Microsoft Word

Description

Microsoft Word is an industry-standard word processing program included in the Microsoft Office suite along with Excel and PowerPoint. It can be used to create documents for personal or business use such as letters, resumes and invitations, brochures and newsletters, as well as letters and posters.

Word offers basic page and text formatting capabilities. It also has advanced features such as mail merge and change tracking, document merging, macro and scripting. Word saves documents in the default Office Open XML .DOCX format. The program may also save documents in the proprietary .DOC format, which was commonly used by earlier versions of Word. The program supports embedded online photos and videos, which allows rich content to be created within documents.

The Word user interface streamlines the process of creating new documents from document templates. The word processor comes with thousands of online templates that can be downloaded and used as a starting point to create new documents. Templates are available for several types of documents, including business forms, labels, envelopes, menus, newsletters, planners, and home and educational documents. Custom templates (which are saved .DOT and .DOTX files) can also be created for company letterheads and other types of documents that require a consistent look and feel.

Once you select a template (or blank document), you have a myriad of ribbon-style toolbars and other options available for authoring and styling documents. Word offers collaborative editing and review tools that can be used by teams. Collaborators can edit the same document in real-time or add comments. The word processor keeps a history of all changes which is helpful when multiple users are working on the same document. The commenting and reply system allows for short discussions about document content.

If you have ever created a document in school or at work, you most likely have used Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is the industry standard word processor. It can be used to create book reports, academic publications and business documents. Its support of popular formats and wide usage make Microsoft Word the best choice for all of your word processing needs.

▶ Other extension used by Microsoft Word 2016