The first version of Word was a 16 bits PC DOS/MS-DOS application. It had support for style sheets in separate files (.STY). In graphics mode, the document and interface were rendered in a fixed font size monospace character grid with italic, bold and underline features that was not available in text mode. It could run in text mode or graphics mode but the visual difference between the two was minor. It featured graphics video mode and mouse support in a WYSIWYG interface. The first Microsoft Word was released in 1983. In 2014 the source code for Word for Windows in the version 1.1a was made available to the Computer History Museum and the public for educational purposes. Microsoft Write was released for the Atari ST in 1988. The release of Microsoft Write was one of two major PC applications that were released for the Atari ST (the other application being WordPerfect). Unlike other versions of Word, the Atari version was a one time release with no future updates or revisions. The Atari ST version was a translation of Word 1.05 for the Apple Macintosh however, it was released under the name Microsoft Write (the name of the word processor included with Windows during the 80s and early 90s).

In 1986, an agreement between Atari and Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST. Since then, Windows versions include Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, and most recently, Word for Office 365. With the release of Word 2003, the numbering was again year-based. Then it was renamed to Word 95 and Word 97, Word 2000 and Word for Office XP (to follow Windows commercial names). Word for Windows 1.0 was followed by Word 2.0 in 1991 and Word 6.0 in 1993. When Windows 3.0 was released in 1990, Word became a huge commercial success. The first Windows version was released in 1989, with a slightly improved interface. The first Word version, Word 1.0, was released in October 1983 for Xenix and MS-DOS it was followed by four very similar versions that were not very successful. Both programmers worked on Xerox Bravo, the first WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor. The first version of Microsoft Word was developed by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981. Installation floppy of Microsoft Word for UNIX Systems, version 5.0 (distributed by SCO, 1990).

Word 2016 version number