In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi, the primary developer of Bravo, the first GUI word processor, which was developed at Xerox PARC. 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.
Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word for Xenix and MS-DOS in 1983. Its name was soon simplified to Microsoft Word. 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. That year Microsoft demonstrated Word running on Windows.
Microsoft Word, first released in 1983 as "Multi-Tool Word," is a word processor available as a standalone product and as a component in the Microsoft Office suite. The first version of Microsoft Word was based on the framework of Bravo, the world's first word processor with a graphical user interface.
One cannot imagine a Windows-based computer without a local copy of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The future may hold the key to cloud based apps, but as of now, a pretty large chunk of Microsoft users is still dependent on local installations. For the past few years, an exception being the statement released on Jan 24-25 2013, the office automation software bundle from Microsoft generated more revenue compared to its Windows range of operating systems.
The evolution of office automation is tied to the evolution of Microsoft Office as the latter remained and stays ahead in offering the latest features that enhance and support the functions required by the ever-changing needs of business houses worldwide.
Following the renaming of Multi-Tool Word to Microsoft Word, Microsoft released its first version of Word in October 1983 for the IBM PC. In 1985, Microsoft ported Word to the Macintosh, featuring major interface changes from its DOS-based counterpart on the IBM PC. Following the Macintosh port, Microsoft released a version of Word for its Windows operating system in 1989, which brought in improved sales figures.
Microsoft Word was the first word processor to introduce the concept of "What You See Is What You Get," or WYSIWYG, allowing for bold and italics text to be created and displayed. Word also included full support for the mouse and sold a version of Word with a mouse included in the package, due to the mouse being such a new device at the time.
The history of MS Office starts officially from November 19 1990 when Office for Windows (also called MS Office 1.0) came out for use with Windows 2.0. Prior to Office 1.0, the basic elements of the package were still available as separate programs but for MS-DOS. The primary input devices for pre Windows Microsoft Word were keyboards. Mouse was a luxury not used by many. Though they have many good features, formatting and printing requires good expertise. You can still download one of the DOS based Word from the Internet – but I won’t recommend any site as I don’t know if they would be clean.
The Most Used MS Office Version Ever
In case of MS Office however, the most used version is version 2003 with plenty of functionality and security features. Blended with Windows XP completely and presented icons and toolbars with the same look as the operating system. Other than the looks, the rich feature arranged neatly under different menu tabs made it users’ choice to years until they were forced to upgrade to Office 2007 and Office 2010.
Fast forward...
The Evolution Of MS Office continues with Office 2013 and Office 365 and makes use of cloud computing and takes it to the next level, while introducing Touch.
Office 365 was introduced in mid-2011 as a replacement to Microsoft’s cloud based business suite. Since then, it has come a long way and has taken over standalone Office versions in colleges and businesses. It includes the web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and a mail program. In addition, it offers unlimited storage on OneDrive for the subscribers.
Office 2016 is the latest version as of now. Still in beta, the version is completely optimized for mobile devices and touchscreens. As such, it does not provide many new features over Office 2013 except for a tighter cloud integration which users may or may not feel comfortable with.
Source: The windows club (Edited)
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