Microsoft reveals what is next for Word as the app turns 40

A picture with a Word logo and party poppers

40 years ago, on October 25, 1983, Microsoft unveiled Word, a WYSIWYG text editor. Today, this legendary piece of software and one of the oldest Windows apps marks its 40th birthday. To celebrate this tremendous milestone, Microsoft published neat graphics showcasing the app's story and revealed what is coming soon to Word in future updates.

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.

The timeline with the history of Word showcases its notable milestones, such as the original release in 1983, Word 97 and 97 with AutoCorrect, Microsoft Word 2003 with its significant redesign, advanced image editing in Word 2010, better ribbon in Word 2013, and improved collaboration in Microsoft 365 alongside the long-anticipated dark mode.

A timeline showcasing the history of Microsoft Word

Microsoft is now looking forward to what the next years will bring to its legendary word processor.

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.

The company wants to focus on integrating Copilot into Word, improving Word for the Web, refining collaborative writing, and delivering better tools for developers to build "amazing experiences" with custom workflows.

Interestingly, the blog post also mentions the Apple Lisa and says it fundamentally re-imagined "what a personal computer could be."

By the way, we recently published a similar look-back story to commemorate 40 years of Microsoft Word, its confusing release dates, development history, and other interesting facts about your go-to text editor on Windows and other platforms.

Here to the next 40 years of Microsoft Word and Office!