(Originally published on October 25, 2023 by Microsoft 365 Insider Engagement Team)
The year was 1983. Never Say Never Again was the top movie in the land. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was the #1 song, and the most popular show on TV was Dallas. A gallon of gas cost $1.59.
1983 was also something of a Golden Age for personal computer consumers. New choices, rapid technological advancements, and ingenious innovations abounded like never before. For example, Apple’s $6,000 Lisa was released, fundamentally re-imagining what a personal computer could be. It was also the dawn of business applications such as Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, and, of course, Microsoft Word.
From its humble beginnings, Word has gone on to become one of the most popular office tools in the world, and pretty much everyone is familiar with it in one way or another. So, to celebrate its 40th birthday, we decided to take a look at how we got here and also share where we’re going.
Looking back
Microsoft Word timeline
Looking forward
As we look to the future, we are committed to carrying the torch and building on the foundation that was put in place in 1983. Our unwavering focus is on ensuring that Word scales to support users as they complete any writing and reading tasks – anything from straightforward to complex – as efficiently as possible.
To that end, we’re investing in several areas and are excited to share an overview of our plans with you!
- Shepherding in the age of AI: Copilot provides a fundamental shift in writing & reading experiences. Our goal is to continuously iterate on feedback we get from you, our users, as you create and read content, while leveraging Copilot across platforms and devices.
- Make your words shine with Word for the web: We’re continuing to invest and innovate in Word for the web to make it a great creation and consumption tool. This includes using your feedback to prioritize our areas of investment.
- Write better together: Word has been at the center of collaborative content creation since its inception. Over the years, we’ve made it easier to co-create with others, provide feedback, exchange ideas, and produce quality content. We’re committed to providing a consisted experience and ensuring that Word remains THE place to efficiently create, edit, and review content, matter where you are, who you are working with, or what device you’re using.
- Extensibility as a customization driver: We are committed to giving Word developers the tools and capabilities they need to build amazing experiences and support custom workflows.
- Word as your favorite consumption app: It’s not just about content creation. Word is a great place to read the documents that matter to you, on any device, wherever you are.
Your feedback makes us better
We love to hear from you and appreciate the quality feedback you share. Please keep it coming and help us make Word the best product it can be for YOU!
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