an agreement between Atari and Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST^[25] under the name Microsoft Write. The Atari ST version was a port of Word 1.05 for the Mac OS^[26][27] 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.^[13] 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.^[28][29] When Microsoft became aware of the Year 2000 problem, it made Microsoft Word 5.5 for DOS available for free downloads. As of February 2021, it is still available for download from Microsoft’s website.^[30]
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 at 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.^[24]

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^[31]), 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.^[24] In response to user requests, Microsoft offered Word 5 again, after it had been discontinued.^[32] 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[edit]

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,^[33] 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, each release of Word was named after the year of its release, instead of its version number.^[34]

Word 2007 introduced a redesigned user interface that emphasized the most common controls, dividing them into tabs, and adding specific options depending on the context, such as selecting an image or editing a table.^[35] This user interface, called Ribbon, was included in Excel, PowerPoint and Access 2007, and would be later introduced to other Office applications with Office 2010 and Windows applications such as Paint and WordPad with Windows 7, respectively.^[36]

The redesigned interface also includes a toolbar that appears when selecting text, with options for formatting included.^[37]

Word 2007 also included the option to save documents as Adobe Acrobat or XPS files,^[37] and upload Word documents like blog posts on services such as WordPress.

Word 2010 allows the customization of the Ribbon,^[38] adds a Backstage view for file management,^[39] has improved document navigation, allows creation and embedding of screenshots,^[40] and integrates with online services such as Microsoft OneDrive.^[41]

Word 2019 added a dictation function.

Word 2021 added co-authoring, a visual refresh on the start experience and tabs, automatic cloud saving, dark mode, line focus, an updated draw tab, and support for ODF 1.3.

Word for Mac[edit]

The Mac was introduced on January 24, 1984, and Microsoft introduced Word 1.0 for Mac a year later, on 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 its version numbering at «1.0».^[42] There was no version 2 on the Mac, but version 3 came out on January 31, 1987, as described above. Word 4.0 came out on 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 until the 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, such as document generation and renumbering, or to access their old files.

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,^[32] and it included features from Word 97 for Windows, including spell and grammar checking with squiggles.^[43] 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.^[44] 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,^[43] and introduced non-contiguous text selection.^[45]

Word 2004 was released in May 2004. It included a new Notebook Layout view for taking notes either by typing or by voice.^[46] Other features, such as tracking changes, were made more similar with Office for Windows.^[47]

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,^[48] and native support for the new Office Open XML format. It was the first version to run natively on Intel-based Macs.^[49]

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,^[50] and includes a full-screen mode that allows users to focus on reading and writing documents, and support for Office Web Apps.^[51]

Word 2021 added real-time co-authoring, automatic cloud saving, dark mode, immersive reader enhancements, line focus, a visual refresh, the ability to save pictures in SVG format, and a new Sketched style outline.

File formats[edit]

Filename extensions[edit]

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 classic Mac OS of the era did not use filename extensions.)^[52]

The newer .docx extension signifies the Office Open XML international standard for Office documents and is used by default by Word 2007 and later for Windows as well as Word 2008 and later for macOS.^[53]

Binary formats (Word 97–2007)[edit]

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.^{[citation needed]} There are different versions of «Word Document Format» used by default in Word 97–2007.^[54] Each binary word file is a Compound File,^[55] a hierarchical file system within a file. 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.

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 storage. Each Word Binary File must contain a stream called the «WordDocument» stream and this stream must start with a File Information Block (FIB).^[57] 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)[edit]

The .docx XML format introduced in Word 2003^[58] was a simple, XML-based format called WordProcessingML or WordML.

The Microsoft Office XML formats are XML-based document formats (or XML schemas) introduced in versions of Microsoft Office prior to Office 2007. Microsoft Office XP introduced a new XML format for storing Excel spreadsheets and Office 2003 added an XML-based format for Word documents.

These formats were succeeded by Office Open XML (ECMA-376) in Microsoft Office 2007.

Cross-version compatibility[edit]

Opening a Word Document file in a version of Word other than the one with which it was created can cause an 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.^[59] 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[edit]

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.^{[59][60][61][62][63]} The implementation faces substantial criticism, and the ODF Alliance and others have claimed that the third-party plugins provide better support.^[64] Microsoft later declared that the ODF support has some limitations.^[65]

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.^{[66][67][68][69]} As an answer, on October 20, 2005, an online petition was created to demand ODF support from Microsoft.^[70]

In May 2006, the ODF plugin for Microsoft Office was released by the OpenDocument Foundation.^[71] Microsoft declared that it had no relationship with the developers of the plugin.^[72]

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 the project was not to add ODF support to Microsoft Office, but only to create a plugin and an external toolset.^[73][74] In February 2007, this project released a first version of the ODF plugin for Microsoft Word.^[75]

In February 2007, Sun released an initial version of its ODF plugin for Microsoft Office.^[76] Version 1.0 was released in July 2007.^[77]

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.^[78][79] On later releases, this was offered by default.

Features and flaws[edit]

Among its features, Word includes a built-in spell checker, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and utilities for manipulating and editing text. It supports creating tables. Depending on the version, it can perform simple calculations, and supports formatting formulas and equations.

The following are some aspects of its feature set.

Templates[edit]

Several later versions of Word include the ability for users to create their formatting templates, allowing them to define a file in which: the title, heading, paragraph, and other element designs differ from the standard Word templates.^[80] 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.dotm 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.dotm is already set with certain defaults, the user can change it to new defaults. This will change other documents which were created using the template.^[81] It was previously Normal.dot.^[82]

Image formats[edit]

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^[83] 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[edit]

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[edit]

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 a 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.^{[citation needed]} 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, it is set to HIGH by default, generally reducing the risk from macro-based viruses, which have become uncommon.

Layout issues[edit]

Before Word 2010 (Word 14) for Windows, the program was unable to correctly handle ligatures defined in OpenType fonts.^[84] 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,^[85] OpenType ligatures,^[86] kerning and hyphenation (previous versions already had the latter two features). Other layout deficiencies of Word include the inability to set crop marks or thin spaces. Various third-party workaround utilities have been developed.^[87]

In Word 2004 for Mac OS X, support of complex scripts was inferior even to Word 97^[88] and Word 2004 did not support Apple Advanced Typography features like ligatures or glyph variants.^[89]

Issues with technical documents[edit]

Microsoft Word is only awkwardly suitable for some kinds of technical writing, specifically, that which requires mathematical equations,^[90] figure placement, table placement and cross-references to any of these items.^{[citation needed]} The usual workaround for equations is to use a third-party equation typesetter.^{[citation needed]} Figures and tables must be placed manually; there is an anchor mechanism but it is not designed for fully automatic figure placement and editing text after placing figures and tables often requires re-placing those items by moving the anchor point and even then the placement options are limited.^{[citation needed]} This problem is deeply baked into Word’s structure since 1985 as it does not know where page breaks will occur until the document is printed.^{[citation needed]}

Bullets and numbering[edit]

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 converted to lists.^[91] 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 afterward, 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.^[92]

Word continues to default to non-Unicode characters and non-hierarchical bulleting, despite user preference for Powerpoint-style symbol hierarchies (e.g., filled circle/emdash/filled square/endash/emptied circle) and universal compatibility.

