click to add title the history of word...was a breakthrough in technology multi-user systems disk...

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The History of Word

Clare Waller

Principal Consultant

October 15th 2014

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� Working with the Microsoft Office Team

� With Office generally

� And Tikit’s Template Management System

� Rejoined Tikit in 2010 after a four year break

� Previously ran my own training and consultancy firm

Introduction to Me

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� A light hearted – somewhat irreverent look at Word

� Was there anything before Word?

� How did it evolve?

� Where are we now?

� So, this is the History of Word

� But how did it all begin?

The History of Word

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� Founded in 1975

� Most famous name is obviously Bill Gates

� Other Founder was Paul Allen

� Focus wasn’t on Office at first

� Originally set up to sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800 ???

� And didn’t grow that fast at the beginning

Microsoft

Click to add TitleMicrosoft 1978

SpotBill Gates

Click to add TitleWay before Word

Click to add TitleJust Before Word

Click to add TitleBefore Word

First commercially successful WPBest selling software program of early 80’s

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� First there was Wang 1200 in 1972

� The ROI for this was amazing compared to the way things had been done

previously

� Errors on a page didn’t mean retyping

� Documents could be created, saved, opened and edited

� It was pretty simple - Text was typed on a standard keyboard

� When the Return key was pressed the text was stored on cassette tape

� One cassette held approx 20 pages

� Only six keys for basic editing functions - Insert, Delete, etc.

Before Word

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� Wang OIS – Introduced in 1977

� Was a breakthrough in technology

� Multi-user systems

� Disk storage was centralised and therefore could be shared

� Allowing for larger organisations to share

� User friendly and easy to adminster

� Also featured a Glossary function – precursor to AutoText

� And had simple If/Then tests and subroutines for “Decision Processing”

Before Word

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� First version released in 1982 – WordPerfect 2

� WordPerfect 3 and 4 quickly followed

� First Word Processor to introduce printer drivers

� Sales took off with the introduction of 4.2

Before Word

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� Automatic line numbering (for US law firms)

� Automatic numbering

� Footnotes and Endnotes

� Only formatting was Bold and Italics

� Overtook WordStar in sales

Before Word

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� 1989 saw the launch of 5.1

� Pull down menus – so you could use a mouse

� Tables – with Maths functionality in tables

� More formatting options – redline, strikeout, etc

� Included Mail Merge and Styles

� And WordPerfect 6.0 allowed users to switch to WYSIWYG mode

Before Word

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� Most important things were

� Extensive key combinations

� REVEAL CODES

� The WordPerfect document format didn’t have backward or forward

compatibility issues

� Even though WordPerfect 6 was much more rich in functionality

� Older versions simple “ignored” the new features

� WordPerfect users were never forced to upgrade for more than 2 decades

Before Word

Click to add TitleWindows Versions of WordPerfect

� Where it all went wrong

� Allowing Microsoft to “catch up”

� While WordPerfect cornered the DOS market

� Microsoft concentrated on a Windows version

� So let’s go back and look at how Word developed

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Along Came

Click to add TitleEarly Versions

� Didn’t all happen at once - Was quite a slow process

� WordPerfect was still immensely popular

� Not going to spend too much time on the early versions

� But it is interesting to see how it developed

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What exciting things happened

Nintendo released the Game Boy

The first episode of the Simpsons was shown

And we saw the first release of Word

Let’s start in 1989

Click to add TitleFirst Version – 1.0

Word for Windows 1.0Released: 1989

Number of Toolbars: 2

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Format Menu:Only had four options

Click to add TitleLet’s move on to 1992

This Year

EuroDisney opened in France

The music world gave us Miley Ray Cyrus

(Thanks!)

And we got Word for Windows 2

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Word for Windows 2:0Released: 1992


Click to add TitleSo let’s move on again - 1994

Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet was at No. 1

FOREVERFirst Friends episode was aired

And now we had Word for Windows 6

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WHAT DID HAPPEN TO 3, 4, AND 5?

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Word for Windows 6:0Released: 1994


Click to add TitleWORD FOR WINDOWS 6.0

� Right Click Contextual Menus

� Tooltips

� Tabbed Dialog Boxes

� Toolbars at Bottom of Screen

� Wizards

Click to add TitleMoving on to 1995

Massive Britpop battle between Blur and Oasis

And eBay Launched

And off we go with Word for Windows 95

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Word for Windows 95Released: 1995


Click to add TitleWhich takes us to 1996

Really Important Year for the Music World

Take That Split up �

Spice Girls had their first Number 1 - “Wannabe”

��

And we find ourselves with Microsoft Word 97

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Microsoft Word 97Released: 1996


Click to add TitleWord 97

� Toolbars and Menu Bar can be positioned on every side of the screen

� Toolbars and Menus can also float

� Drag and drop command anywhere

� Hierarchical multi-level menus and context menus

� Icons on menus

� Green squiggle grammar check

� Increased Intellisense – e.g. on the fly spell correction

� And of course

Click to add TitleClippy

Click to add TitleMove on to 1999

Now we’re into bigger numbers

The human population surpassed six billion

Bill Gates' personal fortune exceeds 100 billion dollars

We all get Word 2000

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� Personalised menus – Short > Long

� Default toolbars on a single row

� Toolbars / buttons show / hide based on frequent use

� Free roaming Office Assistant

� Help Pane

Click to add TitleMoving on to 2001

Wikipedia goes online

Apple Computer releases the iPod

And we now have Word 2002

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� Task Panes

� Smart Tags

� Type a question for Help Box

� Paste Options

Click to add TitleWas this the best year – 2003?

