Word

Microsoft Word is the world's most used and appreciated word processing tool and the industry standard. Enterprises, academic institutions, offices, and individuals have installed Word on their desktops or portable devices. With it, users take advantage of its vast formatting options and create, edit, view, and share beautiful documents, personalized and polished to the tiniest detail.

Moreover, with Microsoft Word, users can collaborate and work on the same document, as the solution supports multiple authors and co-editors. For example, remote and in-house colleagues, managers, and clients can work on the same file. And every one of them will be notified and receive an updated document version as soon as another initiates document changes. Lastly, the latest versions of the tool offer exclusive features to macOS users, including Retina Display Support, Full-Screen Mode, and Task Pane, among others.

Microsoft Word is the leading software in academic institutions. And there is a good reason for that. Word has a feature called Researcher that helps educational personnel or students search for information, images, or materials they need for research. What the Researcher tool does is uses Microsoft Bing to pull content from the internet. It also enables users to add citations to their documents while adding content from the web. So, without having to exit Word, users can incorporate reliable sources into their texts. Besides, academic papers are way more effective and trustworthy when backed up with appropriate and credible material.

Endless Formatting Options

If Microsoft Word is superb in something, then that is in formatting. The app offers dynamic formatting tools that adjust paragraph alignment, create bullet and number lists, change line spacing, and add headers and footers. Additionally, inserting items in a document such as images, video, or tables is also possible. On that note, Microsoft Word provides hundreds of different font styles. Document personalization is better than ever, therefore.

Exceptional Proofing Tools

One advantage of Microsoft Word over the competition is that it comes with advanced proofing tools. These enable users to polish and refine their documents, ending up distinctive and unique. On top of that, users can fix grammar errors and misspellings and improve punctuation and word flow. Also, Microsoft Word suggests ways to enhance writing style by underlining in-text words with a blue line instead of the traditional red color that indicates grammar mistakes.

PDF Editing

A favorite function of the software is that it allows the editing of PDF documents. So, users not only can view PDF files, but they can also edit their content, such as paragraphs, tables, or lists. After, they can save the file as a PDF or Word document. That is a seriously neat and compelling feature, as users can finally treat PDF files as texts and not as view-only documents.

Mail Merge Function

With Mail Merge, Microsoft Word users create letters, envelopes, labels, and name tags with the same layout, text, graphics, and formatting but containing personalized sections for each recipient. These include the recipient's name, greeting line, and address. In other words, Mail Merge is an advanced marketing tool utilized by marketing firms across the world. So, it is incredible, sending out bulk emails. And users can even create attractive printed letters or invitations with it.

Furthermore, Mail Merge allows Microsoft Word to store recipient data in a list, database, or spreadsheet, information that is mergeable with documents afterward. Consequently, each personalized letter, card, or envelope will have a unique recipient's name, greeting line, and address. Fantastic for personal contact and marketing copy.

Collaborate in Real-Time

Another great advantage of Microsoft Word is the robust collaboration features. The app encourages real-time discussions between team members and stakeholders by enabling in-text comments. Further, users can track document changes and updates by using the Track Changes function. And they can even chat together while co-editing a document, as Word has fully integrated with Skype, Microsoft's leading communication solution

Access Microsoft Word Anywhere

Microsoft Word is not only available as a desktop program, but it can also be downloaded as a mobile app or accessed through a web browser. The creating and editing of documents, therefore, can be done anywhere from any device. Users can access the software managing their files on the go from mobile phones or tablet computers. In this way, team productivity increases as team members work together on projects remotely from anywhere, anytime.

Sometimes, however, Microsoft Word is a bit tedious to work with. For instance, users report that it tends to freeze up or reboot itself when working on a document. In addition, it seems that there is no way to insert alternative text descriptions with the image files having generic names. Adding page numbers is troublesome and challenging, too. And paragraph numbering would be a nice feature to see.

Also, Word's toolbar is more overwhelming than helpful, especially for first-time users. So, having too many functionalities available can backfire. Not every Word tool is essential in text writing.

Microsoft Word is one of the most beloved word processors. It was first released back in 1983 by Microsoft as Multi-Tool Word for Xenix microcomputer systems. Subsequent versions were developed for several other platforms in the following years. The first version of the word procession solution for Windows was released in 1989. The latest version of the software released in 2021. Microsoft is located in Redmond, Washington, United States.