AutoSummarize[edit]

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.^[93] 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.^[94]

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.^[95]

Other platforms[edit]

Word for mobile[edit]

Word Mobile^[96] is a word processor that allows creating and editing documents. It supports basic formatting, such as bolding, changing font size, and changing colors (from red, yellow, or green). It can add comments, but can’t edit documents with tracked changes. It can’t open password-protected documents; change the typeface, text alignment, or style (normal, heading 1); create bulleted lists; insert pictures; or undo.^[97][98][99] Word Mobile is neither able to display nor insert footnotes, endnotes, page headers, page footers, page breaks, certain indentation of lists, and certain fonts while working on a document, but retains them if the original document has them.^[100] In addition to the features of the 2013 version, the 2007 version on Windows Mobile also has the ability to save documents in the Rich Text Format and open legacy PSW (Pocket Word).^[100] Furthermore, it includes a spell checker, word count tool, and a «Find and Replace» command. In 2015, Word Mobile became available for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile on Windows Store.^[101]

Support for Windows 10 Mobile version ended in January 12, 2021.^[102]

Word for the web[edit]

Word for the web is a free lightweight version of Microsoft Word available as part of Office on the web, which also includes web versions of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Word for the web lacks some Ribbon tabs, such as Design and Mailings. Mailings allows users to print envelopes and labels and manage mail merge printing of Word documents.^[103][104] Word for the web is not able to edit certain objects, such as: equations, shapes, text boxes or drawings, but a placeholder may be present in the document. Certain advanced features like table sorting or columns will not be displayed but are preserved as they were in the document. Other views available in the Word desktop app (Outline, Draft, Web Layout, and Full-Screen Reading) are not available, nor are side-by-side viewing, split windows, and the ruler.^[105]

Password protection[edit]

Three password types can be set in Microsoft Word,

• Password to open a document^[106]
• Password to modify a document^[106]
• Password restricting formatting and editing^[107]

The second and third password types 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 the 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 the 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 to choose a Cryptographic Service Provider was added.^[108] 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 a brute-force attack, because its speed is still high regardless of the CSP selected. Moreover, since the CSPs are not active by default, their use is limited to advanced users only.

Word 2007 offers 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 50,000 times. It makes password removal impossible (as of today, no computer that can pick the key in a 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 the increasing number of SHA-1 conversions up to 100,000 times and consequently, the brute-force attack speed decreased two times more.

Reception[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2021)

Initial releases of Word were met with criticism. 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».^[109] 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 produced by Madame Sadie’s Pain Palace». It concluded that Word was «two releases away from potential greatness».^[110]

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».^[111]

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 worth a look».^[112]

During the first quarter of 1996, Microsoft Word accounted for 80% of the worldwide word processing market.^[113]

Release history[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• 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[edit]

• Microsoft Word – official site
• Find and replace text by using regular expressions (Advanced) — archived official support website

Everything you need to about Office 2021

Office 2021 is the next version of Microsoft Office for consumers and small businesses — coming out October 5, 2021. 

In Microsoft Office 2021, you’ll find new inking tools, functions, data types, translation and editing tools, motion graphics, ease-of-use features, and so much more! 

And Office 2021 is available for Windows and macOS.

Here’s what we know so far.

Office 2021 Release Date 

October 5, 2021

Microsoft will release Office 2021 to consumers and Office LTSC for commercial customers on October 5, 2021. 

The same day Microsoft will release Windows 11, the newest Microsoft Operating system for consumers and businesses.

Both Microsoft Office 2021 and Windows 11 will offer a subscription-free alternative to Microsoft 365 and Windows 365, respectively.

Is office 2021 replacing Office 2019?

Yes, Office 2021 is the replacement of Office 2019.

Office 2021 is what Microsoft calls a ‘perpetual license’ version. It is a single payment for ongoing use of the software with no annual payments (subscription). 

Office 2021 will be sold in retail to individuals and small businesses. 

A similar product, Office LTSC, will be sold to volume license customers or commercial customers.

They’re both designed for those individuals and businesses who don’t want to subscribe to the cloud-powered Microsoft 365 variants.

Microsoft Office 2021: Is it a HIT or a Miss [Explained]

Watch the video below for an overview of Office 2021

Why should you buy office 2021?

Microsoft confirmed that Office 2021 would be released with a handful of new features. And it has stayed true to its word. 

The new features in Office 2021 include performance improvements, accessibility improvements across many apps, and other advanced features. These include:

• Dark mode support 
• Dynamic Arrays & XLOOKUP() in Excel
• Line Focus added to Word’s Immersive Reader.
• Record a slide show with narration in PowerPoint.

The dark mode was already available in Microsoft 365, but this is the first time we have seen it on the standalone version — office 2021. 

The Dark Mode in 0ffice 2021 is an even darker version of the original mode that was rolled out. The text and other elements on the page will also shift to darker hues.

Microsoft has included a ‘Switch Modes’ button, which will be added to the View menu above the document.

There are more new features in the commercial-focused LTSC version. There are accessibility and performance improvements across many apps in addition to the advanced features.

What’s new in your favorite Office app?

Note: Microsoft notes that all feature improvements, unless otherwise noted, are also included in Office LTSC for commercial customers and Office 2021 for Mac.

Let’s look at the new features for every specific app in Office 2021!

Visual Refresh

Office 2021 has a new visual refresh that allows you to work with a modernized Start experience and newly refreshed tabs in the ribbon.

You will now experience a clean, clear style with Monoline iconography that communicates action and features with simple visuals.

Visual refresh is new in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.

Stock media

Office Premium Creative Content collection has a facelift with more rich media content. Now, there’s a curated library of stock images, icons, and more that help you express yourself.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Visio

Microsoft Search

You can now find what you need with the new Microsoft Search box at the top of your Microsoft Office apps on Windows.

Microsoft search is a powerful tool that helps you quickly find what you’re looking for, from text to commands to help and more.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote

Performance improvements

Microsoft wants users to experience improved performance, speed, and stability, across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. 