Bad News

The Terminator is elected Governor of California

The London Congestion Charge scheme begins

Good News

England defeat Australia to become Rugby World Champions

And for the first time the number matches the year

Word 2003

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Click to add TitleMicrosoft Word 2003

� More Task Panes

� Person Name Smart Tags

� ALT Click word to perform lookup actions

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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1.0 2.0 6.0 95 97 2000 2002 2003

Toolbars Task Panes

The Growth of Toolbars and Task Panes

Click to add TitleIntroducing The New User Experience

� Microsoft’s research showed that users felt that it was harder to find

functions and features in Word than it had been a decade ago.

“There must be a way to do this”

“I don’t even know where to start looking”

� The amount of features now available meant that the current UI had

outgrown itself

� Eye mapping comparison

Click to add TitleWhat happened in 2007?

The iPhone goes on sale

2100 year-old melon is discovered by archaeologists in western Japan

The final Harry Potter Book : Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows was published

The look, the feel was different

Welcome Word 2007 and Ribbon Tabs

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Click to add TitleThe New User Experience

� Ribbons were designed to have familiar buttons

� Styles were exposed

� Live Preview – illustrate features by their results

Click to add TitleWhat else was new in 2007

� Galleries

� Contextual Tabs

� Quick Access Toolbar

� Mini Toolbar

� Enhanced Tooltips

� Enhanced Status Bar

� Live Zoom

� Customisable Status bar

� Quick Styles

� Styles Gallery

� Content Controls

� SmartArt

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� And the Office Button (DAISY)

� And of course – the new Dot.X file format

Click to add TitleWhat happened in 2010?

First generation iPad Released

Paul the Octopus correctly predicted the winners of the

2010 World Cup

And now we have Word 2010

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Click to add TitleWhat was new in 2010

� The File Menu came back

� More artistic features

� Check box content control

� Document Navigation

� More SmartArt!

� Backstage

� Customising the Ribbon – not available in 2007

Click to add TitleIn 2013

Prince George was born

The words “SELFIE” and “TWERK” made it into the

English Dictionary

And here we are

At Word 2013

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Click to add TitleWhat was new in 2013

� Resume Reading

� PDF Reading and Editing

� Insert Online Pictures and Videos

� Change the table structure (add rows or columns) more easily.

� Comments and Collabaration

� Reply to Comments

� Don’t expand character spacing when using SHIFT RETURN

� Smart Guides

� Expand and Collapse Headings

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So let’s go back to the beginning and consider the impact

Click to add TitleBefore Word

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Microsoft’s Marketing Department

spread the Word that we could discard these

primitive models and move to Word easily and

without hassle

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� It didn’t really work like that

� Compatibility issues (Sound Familiar)

� First moving from WordPerfect to Word

� Codes we’d never seen in WordPerfect started appearing in Word

{PRIVATE}

� Macros widely used to make Word work like WordPerfect

� Users weren’t trained on the native application

� And development often piecemeal

Reality Check

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� Often reluctant – change forced on them

� Missed certain features (Particularly Reveal Codes)

� Users – particularly secretaries – dreamt about the old life

� IT Departments were pressurised into making Word work like WordPerfect

� Lack of training meant understanding of features was low

� So much in Word is hidden so they didn’t bother to find out what had gone

wrong – they just “fixed” it

WordPerfect Converts

Click to add TitleThe Keyboard

Click to add TitleThe Mouse

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� And then from 2007 onwards

� Different file format in 2007

� And different again in 2010

� Issues with numbering styles

� Shifting margins

More on compatibility issues

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� So we have compatibility issues

� Training issues

� Some features – may have seemed like they were improvements

� But ….

Features I don’t like

Click to add TitleThe Numbering Button

� Fine in letters or for home users

� But doesn’t encourage the use of styles

� Now applies a style of its own by default

� And “bloats” the document

Click to add TitleDefine Styles as you type

� Creates a new style if you type text with formatting

Click to add TitleNested Tables

� Very limited use

� Often Done By Mistake

Click to add TitleAngel or Devil?

Click to add TitleMore Devil Than Angel

� Unstable documents – caused by legacy and bad practice

� Poorly trained staff – due to advertising

� Led to unnecessary customisations

� Features we don’t understand and would never want to use

� Features that interfere with other commonly used applications

� Hidden Properties and features that go out with the document

Click to add TitleMore Angel than Devil

I’ll leave you

to decide!

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� What’s next?

� Thank you

� Any questions?

Journey’s End