In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi, the primary developer of Bravo, the first GUI word processor, which was developed at Xerox PARC. Main article: History of Microsoft Word Origins 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 (1990), and macOS (2001).Ĭommercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a component of Microsoft Office 365, or Microsoft 365 Premium subscription, Windows RT or the discontinued Microsoft Works suite. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Microsoft Word is a word processor developed by Microsoft.