You can now get faster calculations from common Excel functions like SUMIF, COUNTIF, and AVERAGEIF.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook

Updated Draw tab

The draw tab has got a facelift.

Access and change the color of all your inking tools in one place. Simplify how you work with ink using new Draw tab additions: Point Eraser, Ruler, and Lasso.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Improved Autosave 

Autosave now has a button.

You toggle the autosave button to save your changes as they happen in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Upload your files to OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online to ensure all your updates are saved automatically.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Support for OpenDocument format (ODF)

Office 2021 now supports OpenDocument format (ODF) 1.3

The ODF 1.3 specification supports many new features and allows you to get a refreshed user experience.

Sketched style outline

In the new update, the Sketched style outline now allows you to give a casual, hand-drawn look to shapes in your presentations.

Different outlines like Curved, Freehand, or Scribble options, find the outline under Format Shape > Line > Sketched style.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Select your own color

You can now pick the perfect color with the new input field in the Colors dialog for Hex color values.

Now you won’t have to spend time converting Hex color values into RGB values.

For any property where you can define color, you can now enter a Hex color value in the Hex box, for example, #0F4C81 or 444.

New in: Access, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Visio, Project

New features in Office 2021 per app

New in Excel

• XLOOKUP:  Row by row, find anything you need in a table or range with XLOOKUP.
• Dynamic arrays:  You can now write one formula in Excel and return an array of values. Use Excel to expedite calculations and insights with 6 new functions: FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, and RANDARRAY.
• LET function: Microsoft has included the LET function in Office 2021. It assigns names to calculation results to store intermediate calculations, values, or defining names inside a formula.
• XMATCH function: The XMATCH function in Excel searches for a specified item in an array/range of cells and returns the item’s relative position. XMATCH can also help you return a value in an array.

New in Outlook 

• Translator and ink in Outlook: Translate email messages into more than 70 languages and view the transcript— all within Outlook.
• Drawing/inking: Annotate email images or draw in a separate canvas using your finger, pen, or mouse.
• Instant search: use Instant Search in Outlook to quickly find emails. Select the search bar (located above the Outlook ribbon) to help find email messages anywhere in Outlook. Just like you do in, say, Gmail.

New in PowerPoint PowerPoint 

• New and improved Record Slide Show: You can now record Slide Show. Office 2021 now supports presenter video recording, laser pointer recording, and ink recording.
• Replay your ink strokes: Draw and replay your ink strokes as they were drawn. This allows you to illustrate things step by step or even show a thought process. You can also pause the replay and select the point to start the replay.
• Arrange elements on your slides for screen readers: Select elements in screen-reading order and rearrange them as necessary. This allows you to communicate your message effectively.

New in Access 

• Refresh, remove or relink linked tables: Access now has an updated Linked Table Manager in a central location for viewing and managing all data sources and linked tables in the database.

  

  
  

• The new Date/Time Extended data type: Access has an updated Date/Time data type to enhance syntax compatibility with SQL and increase accuracy and level of detail in records that include dates and times. Microsoft implemented the SQL DateTime2 data type into Access.

  

  
  

• Tab manager: Keep tabs on your database objects in Access. You can see the active tab, easily drag tabs to rearrange them, and close database objects with just one click.

  

  
  

New in Visio

• New Azure stencils and shapes: Visio now has many more stencils to help you create up-to-date Azure diagrams. You can build Azure diagrams for network topologies, virtual machine configurations, operations, and more.

  

  
  

• New AWS stencils and shapes: Visio now has infrastructure shapes from Amazon Web Services (AWS). You can use stencils with the latest AWS shapes to you create diagrams.

  

  
  

• Content for social distancing planning in the workplace: With Covid-19, many workplaces need re-planning. They need to follow the social distancing guidelines. This new Visio template, and the Workplace Social Distancing stencil, provide several shapes, fill patterns, and line patterns, both scaled and unscaled, to help space replanning.

  

What’s new in Office 2021 for Mac 

Other than the new features in general, Office 2021 for Mac also introduces or improves features specific to Mac. These are: 

Immersive Reader advanced color support

In Immersive Reader, Microsoft has added many additional ways to choose a page color to make text easy to scan with less eye strain.

On the Immersive Reader tab, you just need to click Page Color to see a 4×5 color picker.

You can then click More Colors to see additional color selection options, including Wheel, Sliders, Color Palettes, Image Palettes, and Pencils.

New in: Word

Read Aloud 

Office 2021 now has natural-sounding voices. 

Still, in Word’s Immersive Reader, the Read Aloud feature great for readers and authors alike. 

With more natural-sounding voices for an improved listening experience, you cna use Read Aloud to “prooflisten” a document or an email you’ve drafted to catch errors or simply give your eyes a break.

To access the feature, click the Read Aloud button on the Review tab.

To switch between different voice options, select the Settings icon at the upper-right corner of your message/document and click the Voice Selection drop-down menu.

New in: Word

Make GIF

You can now make an animated GIF from a slide show in Office 2021 for Mac.

Office 2021 allows you to save a presentation as an animated GIF, which can be shared via social or other digital channels.

New in: PowerPoint

Visual refresh

Work with a modernized Start experience and newly refreshed tabs in the ribbon.

Experience a clean, clear style with Monoline iconography that communicates action and features with simple visuals.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook

Tell me

Like the search box, you can find what you’re looking for under Tell me. Use the search box to find text, commands, help, and more.

Tell me is a text field where you can enter words and phrases about what you want to do next and quickly get to features you want to use or actions you want to perform.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Save your pictures and graphics as SVG

Office 2021 now supports saving pictures, charts, and other graphics in the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) format.

You can resize your saved images with no loss of image quality.

New in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook

What’s More? Office 2021 Windows and Office 2021 Mac

Office 2021 will be available for Windows and Mac. The architecture of Office 2021 is as follows: 

• Office 2021 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows. 
• Office 2021 64-bit for Mac.

Windows 10 or Windows 11 is required for Office 2021, the same as Office 2019. macOS, Microsoft’s policy is to support the current and past two macOS releases. It will work with either Intel or M1 based Mac computers.

Watch: Microsoft Office 2021: Is it a HIT or a Miss [Explained]

Final thoughts 

There’s a lot to expect from Office 2021. Let’s wait for its official release on 5, October 2021. In the meantime, you can check out the Office 2021 preview on our YouTube channel. 

Looking for more tips? Check out our other guides in the Softwarekeep Blog and our Help Center! You’ll find a wealth of information on how to troubleshoot various issues and find solutions to your tech problems.

Sign up for our newsletter and access our blog posts, promotions, and discount codes early. Plus, you’ll be the first to know about our latest guides, deals, and other exciting updates!

