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Microsoft Word Turns 25

A look back at the changes and challenges Microsoft's flagship word-processing program has been through during its first quarter-century.

Benj Edwards, PC World

Drop-Down Shenanigans

In Word 2000 for Windows, Microsoft included a questionable interface design change. Called "personalized menus," the feature ideally made Word easier to use (key word: "ideally"). It worked by keeping track of your most-used menu items and showing only those by default, while hiding the rest of your drop-down menu choices. To see those, one had to click on a tiny arrow to expand the drop-down menu.

Thankfully, users could turn this feature off, but figuring out how was not as obvious as it should have been. Clippy should have told us.

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