The Present

Microsoft Word is the dominant word processor in current use, making Word's proprietary document file format (DOC) the de facto standard which competing products must support to interoperate in an office environment. File import and export filters exist for many word processors such as AbiWord or OpenOffice.org (see the article on word processor for other competitors). Most of this interoperability is achieved through reverse engineering since documentation of the file format, while available to partners, is not openly available. The document formats of the various versions of Word change in subtle and not so subtle ways; formatting created in newer versions does not always survive when viewed in older versions of the program, nearly always because that capability does not exist in the provious version. The DOC format of Word 97 was publicly documented by Microsoft, but later versions have been kept private, available only to partners, governments and institutions. Industry rumors claim some aspects of the Word file format are at present not fully understood even by Microsoft themselves. Lately Microsoft has stated that they will move towards an XML-based file format for their office applications. Word 2003 has an XML file format as an option using a publicly documented schema called WordprocessingML available in all editions of Word2003, and endorsed by such institutions as the Danish Government. The "professional" edition includes the ability to handle non-Microsoft schemas directly in Word. Apache Jakarta POI is an open-source Java library that aims to read and write Word's binary file format.

Like other Microsoft Office applications, Word can be highly customised using a built-in macro language (originally WordBasic, but changed to Visual Basic for Applications as of Word 97). However, this capability can also be used to embed viruses in documents, as was demonstrated by the Melissa worm. Because of this, users having Microsoft Word installed should make sure their security settings are set to High (Tools/Macro>Security). In this case also, a minimum precaution is to have anti-virus software installed in order to avoid being infected by such a virus or acting as a source of infection. The first virus known to affect Microsoft Word documents was called the Concept virus, a relatively harmless virus created to demonstrate the possibility of macro virus creation.

Versions

Versions for MS-DOS include:

1983 November Word 1

1985 Word 2

1986 Word 3

1987 Word 4 aka Microsoft Word 4.0 for the PC

1989 Word 5

1991 Word 5.5

Versions for Apple Macintosh include:

1985 January Word 1 for the Macintosh

1987 Word 3

1989 Word 4

1991 Word 5

1993 Word 6

1998 Word 98

2000 Word 2001, the last version compatible with Mac OS 9

2001 Word v.X, the first version for Mac OS X only

2004 Word 2004

Versions for Microsoft Windows include:

1989 November Word for Windows

1991 Word 2 for Windows

1993 Word 6 for Windows (renumbered "6" to bring Windows version numbering in line with that of DOS version, Macintosh version and also WordPerfect, the main competing word processor at the time)

1995 Word 95, also known as Word 7

1997 Word 97, also known as Word 8

1999 Word 2000, also known as Word 9

2001 Word XP, also known as Word 2002 or Word 10

2003 Word 2003, also known as Word 11 but officially titled Microsoft Office Word 2003

Versions for SCO UNIX include:

Microsoft Word for UNIX Systems Release 5.1 (http://www.opsys.com/products/sco/)