What Word 1.0, the first version of the popular Word, looked like

When Word debuted in 1983, it did so in a slightly different context and style. To begin with, it was not called Microsoft Word as we know it today, but Multi-Tool Word. Nor was it released for Windows or MS-DOS, but for the Xenix operating system. And in its early days, Microsoft designed a mouse specifically for the word processor.

Thirty-seven years later, Word is one of the most widely used tools for anyone doing any kind of work on a computer. But Word 1.0, released in 1983, was a novelty even though there was already another word processor on the market that enjoyed some popularity (WordStar). The first version of Word had mouse support, unlike the vast majority of MS-DOS programs, and allowed formatting of text in bold, italics or underline, as well as including the undo option. Yes, the concept behind the famous ctrl + z already existed back then.

The first version of Word was the work of Xerox programmers Richard Brodie and Charles Simonyi, who later joined Microsoft. It was built under the WYSIWYG format, which stood for “What You See Is What You Get” and meant, basically, that the final, printed document was going to be just as it looked on the computer screen.

That first version of Word came for a whopping $500 and was distributed on 5 1/4-inch disks (those with a big hole in the center). As was customary in a pre-internet era, magazines included demo versions to get people interested in the product. However, in 1983 Word did not captivate the interest of users because, beyond mouse support, the word processors on the market were better.

In spite of the above, Microsoft is a company whose success, since its beginnings, has been in iterating and improving its software. Word was no exception and, after the first version, improvements were constantly introduced. While Word 1.1 and 2.0 were not particularly popular, they did pave the way for what would happen with Word 3.0 in 1986, when the word processor began to take off and leave its competition behind.

It is interesting to note the history of Word in that its first version was not very warmly received and then, decades later, subsequent versions set a precedent for what word processors should be like. Without going any further, Google’s web processor is very much inspired by Word and what to say about what happened within Microsoft itself, which designed a suite of office programs around the idea of Word.

Those who want to try those early, strange and unfriendly versions of Word can download the necessary files from the WinWorld site. In particular, Word 1.0 for Windows is only 2.2 Mb in size, which is much larger than the 1.2 Mb capacity of the disks on which the demo was distributed.