More on Office 2021

» 7 Microsoft Word Hacks You Need to Know in 2022
» How to Effectively Plan Your Day
» Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word: Which One Is Suitable for You?
» An Insanely Simple Way To Improve Productivity With Microsoft Word
» Top 14 Microsoft Word Tricks and Tips that you Should Know
» How to Edit Your Word Documents Faster

Microsoft Word is Microsoft’s flagship word processing software. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), the Apple Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows (1989). It is a component of the Microsoft Office system; however, it is also sold as a standalone product and included in Microsoft Works Suite. Beginning with the 2003 version, the branding was revised to emphasize Word’s identity as a component within the Office suite: Microsoft began calling it Microsoft Office Word instead of merely Microsoft Word. Nomenclature usage in the wild is currently in flux, with both names being commonly used. The latest release is Word 2021.

History

1981 — 1989

Many concepts and ideas of Word were brought from Bravo, the original GUI word processor developed at Xerox PARC. Bravo’s creator Charles Simonyi left PARC to work for Microsoft in 1981. Simonyi hired Richard Brodie, who had worked with him on Bravo, away from PARC that summer. On February 1, 1983, development on what was originally named Multi-Tool Word began.

Having renamed it Microsoft Word, Microsoft released the program October 25, 1983, for the IBM PC. Free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first program to be distributed on-disk with a magazine. However, it was not well received, and sales lagged behind those of rival products such as WordPerfect.

Word featured a concept of «What You See Is What You Get», or WYSIWYG, and was the first application with such features as the ability to display bold and italics text on an IBM PC. Word made full use of the mouse, which was so unusual at the time that Microsoft offered a bundled Word-with-Mouse package. Although MS-DOS was a character-based system, Microsoft Word was the first word processor for the IBM PC that showed actual line breaks and typeface markups such as bold and italics directly on the screen while editing. However, this was not a true WYSIWYG system because available displays did not have the resolution to show actual typefaces. Other DOS word processors, such as WordStar and WordPerfect, used simple text-only display with markup codes on the screen or sometimes, at the most, alternative colors.

As with most DOS software, each program had its own, often complicated, set of commands and nomenclature for performing functions that had to be learned. For example, in Word for MS-DOS, a file would be saved with the sequence Escape-T-S: pressing Escape called up the menu box, T accessed the set of options for Transfer and S was for Save (the only similar interface belonged to Microsoft’s own Multiplan spreadsheet). As most secretaries had learned how to use WordPerfect, companies were reluctant to switch to a rival product that offered few advantages. Desired features in Word such as indentation before typing (emulating the F4 feature in WordPerfect), the ability to block text to copy it before typing instead of picking up mouse or blocking after typing, and a reliable way to have macros and other functions always replicate the same function time after time, were just some of Word’s problems for production typing.

Word for Macintosh, despite the major differences in look and feel from the DOS version, was ported by Ken Shapiro with only minor changes from the DOS source code, which had been written with high-resolution displays and laser printers in mind although none were yet available to the general public. Following the introduction of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Macintosh attempted to add closer WYSIWYG features into its package. After Word for Mac was released in 1985, it gained wide acceptance. There was no Word 2.0 for Macintosh; this was the first attempt to synchronize version numbers across platforms.

The second release of Word for Macintosh, named Word 3.0, was shipped in 1987. It included numerous internal enhancements and new features but was plagued with bugs. Within a few months Word 3.0 was superseded by Word 3.01, which was much more stable. All registered users of 3.0 were mailed free copies of 3.01, making this one of Microsoft’s most expensive mistakes up to that time. Word 4.0, released in 1989, was a very successful and solid product.

1990 — 1995

The first version of Word for Windows was released in 1989 at a price of 500 US dollars. With the release of Windows 3.0 the following year, sales began to pick up (Word for Windows 1.0 was designed for use with Windows 3.0, and its performance was poorer with the versions of Windows available when it was first released). The failure of WordPerfect to produce a Windows version proved a fatal mistake. It was version 2.0 of Word, however, that firmly established Microsoft Word as the market leader.

After MacWrite, Word for Macintosh never had any serious rivals, although programs such as Nisus Writer provided features such as non-contiguous selection which were not added until Word 2002 in Office XP. In addition, many users complained that major updates reliably came more than two years apart, too long for most business users at that time.

Word 5.1 for the Macintosh, released in 1992, was a popular word processor due to its elegance, relative ease of use, and feature set. However, version 6.0 for the Macintosh, released in 1994, was widely derided, unlike the Windows version. It was the first version of Word based on a common codebase between the Windows and Mac versions; many accused it of being slow, clumsy and memory intensive. The equivalent Windows version was also numbered 6.0 to coordinate product naming across platforms, despite the fact that the previous version was Word for Windows 2.0.

When Microsoft became aware of the Year 2000 problem, it released the entire version of DOS port of Microsoft Word 5.5 instead of getting people to pay for the update. As of August 2022, it had still been available for download from Microsoft’s website.^[1]

Word 6.0 was the second attempt to develop a common codebase version of Word. The first, code-named Pyramid, had been an attempt to completely rewrite the existing Word product. 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. Proponents of Pyramid claimed it would have been faster, smaller, and more stable than the product that was eventually released for Macintosh, which was compiled using a beta version of Visual C++ 2.0 that targets the Macintosh, so many optimizations have to be turned off (the version 4.2.1 of Office is compiled using the final version), and sometimes use the Windows API simulation library included. Pyramid would have been truly cross-platform, with machine-independent application code and a small mediation layer between the application and the operating system.

More recent versions of Word for Macintosh are no longer ported versions of Word for Windows although some code is often appropriated from the Windows version for the Macintosh version.

Later versions of Word have more capabilities than just word processing. The Drawing tool allows simple desktop publishing operations such as adding graphics to documents. Collaboration, document comparison, multilingual support, translation and many other capabilities have been added over the years.

Word 97

Word 97 had the same general operating performance as later versions such as Word 2000. This was the first copy of Word featuring the «Office Assistant», which was an animated helper used in all Office programs.

Word 2007

Word 2007, included with Microsoft Office 2007 suites, includes numerous changes, including a new XML-based file format, a redesigned interface, an integrated equation editor, bibliographic management, and support for structured documents. It also has contextual tabs, which are functionality specific only to the object with focus, and many other features like Live Preview (which enables you to view the document without making any permanent changes), Mini Toolbar, Super-tooltips, Quick Access toolbar, SmartArt, etc.

Word 2010

Word 2010, included with Microsoft Office 2010 suites, introduces the Microsoft Backstage View, Ribbon customization, picture effects, and text effects.

Word 2013

Included with Microsoft Office 2013 suites.

Word 2016

Included with Microsoft Office 2016 suites.

