Microsoft Word turns 40

Microsoft Word, that was initially released under the name 'Multi-Tool Word' and transformed the way people type on PCs and laptops, turned 40 on Wednesday.

The famous software was released on October 25, 1983 before being simplified to Microsoft Word. Copies of the word processing app were bundled in the November issue of the PC World magazine. The first version of Microsoft Word was developed by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers hired by Microsoft Co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981.

The first Word version, Word 1.0, was released in October 1983 for Xenix and MS-DOS. The first Windows version was released in 1989, with a slightly improved interface. When Windows 3.0 was released in 1990, Word became a huge commercial success. It was then renamed to Word 95 and Word 97, Word 2000 and Word for Office XP (to follow Windows commercial names).