Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word represents one of the most important steps in the transformation of the personal computer into an everyday writing machine. Early versions were a far cry from the enormous modern office suite, but they already offered users the ability to create, edit, format, save, and print documents without relying entirely on a typewriter. The DOS-era environment is deliberately practical, with keyboard commands and menus taking the place of today's ribbons and floating toolbars. That may sound primitive, yet there is something wonderfully focused about it. You open the program because you have words to write, not because you need to admire a startup animation. For historians of computing, early Microsoft Word is especially interesting because it helped establish word processing as an essential PC task. The typewriter had finally met the computer, and the typewriter was about to discover that computers never stop adding features.