Word 2019

Included with Microsoft Office 2019 suites.

Word 2021

Included with Microsoft Office 2021 suites.

File format

Word’s native file formats are denoted either by a .doc or .docx filename extension.

Although the familiar .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
3. Word 6 and Word 95 for Windows; Word 6 for Mac
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 default on Word 2007 and later for Windows as well as Word 2008 and later for macOS.

Word document formats (.DOC) as of the early 2000s were a de facto standard of document file formats due to their popularity. Though usually just referred to as «Word document format», this term refers primarily to the range of formats used by default in Word version 2–2003. In addition to the default Word binary formats, there are actually a number of optional alternate file formats that Microsoft has used over the years. Rich Text Format (RTF) was an early effort to create a format for interchanging formatted text between applications. RTF remains an optional format for Word that retains most formatting and all content of the original document. Later, after HTML appeared, Word supported an HTML derivative as an additional full-fidelity round-trip format similar to RTF, with the additional capability that the file could be viewed in a web browser. Word 2007 and 2010 uses the newer Microsoft Office Open XML format as its default format, but retains the older Word 97–2003 format as an option. It also supports (for output only) PDF and XPS format.

The document formats of the various versions change in subtle and not so subtle ways; 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. WordArt also changed drastically in a recent version causing problems with documents that used it when moving in either direction. The DOC format’s specifications are not available for public download but can be received by writing to Microsoft directly and signing an agreement. (The latest format, DOCX, is publicly documented.)

Microsoft Word 95-2003 implemented OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) to manage the structure of its file format, easily identifiable by the .doc extension. OLE behaves rather like a conventional hard drive filesystem, and is made up of several key components. Each word document is composed of so-called «big blocks» which are almost always (but do not have to be) 512-byte chunks, hence a Word documents filesize will always be a multiple of 512. «Storages» are analogues of the directory on a disk drive, and point to other storages or «streams» which are similar to files on a disk. The text in a Word document is always contained in the «WordDocument» stream. The first big block in a Word document, known as the «header» block, provides important information as to the location of the major data structures in the document. «Property storages» provide metadata about the storages and streams in a .doc file, such as where it begins and its name, among other things. The «File information block» contains information about where the text in a word document starts, ends, what version of Word created the document, and more. Needless to say, Word documents are far more complex than perhaps initially expected, perhaps necessarily, or in part to prevent third-parties designing interoperable applications.

People who do not use Microsoft Office sometimes find it difficult to use a Word document. Various solutions have been created. Since the format is a de facto standard, many word processors such as AbiWord or OpenOffice.org Writer need file import and export filters for Microsoft Word’s document file format to compete. Furthermore, there is Apache Jakarta POI, which is an open-source Java library that aims to read and write Word’s binary file. Most of this interoperability is achieved through reverse engineering since documentation of the Word 1.0-2003 file format, while available to partners, is not publicly released. The Word 2007-2010 file format, however, is publicly documented.

For the last 10 years Microsoft has also made available freeware viewer programs for Windows that can read Word documents without a full version of the Microsoft Word software. Microsoft has also provided converters that enable different versions of Word to import and export to older Word versions and other formats and converters for older Word versions to read documents created in newer Word formats. The whole Office product range is covered by the Office Converter Pack for Office 97–2003 and Office Compatibility Pack for Office 2000–2003 since the release of Office 2007.

The aforementioned Word format is a binary format. Microsoft has moved towards an XML-based file format for their office applications with Office 2007: Microsoft Office Open XML. This format does not conform fully to standard XML. It is, however, publicly documented as ECMA standard 376. Public documentation of the default file format is a first for Word, and makes it considerably easier, though not trivial, for competitors to interoperate. Efforts to establish it as an ISO standard are also underway. Another XML-based, public file format supported by Word 2003 is WordprocessingML.

It is possible to write plugins permitting Word to read and write formats it does not natively support.

Flaws

Macros

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. Recently .NET has become the preferred platform for Word programming.

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 key, and floppy makes this an especially attractive vector. A prominent example is the Melissa worm, but countless others have existed in the wild. Some anti-virus software can detect and clean common macro viruses, and firewalls may prevent worms from transmitting themselves to other systems.

The first virus known to affect Microsoft Word documents was called the Concept virus, a relatively harmless virus created to demonstrate the possibility of macro virus creation.[citation needed]

Layout issues

As of Word 2007 for Windows (and Word 2004 for Macintosh), the program has been unable to handle ligatures defined in TrueType fonts: those ligature glyphs with Unicode codepoints may be inserted manually, but are not recognized by Word for what they are, breaking spellchecking, while custom ligatures present in the font are not accessible at all. Other layout deficiencies of Word include the inability to set crop marks or thin spaces. Various third-party workaround utilities have been developed.[9] Similarly, combining diacritics are handled poorly: Word 2003 has «improved support», but many diacritics are still misplaced, even if a precomposed glyph is present in the font. Additionally, as of Word 2002, Word does automatic font substitution when it finds a character in a document that does not exist in the font specified. It is impossible to deactivate this, making it very difficult to spot when a glyph used is missing from the font in use.

In Word 2004 for Macintosh, complex scripts support was inferior even to Word 97, and Word does not support Apple Advanced Typography features like ligatures or glyph variants.

Bullets and numbering

Users report that Word’s bulleting and numbering system is highly problematic. Particularly troublesome is Word’s system for restarting numbering.

Versions

Versions for MS-DOS include:

• 1983 November — Word 1
• 1985 — Word 2
• 1986 — Word 3
• 1987 — Word 4 aka Microsoft Word 4.0 for the PC
• 1989 — Word 5
• 1991 — Word 5.1
• 1991 — Word 5.5
• 1993 — Word 6.0

Versions for the Macintosh (Mac OS and Mac OS X) include:

• 1985 January — Word 1 for the Macintosh
• 1987 — Word 3
• 1989 — Word 4
• 1991 — Word 5
• 1993 — Word 6
• 1998 — Word 98
• 2000 — Word 2001, the last version compatible with Mac OS 9
• 2001 — Word v.X, the first version for Mac OS X only
• 2004 — Word 2004
• 2007 — Word 2008 (Will be a Universal binary)

Versions for Microsoft Windows include:

