Microsoft is celebrating Word’s 40th anniversary with a look back at the most important innovations and a look into the future.

Forty years ago, on October 25, 1983, Microsoft Word 1.0 was released to the world as a WYSIWYG editor. To celebrate, Microsoft is releasing a timeline of all the major innovations of the past few years.

The timeline includes milestones like auto-correct in Word 97, the introduction of the Ribbon in Word 2003 with a major redesign, and the introduction of dark mode in Microsoft 365 to be easier on your eyes.

A look back is often accompanied by a vision of the future. Microsoft gives a brief insight into its cards:

“As we look to the future, we are committed to passing the torch and building on the foundation laid in 1983. Our relentless focus is on ensuring Word helps users complete writing and reading tasks as efficiently as possible – from the simple to the complex.”

It goes without saying that Copilot’s integration with Word will be very important. Other areas of focus include a better web version of Word, refined document collaboration and better tools for developers to build their own workflows.

Interesting fact: On Microsoft’s blog, the software giant also praises the Apple Lisa computer, saying it is a fundamentally new vision of “what a personal computer could be.”