A Brief History of The Word Processor

One of the most used pieces of software among students and professionals is the word processor. It has been around since computers became available for personal use. The ability to type into the computer and edit at will, instead of using a typewriter or writing things by hand, is very appealing. Many people under 30 do not remember what it was like to deal with a typewriter. The keys would stick together, the ink was always running low, and it would never look the same again when you made an error.

The word processor became a commonly used computer program in the early 1990s, even before Windows was introduced. At that time, the most popular word processor on the market was Amipro, which Lotus made. Once Windows became the popular operating system, Microsoft Word became the most-used full-featured word processor. Many people who did not need all the bells and whistles found in Microsoft Word used the free world processor bundled with Windows and Wordpad. This program allows users to handle basic word processing without messing with a separate program.

Microsoft Word is such a well-known and commonly used product that many businesses expect any documents they handle to be in this format. For many, this isn’t a problem; however, Microsoft Word is a fairly expensive program with some flaws, particularly security.

Because of this, several companies have their online degree programs and have created word processing programs that work similarly to Microsoft Word. They can even read formatted documents and save new ones in this style. The best-known of these products are the Open Office Writer and Libre Office.

Open Office is a free, open-source suite of tools that are very similar to the tools you get when you purchase Microsoft Office.