• 1989 November — Word for Windows 1.0 for Windows 2.x, code-named «Opus»
• 1990 March — Word for Windows 1.1 for Windows 3.0, code-named «Bill the Cat»
• 1983 — Word for Windows 1.0-1? for Windows 1.0x-2.x
• 1990 June — Word for Windows 1.1a for Windows 3.x
• 1991 — Word for Windows 2.0, code-named «Spaceman Spiff»
• 1993 — Word for Windows 6.0, code named «T3» (renumbered «6» to bring Windows version numbering in line with that of DOS version, Macintosh version and also WordPerfect, the main competing word processor at the time; also a 32-bit version for Windows NT only)
• 1995 — Word 95 for Windows 95 (version 7) — included in Office 95
• 1997 — Word 97 (version — included in Office 97
• 1999 — Word 2000 (version 9) — included in Office 2000
• 2001 — Word 2002 (version 10) — included in Office XP
• 2003 — Word 2003 (version 11) — included in Office 2003
• 2007 — Word 2007 (version 12) — included in all Office 2007 suites; released worldwide to consumers on January 30, 2007
• 2010 — Word 2010 (version 14) — included in all Office 2010 suites; released worldwide to consumers on June 15, 2010
• 2012 — Word 2013 (version 15) — included in all Office 2013 suites
• 2015 — Word 2016 (version 16) — included in all Office 2016 suites
• 2018 — Word 2019 (version 16) — included in all Office 2019 suites
• 2021 — Word 2021 (version ??) — included in all Office 2021 suites

Note: Version number 13 was skipped due to superstition.

Versions for SCO UNIX include:

• Microsoft Word for UNIX Systems Release 5.1

Versions for OS/2 include:

• 1992 Microsoft Word for OS/2 version 1.1B

Hidden features

• Typing «=rand (n)», where n is a number between 1 and 201, generates a placeholder statement n times:
• Word 2003 and older generate the sentence «The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.» (or another default pangram in a non-English version) in older versions of Word.[11]
• Office 2007 will generate the following text once or twice if n is 1 or 2:

«On the Insert tab, the galleries include items that are designed to coordinate with the overall look of your document. You can use these galleries to insert tables, headers, footers, lists, cover pages, and other document building blocks. When you create pictures, charts, or diagrams, they also coordinate with your current document look.»

However, typing «=rand (3)» or higher will generate repetitions of the following text:0

«On the Insert tab, the galleries include items that are designed to coordinate with the overall look of your document. You can use these galleries to insert tables, headers, footers, lists, cover pages, and other document building blocks. When you create pictures, charts, or diagrams, they also coordinate with your current document look.»

«You can easily change the formatting of selected text in the document text by choosing a look for the selected text from the Quick Styles gallery on the Home tab. You can also format text directly by using the other controls on the Home tab. Most controls offer a choice of using the look from the current theme or using a format that you specify directly.»

«To change the overall look of your document, choose new Theme elements on the Page Layout tab. To change the looks available in the Quick Style gallery, use the Change Current Quick Style Set command. Both the Themes gallery and the Quick Styles gallery provide reset commands so that you can always restore the look of your document to the original contained in your current template.»

• Microsoft Word 97 contained a hidden pinball game.

• On the note about the pseudo-function rand, in Office 2003 and newer the function can take two parameters (i.e. =rand(2,3)). When using this pseudo-function this way, it will create 2 sets of the same line 3 times. The maxes for this function seem to be 200 and 99 so that you cannot create more than =rand(200,99) worth of text. About 235 pages.

References

External links

• Microsoft Word at Microsoft 365
  • Word help & learning at Microsoft Support
• Microsoft Word at Wikipedia

Microsoft Word is the world’s most popular and widely used text editing software. Since its appearance in 1983, this app developed into a comprehensive editing suite that provides a spectacular level of support for users of all levels, from novices and students to businesses of all sizes, government agencies, and multi-national corporations.

After the appearance on several PC platforms, It finally became part of the celebrated suite of document, presentation, and email editing applications Microsoft Office. Today, Word Home and Student can be found on all modern operating systems (such as Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android), and in several forms, including standalone release, Office 365 suite, MS Office Suite, and freeware viewer.

Buy Microsoft 365 for only $6.99/month - Powerful Productivity Apps! Use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and More to collaborate in real time or work offline.

Microsoft Word Free for Windows is available both in the standalone and bundled form inside MS Office. Any of those versions brings access to a wide array of text editing, formatting, collaboration, and publishing tools suitable for the needs of every user. Its capabilities are suitable for everything from creating and formatting basic text documents, to organizing business documents and managing enterprise workflow. With hundreds of millions of daily users, MS Word Free relies on easy sharing and unified document structure, which includes document types such as *.doc, *.docx, and *.dotx.

Installation and Use

Word by Microsoft is an extensive application that requires a comprehensive installation package, which will extract the app on your PC and integrate it deeply with the functionality of your OS (especially if you are using Windows 10 or Windows 11).

The user interface of the latest MS Word does not step out of tradition, providing a large canvas for word editing and a tabbed interface on the top that hold the majority of the app’s tools separated into ten main sections – File (handling of opening and saving of files, exporting, sharing and printing), Home (basic text formatting tools), Insert (home of the chart, picture, table, text box, and comment tools), Design, Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View and Help. Similarly, like other MS office apps, the functionality of MS Word can be enhanced with standalone plugins, making your daily workflow even more optimized.

Add-ons can cover various functionalities, including expanding on the core capabilities of the program, like adding a brand-new spellchecker, file converter, workload timer, diagram creators, text-to-speech, plagiarism checkers, and many others.

Word Home and Student 2019/2021

• For 1 PC
• Create beautiful and engaging documents
• Compatible with Windows 11 or Windows 10
• Files must be shared from OneDrive
• For non-commercial use
• Microsoft account

Features and Highlights

• Effortless text document management – Manage the creation, editing, exporting, and sharing of text documents of any size or complexion.
• Extensive toolset – Take full control over the text documents.
• Templates – Simplify document creation with customizable and varied template offerings.
• Image Formats – Enhance your documents with a wide array of supported image formats.
• WordArt – Transform the text into a visual-styled graphic, with highly customized elements such as color, shadows, effects, and more.
• Charts — Visualize data and provide greater insight with full support for either original charts or those imported from MS Excel.
• Macros – Automate and enhance workflow by taking full advantage of the support of the powerful macro.
• AutoSumarize – Automatically highlight passages that are considered valuable.
• Multi-user collaboration – Seamless online integration with Office 365 suite allows easy file sharing and real-time collaboration.
• Support for add-ons – Enhance the capabilities of the base MS Word editor with numerous external add-ons.

System Requirements

• OS: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7
• Processor: 1 GHz or faster x86- or x64-bit processor with SSE2 instruction set
• RAM: 1 GB RAM for 32-bit version, 2 GB RAM for 64-bit version
• Hard disk space: 3 GB of available disk space
• Display: 1024 x 576 screen resolution
• Graphics: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Internet connection: Internet functionality requires an internet connection

How to Uninstall WordTo uninstall Microsoft Word on Windows, follow these steps:

• Close Microsoft Word and any other Microsoft Office applications that are running.
• Click the Start button and select Control Panel.
• In the Control Panel, click on Programs and Features (or Add or Remove Programs, depending on your version of Windows).
• Find Microsoft Word in the list of installed programs, right-click on it, and select Uninstall.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstall process.

