2023-10-28 05:00:00
Word processing software, created in 1983 by Microsoft, has established itself in the digital landscape. Not without a few detours.
On October 25, 1983, Word was born. The software, then released on the Xenix and MS-DOS operating systems, took off, after a few years of struggle, in the fold of Windows, for which it became calibrated.
Microsoft Office holds almost half of the market share in the productivity software category. Without this being enough for Microsoft: Word still needs to grow on the web, and the Redmont firm wants to develop applications linked to artificial intelligence, thanks to its Copilot tool, an intelligent assistant launched in September on the processing software of text. But before these features, Word underwent long and slow developments, sometimes atypical, sometimes unsuccessful. Tech & Co paints the portrait of the leader of the text, in five stories.
Late but winner on WYSIWYG
“WYSIWYG”. Behind this gleaming acronym hides one of the founding qualities of Microsoft Word. Word processing software has thrived on “what you see is what you get”, a technical feature popular in the 1980s, whereby software can display data the way it will be printed or displayed in its final version .
Microsoft Word did not invent this feature, since as early as 1974, the document preparation software Bravo, developed by Xerox, managed to display text with realistic formatting. MicroPro, which publishes WordStar, Word’s main rival, managed to represent italics and bold in 1981. But Microsoft took the upper hand upon its release in 1983: in addition to being the first software distributed on floppy disks (in PC World), Word popularizes WYSIWYG by applying its principles to IBM and PC devices.
The first version of Word, released in 1983. – Microsoft
The tourist and the spiritual
It is precisely from Xerox (today specializing in printers) that Microsoft will draw its two key pieces, which will develop Microsoft Word. Charles Simonyi, first, was received by Bill Gates in 1981 to develop WYSIWYG text editing software. The engineer, who left Hungary at 17, emigrated to Denmark then studied at Berkeley, supervised the project and notably made the crucial choice of highly portable software, adaptable to many machines.
Simonyi left Microsoft in 2002 and began an atypical journey: beyond his philanthropic activities, the man also became one of the first space tourists in 2007: flown in a rocket launched by Soyuz, he spent two weeks in the space station international (ISS). In particular, he broadcast an amateur radio during the trip, as well as during its second flight, of similar durationin 2009.
The other “brain” of Word has an equally atypical profile: Richard Brodie is only a brilliant American engineer at Xerox when he takes control of the Word program. Simonyi hired him as soon as he arrived at Microsoft in 1981. It didn’t take long for Brodie to shine: he took seven months to create a first version of Word. He then invented the software taskbar, or even a combo box (a widely used drop-down list today).
Brodie took a very different path from Simonyi after his departure in 1994: after multiple spiritual retreats, he wrote a personal development book to understand “why money and success don’t make him happy”, and then embarked on a career as a … professional poker player.
Threatening message
The early 90s marked a turning point for Microsoft Word. Sales strengthened with the second version, Word 2.0, which made Microsoft the market leader in word processing. It is compatibility with Windows that will make the switch: from the first version, Microsoft calibrates its software for Windows 3.0, and WordPerfect, its rival, then fails to produce a Windows-compatible version, which affirms the dominant position of Word.
Microsoft is very aware of its interests in protecting its software: in early versions, Word includes an anti-fraud device, which attempts to detect copying software. When an attempt is detected, Word displays a less than reassuring message: “The tree of evil bears bitter fruit. Only the Shadow knows. Now trashing program disk” “Shadow knows. Now, destroy the program”).
Word then proceeded to shut down the inserted floppy disk – without actually destroying the data. The message is a reference to the fictional character The Shadow, a figure from American pulp magazines of the 1930s, taken up in a radio serial by Orson Welles, and adapted for the cinema in 1994.
Clippy, the unloved
Word 97 marks a new era, marked by a clear domination of the software, which combines new features. Believing it was doing the right thing, Microsoft then added a virtual assistant, shaped like a paperclip and called Clippit. The group tries to make itself playful: in 1995, Bill Gates had already launched Microsoft Bob, an interactive office depicting the interior of a house, within which each object corresponded to a program. Thus the pencil and the notebook made it possible, by clicking on them, to open a word processor.
If Bob had a fleeting interest before being totally eclipsed by Windows 95, Clippit (quickly given the nickname Clippy) would perpetuate the tradition of guide characters. Except that its appearance of a faded paper clip, as well as its irritating ability to appear randomly on the screen, quickly annoys: if it is useful for writing your first document, Clippy does not learn the preferences of the user and tirelessly advises him on the same tips.
Microsoft, aware of this hatred, will stage Clippy’s dismissal on a fake website, mocking its own creation. It will take 10 years for the unloved to disappear completely: some believe, behind the scenes, that this is because Clippit was the idea, initially, of Melinda French – the one who became Bill’s wife in 1994 Gates.
Clippy, l’irritant assistant de Word 1997. – Microsoft
Rise and fall of Calibri
In 2007, Microsoft Office launched Word 2007, a more modern version marked by an upheaval: exit Times New Roman as the default font, welcome to Calibri. The new font is chosen from a digital perspective: the group believes that more and more documents are designed not to be printed, but to be consumed online. Calibri, with its curves and small serifs, remains very readable in very small font, unlike Times New Roman.
This change has major consequences: it allows legal scandals to break out, by attesting to the fraudulent aspect of certain documents. In Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was accused in 2017 of having links to offshore companies. In particular, his daughter Maryam is named as running an offshore company carrying out fraudulent real estate transactions in London.
The Sharifs attempt a defense, and produce a document attesting that she is only a beneficiary, and not the director. But the document in question is written in Calibri: it could therefore not have existed at the time of the said transactions. It is therefore a fake. The affair ended with the conviction of the family, banned from any exercise of power.
Calibri is now taking a well-deserved rest after sixteen years of service: the Aptos police will take his place. Round, sans serif, it is considered more serious than Calibri. Its refined characters embrace a more modern style and are designed to be read anywhere in the world. A sign of the times, and of the globalization of Microsoft Word, which this year has become a cosmopolitan forty-year-old.
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