Legendary document application Word celebrates its 40th anniversary: Microsoft reviews classic versions and announces plans for follow-up updates
CTOnews.com, October 26, 1983, Microsoft launched the Word document tool, a WYSIWYG text editor that now has a wide range of users around the world.
Today, this legendary software celebrates its 40th birthday. To celebrate this milestone, Microsoft released a development roadmap for Word and revealed what will be released in future Word updates.
The Word development timeline showcases milestone releases such as the initial version in 1983, Word 97 with autocorrect, the major redesign of Word 2003, advanced image editing in Word 2010, the improved ribbon in Word 2013, collaboration in Microsoft 2013, and dark mode.
Microsoft says it is investing in a number of areas. Here are the future improvements to Word, which CTOnews.com summarizes as follows:
The era of artificial intelligence: Copilot has brought fundamental changes to the writing and reading experience. Microsoft's goal is to iterate through feedback from users as they create and read content, while supporting cross-platforms and devices.
Word Web Edition: Microsoft will continue to invest and innovate in Word Web Edition to make it an excellent creative and consumer tool. This includes prioritizing investment areas based on user feedback.
Better collaboration: Word has been at the center of collaborative content creation since its inception. Over the years, Microsoft has made it easier for users to co-create, provide feedback, exchange ideas and produce quality content with others. Microsoft is committed to providing a consistent experience and ensuring that Word is always the place where content is efficiently created, edited, and reviewed, no matter where users are, who they work with, or what device they use.
Extensibility-Custom drivers: Microsoft is committed to providing Word developers with the tools and features they need to build amazing experiences and support custom workflows.
Become the user's favorite application: it's not just about content creation, Word is a good place for users to read important documents on any device anytime, anywhere.