• Go to the Microsoft account page and sign in with your Microsoft account.
• Click on the Services & subscriptions link.
• Find the Microsoft 365 subscription you want to cancel and select it.
• Click the Cancel button next to the subscription.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the cancellation process.

Download Microsoft Word Latest Version

Microsoft Word is a word processing program that was first developed by Microsoft in 1983. Since that time, Microsoft has released an abundance of updated versions, each offering more features and incorporating better technology than the one before it. The most current web-based version of Microsoft Word is Microsoft 365, but the software version of Microsoft Office 2019 includes Word 2019.

Microsoft Word is included in all of the Microsoft 365 application suites. The most basic (and least expensive) suites also include Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel. Additional suites exist and include other Office programs, such as Microsoft Outlook and Skype for Business.

Do you need Microsoft Word?

If you only want to create simple documents, consisting of paragraphs with bulleted and numbered lists with very little formatting, you don’t need to purchase Microsoft Word. You can use the WordPad application included with Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. If you need to do more than that though, you’ll need a more powerful word processing program.

With Microsoft Word you can choose from a variety of preconfigured styles and designs, which provides an easy way to format long documents with just a single click. You can also insert pictures and videos from your computer and the internet, draw shapes, and create an insert all kinds of charts.

If you’re writing a book or creating a brochure, which you can’t do effectively (or at all) in WordPad or an application like Abiword, you can use the features in Microsoft Word to set margins and tabs, insert page breaks, create columns, and even configure the spacing between lines. There are also features that let you create a table of contents with a single click. You can insert footnotes too, as well as headers and footers. There are options to create bibliographies, captions, a table of figures, and even cross-references.

If any of these things sound like what you’d like to do with your next writing project, then you’re going to need Microsoft Word.

Do You Have Microsoft Word?

You might already have a version of Microsoft Word on your computer, tablet, or even your phone. Before you make a purchase you should find out.

To see if you have Microsoft Word installed on your Windows device:

1. From the Search window on the Taskbar (Windows 10), the Start screen (Windows 8.1), or from the Search window on the Start menu (Windows 7), type msinfo32 and press Enter.

2. Click the + sign beside Software Environment.

3. Click Program Groups.

4. Look for a Microsoft Office entry.

To find out if you have a version of Word on your Mac, look for it in the Finder sidebar, under Applications.

Where to Get Microsoft Word

If you are sure you don’t already have it, you can get the latest version of Microsoft Word with Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 is a subscription though, something you pay for monthly. If you’re not interested in paying monthly, consider purchasing Office outright. You can compare and purchase all of the available editions and suites at the Microsoft Store. If you want to wait though, you can get Microsoft Word 2019 during the latter part of 2018 by purchasing the Microsoft Office 2019 suite.

The History of Microsoft Word

Over the years there have been many versions of the Microsoft Office suite. Most of these versions came with lower-priced suites that only included the most basic apps (often Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), to higher priced suites that included some or all of them (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, SharePoint, Exchange, Skype, and more). These suite editions had names like “Home and Student” or “Personal”, or “Professional”. There are too many combinations to list here, but what’s important to note is that Word is included with any suite you can buy.

Here are the recent Microsoft Office Suites that also contain Word:

• Microsoft Word 365) is available and updated regularly in Microsoft 365
• Word Online is a free limited version.
• Word 2019 is available in Office 2019
• Word 2016 is available in Office 2016
• Word 2013 was available in Office 2013
• Word 2010 was available in Office 2010
• Word 2007 was included with Office 2007
• Word 2003 was included with Office 2003
• Word 2002 was included in Office XP

Of course, Microsoft Word has existed in some form since the early 1980s and has had versions for most platforms (even from before Microsoft Windows existed).

Thanks for letting us know!

Finding a free version of Word can be a tough mission. I know it because I tried so many times, just to find out that Microsoft isn’t giving away its most powerful word-processing tool for free. What I did find is either a pirated version or malware and in most cases, even the pirated version is infected with malware.

The only safe solution I found is the limited online version of Word, which I could use for free after creating a Microsoft account. But it’s limited in terms of templates, formatting options, storage space, and it only works if you’re online.

A better option that will give you full access to all its powerful features, is to use this link to the official Word download page, and get a 30-day free trial, which is great for doing some short-term writing tasks without having to make a payment.

Follow the steps below, and I’ll show you how to register your account, start the free trial, and download and install Word on your PC for free.

Download Word for Free for 1 month!

1. Go directly to the official Microsoft 365 free trial page.
2. Click the Try 1 Month Free button.
   
3. If you already have a Microsoft account, log in now. Otherwise, you will need to create a free account.
4. Once you are logged in, confirm that you want to start the 1 month free trial, and press the Next button.
   
5. Even though it’s a free trial, you will need to enter a payment method. You won’t be charged until the end of the free trial period.
6. Choose your payment method. The options are Credit Card or Debit Card, PayPal, or Mobile Phone.
7. Enter your payment information and click the Save button.
8. Press the Start Trial, Pay Later button.
   
9. After your subscription is confirmed, click the Continue button.
10. Click the Download the Desktop Apps button, and your Microsoft account page will open in a new tab.
    
11. Click the Install Office button, to start the download process.
    
12. Choose your preferred language and the version you want to install, or leave it as the default option, and press the Install button.
    
13. The File Explorer window will open. Select the destination folder for the setup file.
14. When the download is complete, open the file, and Microsoft will automatically install the entire collection of Microsoft 365 apps to your computer.

Download Word for Free Today!

Microsoft has done a great job updating Word to match the needs of its users. What started out as a basic word-processing tool for Macintosh in the early 80s is now the most powerful word processor available. It has everything you need to create, design, and produce every type of word-based document. If you’re not sure how to get started, choose from a large collection of custom templates, and let Word do the hard work for you.

With the release of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Microsoft has made it easier to integrate Word with other apps, such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It also comes with 1TB of cloud storage per user on OneDrive, and the ability to share documents with others and collaborate on them in real time. In the latest version of Word, the integrated Editor has improved the contextual spelling and grammar checker and streamlined the process for inserting multimedia.

Microsoft 365 also integrated Word with its other products, such as Teams and Clipchamp, making it a complete productivity solution for both personal and professional use. With its versatility and functionality, Word is a go-to solution for anyone who needs to work with written materials and wants to stay updated with the latest features and functionalities.

