What is Word?

The literal translation of the English term ‘word’ is ‘word’. That is the essence of this program. A lot of texts are written on the computer. A word processor is used for this, a program that is intended to read and write texts. Word from Microsoft is the most famous word processor.

The latest edition is Word 2019. The older versions are no longer for sale in stores, but many people still use them. Word 2010, 2013 or 2016 are versions that are still excellent to use. It is an essential program for anyone who uses a computer.

Word is part of the Office suite from Microsoft. It also contains other programs such as Excel (program to calculate with) and Powerpoint (program to make slide presentations). Office is available for purchase through computer stores and in stores on the Internet. The simplest composition of Office 2019 is for sale for 149 euros.

Trying the program is free. It is possible to use Office 365 for free for a month. Then you can then decide whether you want to purchase the Office package. You can read more about the differences between Office 2019 and Office 365 in the article ‘Choose between Office 2019 and Office 365‘.

With Word you can type, save, print and send texts by e-mail. But that is not everything. Your documents can be enhanced with a variety of formatting elements, such as fun graphics, moving animations, and photos. Give the letters a nice color, underline the text, put page numbers in it, use a logo at the top of the page, make a whole book out of it. The possibilities are almost endless.

All versions of Word have the same foundation; Type and format texts. Each newer version has new features and is more user-friendly. For example, since 2007, a Ribbon has been added to Word. This is a bar with tabs at the top of the screen where the functions are grouped clearly. The Ribbon has been perfected every version slowly but surely. Using a newer version can take some getting used to but often brings a better experience of the program.

Another important difference between the Word versions is how the program stores files. Until version 2003, those files ended with the extension ‘.doc’. Since 2007, the default is ‘.docx’. Older files can be opened without any problems with new versions of Word. Conversely, things don’t always go smoothly. Therefore, you can download a free extension from Microsoft’s website called Compatibility Pack. This also allows you to open the newer .docx file formats in the older version of Word.

If you think the purchase of Word is too big an investment, you can do word processing cheaper or even for free. In that case, you do not choose Word, but an alternative program. Within Windows this can be Wordpad or Notepad. These two free programs are part of Windows by default and can be found in the Start menu. The possibilities of these programs are limited.

The free Google Docs that can be found on the internet is also a simple word processor. You can read about this in the article ‘Google Drive’. The closest free word processor to Office Word is Word Online. You can read how to work with this word processor in the article ‘Getting started with Word Online’.

Word is a very extensive program that offers as many or few options as you want. If you are only interested in typing texts without fuss, you can. But if you want to create extensive colored newsletters, you can do that too. The features are all there, and you choose which ones you want to use or not.
Word is such an extensive program that it is difficult to discover all the possibilities at once. But if you take the time to read through our articles and tips about Word & Excel, the program has few more secrets for you.