With over 20 versions spanning 3 decades, it’s not hard to see why Microsoft Word one of the most used computer programs in the world today. From its humble beginnings to its integral part of Microsoft’s Office Suite, this is the history of Microsoft Word.

Contrary to popular belief, MS Word was not created by Bill Gates. In fact, it was originally written for IBM PCs by Richard Brodie. It was first released for the DOS operating system in 1983. Within one year it was released for the Apple Macintosh (1984).

At that time, WordPerfect was the dominant word processor, and the first version of Word was not well received. Word made use of the mouse, and people weren’t ready for it. Sales were so bad for Word that Microsoft started offering a bundled “Word-with-Mouse” package. This attempt failed but Microsoft saw the potential for something big. Bill Gates was determined to make Word into the most used word processor in the world.

In 1989, after many versions of Word had failed to impact the market, Word sales finally started to pick up. The release of Windows 3.0 was on its way and popularized the keyboard-mouse setup that we still use today. This made Word extremely easy to learn and use. Although the price tag was at 500 US Dollars, Word was the best selling software program in the world.

When Microsoft released Windows ’95 in 1995, they simultaneously released Word ’95 (also known as Word 7). This software duo helped Microsoft owner Bill Gates become a billionaire. It was estimated that a Windows operating system was running on over 80% of the world’s personal computers, and of those, 90% had Microsoft Word. In 1996, Apple made a bid to buy the rights from Microsoft and make Word exclusive to Apple Computers. The offer was reported to be in the billions. Microsoft declined.

When the newer version of Word (Word hit stores in 1997, it sold more than 10 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest selling software to reach 1 million units sold. With the Internet phenomenon starting to take place during this time, Microsoft began releasing free software updates for Word. The updates were to fix minor bugs, add new features, and make other minor improvements and adjustments.

When Word 9 was released in 1999, Microsoft expected the same huge sales generated by the 2 previous version of Word. This was not the case. The consensus around the computer industry was that since Microsoft was constantly improving and fixing Word 8 via downloaded patches, why would they buy a new version of Word when their current version works perfectly fine.

Microsoft was desperate to find a way to sell more of their word processing software. The release of Windows XP was just what the doctor ordered for Microsoft. With this revolutionary new operating system, they packaged a new version of Word along with their spreadsheet program Excel, their database program Access, and their Presentations software. They had done this in the past but all these pieces of software were interconnected with each other, making office work a breeze. Sales for the new Office XP package skyrocketed.

Today we wait for Microsoft’s newest version of Windows (Vista), and their new version of Word (Word 12) which is due for release sometime in 2007. It has been 4 years since the last version of Word came out, but we know what to expect with the new version. The only question is will Word 12 have enough new features to justify its purchase.