Microsoft Word is packed with a wide range of features that make it a powerful and versatile tool for creating and editing written materials. From advanced formatting options and built-in spell and grammar checkers, to collaboration capabilities and the ability to insert multimedia, Word has everything you need to give your written materials a professional style.  Whether you’re working on a simple letter or a complex report, Word’s features will make the process of creating and editing your documents more efficient and enjoyable.

A Wide Range of Professionally Designed Templates

Word comes with a wide variety of templates that can be used to quickly create professional-looking documents such as resumes, letters, and reports.

Word has fully customizable templates for all document types

These templates provide pre-formatted layouts and styles, and can be customized to suit the user’s needs.

Customizable Formatting Options

There are a wide range of formatting options that allow you to customize the appearance of your documents. These options include the ability to change font size and style, add bold, italic, underline, and more.

The ribbon-style menu bar makes it easy to adjust formatting styles

Word also has several advanced formatting options such as styles, themes, and section breaks, which allows you the freedom to create documents with a consistent and professional look.

Advanced Spelling and Grammar Checker

Editor is the built-in spell checker and grammar checker that can help you catch errors in your documents before you share them with others.

Editor offers advanced spelling and grammar checks

This feature is a real time saver as it detects mistakes and makes suggestions as you type. The result is you’ll be able to produce documents and reports that are error free from the initial draft. Set the tone of your article, and the editor will use that as a guide when making suggestions or corrections.

Easily Import Images, Media, and Charts

Add all types of visual effects and media when creating your documents. The SmartArt Graphic is one of the easiest tools I’ve used for creating a wide range of charts, graphs, matrix, and more.

Use SmartArt Graphic to create engaging documents

The tool is great when you need to insert, edit and format tables, charts, and diagrams, making it useful for creating reports, presentations and more.

Real Time Collaboration

You can collaborate on documents in real-time, making it easy for your team to work together on projects. Share documents with others, make changes, and see who is working on the document and where they are on the doc. This feature is especially useful for remote teams or for working on group projects.

Access your Documents from Anywhere with Cloud Integration

Word documents can be saved and accessed from the cloud via OneDrive, SharePoint, or Dropbox. This makes it easy to access documents from anywhere and collaborate with others. Additionally, Word also has a web-based version so you can access and edit your documents from any device with an internet connection, making it even more convenient.

Download Word Free for 1 month!

Microsoft Word is compatible with a variety of operating systems. The current version of Word for Windows is compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. With Mac, it is can be installed on any device running macOS Sierra (10.12) or later.

Mobile Apps

Word is available as a standalone app for iOS and Android, and it is included with your Word subscription. The mobile app includes many of the same features as the desktop version, such as the ability to create and edit documents, format text, add images and tables, and collaborate with others in real-time.

There are also several touch-optimized features, such as the ability to use handwriting to input text, as well as the ability to easily navigate documents using gestures.

Access Word From Your Browser for Free

As long as you have a Microsoft 365 account, you can use Word directly from your browser. While the browser-based app doesn’t require a subscription, the free version has some limitations, such as:

• Limited functionality: Advanced features such as macros and add-ins are not available.
• File compatibility: Word Online may not be able to open or save certain file types, such as .docm or .dotx, that are supported by the desktop version of Word.
• Limited formatting options: The formatting options available in Word Online are more limited than those in the desktop app.
• Limited support for third-party apps: While Word Online can work with some third-party apps, the integration may not be as seamless as it is with the desktop version.
• Storage and Sharing limitations: The free version of Word Online allows only basic storage and sharing options. You can only access and edit documents stored in OneDrive, and you can only share them with a limited number of people.

You can get the full version, which includes all the features above and you use the browser-based version to access your documents from anywhere.

Download Word Free for 1 month!

Before downloading Word, make sure that your computer meets the system requirements.

Windows

Mac

Mobile Apps

Browser

For the best performance, it’s recommended to use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari.

Download Word Free for 1 month!

If Word isn’t the right word processing software for your needs, you can uninstall it in a few simple steps

1. Type Add or Remove Programs in the Windows search bar and press Enter.
2. Locate Microsoft 365 and press the Uninstall Button.
3. Confirm that you want to remove the software, and the uninstallation wizard will uninstall from your computer.

Keep in mind that this will remove all the Microsoft 365 apps, and not just Word. When it is completed, you will need to restart your computer.

Microsoft 365 comes with a large collection of important apps for computers and mobile devices. Here are just a few that you’ll get at no extra cost:

• Excel: Easily one of the most complete spreadsheet apps, Excel is a must-have program for anyone looking to organize data. Whether it’s a simple list or tracking invoices for a multinational company and everything in between Excel will keep you organized. There are hundreds of functions, formulas, pivot tables, and more that allow you to track the data and in an easy-to-read manner.
• PowerPoint: This presentation tool has seen a big improvement over the past few years. Create personal or professional presentations by choosing from hundreds of templates or customizing one yourself. You can incorporate images, videos, gifs, cool transitions, and text into every slide.
• Outlook: It’s more than just an email program. Outlook has a calendar that easily syncs with colleagues, makes it easy to set meeting times, time management tools, and allows you to schedule when emails should be sent.

Download Word for Free Today!

Can I download Word without Microsoft 365?

No, Word is part of the Microsoft 365 suite, the different programs are not sold separately. This way you’ll get all the essential productivity tools you need in one package, and if you follow the steps above I’ll show you how to get it free for 30-days.

Is there a free version of Word?

Yes, the online version of Word is free to use, although you will still need a Microsoft account. The browser-based version has several limitations when compared to the desktop app, you must have an internet connection, fewer macros and add-ins, limited compatibility with third-party apps, and more. Take advantage of the free month offer and experience everything that Word and Microsoft 365 have to offer.

Is Word safe?

As long as you download the file from Microsoft, it’s 100% safe. If you download from a 3rd party or torrent site, it may contain malware or viruses in the installer.

How do I cancel my Word subscription?

To cancel your account before the 30-day free trial ends and your credit card gets charged you will have to go to log in to your Microsoft account and turn off recurring payments. You will still have access to the program until the end of the billing cycle.

Visit Microsoft Word Website

How to detect the version of Word just by looking at the Word window

.

NOTE: The information in the dialog box that opens when you click About Word may not look exactly as shown in the illustrations below. Microsoft seems to move the information around from time to time.

Example of result is the numeric value:
16

Function fncGetFullWordBuildNumber_String() As String
    'Returns string with the full Word build number
    fncGetFullWordBuildNumber_String = _
        CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") _
        .GetFileVersion(Application.Path & "WINWORD.exe")
End Function

Example of result:
16.0.10827.20150