Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor developed by Microsoft. It was

first released on October 25, 1983 under the name Multi-Tool
Word for Xenix systems Subsequent versions were later written for
several other platforms including IBM
PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running the Classic
Mac OS (1985), AT&T UNIX PC (1985), Atari
ST (1988), OS/2 (1989), Microsoft Windows (1989), SCO
Unix (1994), and macOS (2001).

Origins
In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi, the primary developer of Bravo, the
first GUI word processor, which was developed at Xerox PARC. Simonyi started work on a
word processor called Multi-Tool Word and soon hired Richard Brodie, a former Xerox
intern, who became the primary software engineer.
Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word for Xenix and MS-DOS in 1983 Its name was soon
simplified to Microsoft Word. Free demonstration copies of the application were bundled
with the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first to be distributed on-disk
with a magazine That year Microsoft demonstrated Word running on Windows
Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, Microsoft Word was designed to be used with a
mouse Advertisements depicted the Microsoft Mouse, and described Word as a WYSIWYG,
windowed word processor with the ability to undo and display bold, italic, and underlined
text although it could not render fonts It was not initially popular, since its user interface
was different from the leading word processor at the time, WordStar. However, Microsoft
steadily improved the product, releasing versions 2.0 through 5.0 over the next six years.
In 1985, Microsoft ported Word to the classic Mac OS (known as Macintosh System
Software at the time). This was made easier by Word for DOS having been designed for use
with high-resolution displays and laser printers, even though none were yet available to the
general public.[  It was also notable for its very fast cut-and-paste function and unlimited
number of undo operations, which are due to its usage of the piece table data structure
Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Mac OS added true
WYSIWYG features. It fulfilled a need for a word processor that was more capable
than MacWrite After its release, Word for Mac OS's sales were higher than its MS-DOS
counterpart for at least four years.
The second release of Word for Mac OS, shipped in 1987, was named Word 3.0 to
synchronize its version number with Word for DOS; this was Microsoft's first attempt to
synchronize version numbers across platforms. Word 3.0 included numerous internal
enhancements and new features, including the first implementation of the Rich Text
Format (RTF) specification, but was plagued with bugs. Within a few months, Word 3.0 was
superseded by a more stable Word 3.01, which was mailed free to all registered users of
3.0.  After MacWrite Pro was discontinued in the mid-1990s, Word for Mac OS never had
any serious rivals. Word 5.1 for Mac OS, released in 1992, was a very popular word
processor owing to its elegance, relative ease of use and feature set. Many users say it is
the best version of Word for Mac OS ever created.
In 1986, an agreement between Atari and Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST under
the name Microsoft Write. The Atari ST version was a port of Word 1.05 for the Mac OS and
was never updated.
The first version of Word for Windows was released in 1989. With the release of Windows
3.0 the following year, sales began to pick up and Microsoft soon became the market leader
for word processors for IBM PC-compatible computers In 1991, Microsoft capitalized on
Word for Windows' increasing popularity by releasing a version of Word for DOS, version
5.5, that replaced its unique user interface with an interface similar to a Windows
application. When Microsoft became aware of the Year 2000 problem, it made Microsoft
Word 5.5 for DOS available for download free. As of July 2018, it is still available for
download from Microsoft's web site. In 1991, Microsoft embarked on a project code-named
Pyramid to completely rewrite Microsoft Word from the ground up. Both the Windows and
Mac OS versions would start from the same code base. It was abandoned when it was
determined that it would take the development team too long to rewrite and then catch up
with all the new capabilities that could have been added at the same time without a
rewrite. Instead, the next versions of Word for Windows and Mac OS, dubbed version 6.0,
both started from the code base of Word for Windows 2.0
With the release of Word 6.0 in 1993, Microsoft again attempted to synchronize the version
numbers and coordinate product naming across platforms, this time across DOS, Mac OS,
and Windows (this was the last version of Word for DOS). It introduced AutoCorrect, which
automatically fixed certain typing errors, and AutoFormat, which could reformat many
parts of a document at once. While the Windows version received favorable reviews the Mac
OS version was widely derided. Many accused it of being slow, clumsy and memory
intensive, and its user interface differed significantly from Word 5.1. [  In response to user
requests, Microsoft offered Word 5 again, after it had been discontinued. Subsequent
versions of Word for macOS are no longer direct ports of Word for Windows, instead
featuring a mixture of ported code and native code.

