Microsoft Word 97

The Microsoft Word word processor was first introduced for MS-DOS in 1983. Its design made use of a mouse and WYSIWYG graphics. Its crude WYSIWYG/mouse support was a direct response to the Apple Lisa/Mac, and VisiCorp Visi On. Initially it competed against many popular word processors such as WordStar, Multimate, and WordPerfect. Word for DOS was never really successful.

The Mac version was introduced in 1985 where it acquired a friendlier user interface and gained some popularity. A Microsoft Windows version was introduced in 1989, although Palantir WinText, NBI Legend, and Samna AMI/AMI Pro had beaten them to their own Windows platform. For a time Word for Windows competed with WordPerfect for Windows. There were also ports to OS/2, the Atari ST, and Unix.

The DOS, Mac, and Windows versions are quite different from each other, and each restarted their version numbering at "1.0". Later versions are bundled with Microsoft Office. Also see a complete list of word processors archived on Winworld.

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Release notes

Word 97 was a very popular and stable version. It supports Windows 9x, and NT and there was a port to the DEC Alpha CPU. This is the last version that is compatible with NT 3.51. Word/Office 97 introduced the infamous "Office Assistant".

Wanted: English floppy images.