Microsoft Word is a word processor, an advanced text editor or Microsoft, the most popular at present this type of program in the world. Originally created by Richard Boride for IBM PC computers running DOS in 1983. Later versions were created for the Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, and Windows (1989). Originally a stand-alone program that later became part of the Microsoft office suite Office. Word owes much to Bravo, the first of GUI word processor developed at Xerox PARC. Bravo's creator Charles Simonyi left PARC in 1981 and moved to Microsoft. The first edition of Word for MS-DOS computers in late 1983 was not well received. Sales were much lower than competing products like WordPerfect.
Gained popularity while the version for Macintosh computers released in 1985. Was especially well received second major release, version 3.01 from the year 1987 (version 3.00 was full of errors and was quickly withdrawn).Like other programs for the Macintosh, version was acting in a "what you see, get in print" (WYSIWYG).
Although MS-DOS-based system of environmental character, Word, was the first word processor for PCs that showed some features of formatting such as bold or font pitch, directly in the text editing screen. Other DOS word processors such as WordStar and WordPerfect, used simple, text-only methods, where the awards were shown as tags around the highlighted text, and in the best case used for this purpose different colors.
A characteristic feature of the program, as indeed all the programs for DOS, a specific set of commands. For example, the command to save the file in Word it was called the sequence Escape-TS, and because most secretaries have already learned how to use WordPerfect, companies were reluctant to switch to a rival, containing a few advantages.
The first version of Word for Windows, costing in the year 1989 500 U.S. dollars, showed the future direction of development of the program. Builds on the experience of the versions for Mac OS: uses standard Windows commands for common operations (such as control-S to save the file). With the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990, sales began to grow (Word 1.0 worked much better with Windows 3.0 than with previous versions of Windows for Intel 386 and 286). With the release of version 2.0 of Word for Windows, Microsoft began to gain advantage in the market for word processors.
Word never had any serious rivals on the Mac, despite the existence of programs such as Nisus, which features such as selecting disparate areas, which appeared only in Word 2002 (Office XP), and despite the belief of some users that the program does not been no significant amendments between version 3.01 in 1987 and 5.0 in 1991. But many users still believe that Word 5.1 for Macintosh is the best word processor ever, thanks to its elegance, relative ease of use and feature set. However, version 6.0 for Macintosh, released in 1994 was widely derided. It was the first version in which the kernel code was the same for Windows and Mac. Often complained that it is a slow, clumsy bloat ware. Version for Windows, which occurred immediately after version 2.0, also has been marked as 6.0 to standardize nomenclature. Subsequent versions have more capabilities than just word processing. The Drawing tool allows you to perform simple operations in the field of desktop publishing, such as adding graphics to documents, although the program will be suited to the unquestionably better. In subsequent years, including added support for multiple users, document comparison, multilingual support and other opportunities.
Microsoft Word is currently the most popular word processing and basic format of files created by it has become the de facto standard, which must support competing products. Import and export filters for this format has been incorporated in many word processors such as AbiWord or OpenOffice. Most of this functionality is achieved by reverse engineering, because the documentation format is only available to Microsoft partners. In subsequent versions of the program format has changed in both subtle and significant ways. Often, the formatting of the newer version disappears when the document is opened in an older program, simply because they did not have to use it yet. DOC format of Word 97 was publicly documented by Microsoft, but subsequent versions have become available only to partners, governments and institutions. Rumor in the commercial software industry is that certain features of the format are not fully understood even by Microsoft itself. The company recently announced that its office software will be based on the format defined based on XML. Word 2003 can optionally handle XML using a publicly documented schema called "Word-processing ML" [1], available in all varieties of Word 2003 and endorsed by such institutions as the government of Denmark (see Open Document). The "professional" allows the direct use schemes other than Microsoft's. The purpose was written in Java and available as open-source Apache Jakarta POI library is to allow reading and writing binary files in Word format.
Like other programs in the Microsoft Office, Word can be highly customized using the built-in macro language (it was originally WordBasic, and as of Word 97 - Visual Basic for Applications). However, this feature also allows you to hide viruses in documents, such as the Melissa virus. For this reason, users should make sure the editor that have set the security level to high (Macro-> Security). You should also install antivirus software. The first virus known to infect Word files that was the concept, quite harmless, being able to demonstrate the existence of viruses, macro language.
Since February 2007 the market has a new edition of Word - 2007. The new version has a completely redesigned interface - instead of the normal menu uses the Ribbon. The new edition is to be more intuitive.