Word for Windows is available stand-alone or as part of the Microsoft Office suite. Word
contains rudimentary desktop publishing capabilities and is the most widely used word
processing program on the market. Word files are commonly used as the format for sending
text documents via e-mail because almost every user with a computer can read a Word
document by using the Word application, a Word viewer or a word processor that imports the
Word format
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed
by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing
tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA). It has been a very widely applied spreadsheet for these platforms,
especially since version 5 in 1993, and it has replaced Lotus 1-2-3 as the industry
standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of the Microsoft
Office suite of software.

Features
Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets,
[7]
 using a grid of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-
named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic
operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer
statistical, engineering, and financial needs. In addition, it
can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and
with a very limited three-dimensional graphical display. It
allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies on various
factors for different perspectives (using pivot tables and the scenario manager).
A PivotTable is a powerful tool that can save time when it comes to data analysis It does
this by simplifying large data sets via PivotTable fields that are also known as "the building
blocks of PivotTables It has a programming aspect, Visual Basic for Applications, allowing
the user to employ a wide variety of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential
equations of mathematical physics, and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet.
History
From its first version Excel supported end-user programming of macros (automation of
repetitive tasks) and user-defined functions (extension of Excel's built-in function library).
In early versions of Excel, these programs were written in a macro language whose
statements had formula syntax and resided in the cells of special-purpose macro sheets
(stored with file extension .XLM in Windows.) XLM was the default macro language for
Excel through Excel 4.0. Beginning with version 5.0 Excel recorded macros in VBA by
default but with version 5.0 XLM recording was still allowed as an option. After version 5.0
that option was discontinued. All versions of Excel, including Excel 2010 are capable of
running an XLM macro, though Microsoft discourages their use.
Excel supports charts, graphs, or histograms generated from specified groups of cells. It
also supports Pivot Charts that allow for a chart to be linked directly to a Pivot table. This
allows the chart to be refreshed with the Pivot Table. The generated graphic component can
either be embedded within the current sheet or added as a separate object.
These displays are dynamically updated if the content of cells changes. For example,
suppose that the important design requirements are displayed visually; then, in response
to a user's change in trial values for parameters, the curves describing the design change
shape, and their points of intersection shift, assisting the selection of the best design
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created
by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software
company named Forethought, IncIt was released on April
20, 1987, initially for Macintosh System Operating system
based computers only Microsoft acquired PowerPoint for
about $14 million three months after it appeared. This was
Microsoft's first significant acquisition and Microsoft set up
a new business unit for PowerPoint in Silicon Valley where
Forethought had been located.[
PowerPoint became a component of the Microsoft
Office suite, first offered in 1989 for Macintosh and in 1990
for Windows, which bundled several Microsoft apps.
Beginning with PowerPoint 4.0 (1994), PowerPoint was integrated into Microsoft Office
development, and adopted shared common components and a converged user interface.
PowerPoint's market share was very small at first, prior to introducing a version for
Microsoft Windows, but grew rapidly with the growth of Windows and of OfficeSince the
late 1990s, PowerPoint's worldwide market share of presentation software has been
estimated at 95 percent.
PowerPoint was originally designed to provide visuals for group presentations within
business organizations, but has come to be very widely used in many other communication
situations, both in business and beyond. The impact of this much wider use of PowerPoint
has been experienced as a powerful change throughout society, with strong reactions
including advice that it should be used less, should be used differently,[19] or should be
used better
The first PowerPoint version (Macintosh 1987) was used to produce overhead
transparencies, the second (Macintosh 1988, Windows 1990) could also produce color
35 mm slides The third version (Windows and Macintosh 1992) introduced video output of
virtual slideshows to digital projectors, which would over time completely replace physical
transparencies and slides. A dozen major versions since then have added many additional
features and modes of operation and have made PowerPoint available beyond Apple
Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, adding versions for iOS, Android, and web access.