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\begin{document}
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\title{Document Editor}



\author[1]{David Banys}%
\affil[1]{Authorea}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{April 25, 2026}


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\section*{Introduction to document
editors}

{\label{467279}}

A document editor or word processor is a software application that helps
write, edit, format, and publish documents. A document editor differs
from a text editor in that it is purpose-built for creating
human-readable documents -- rather than simply for modifying text or
code snippets. If you look at virtually any industry -- education,
research, business, and so on -- document editors are more or less
ubiquitous. The most popular document editors globally are Microsoft
Word and Google Docs,~but it wasn't always that way.

\par\null

\section*{History of the document
editor}

{\label{401305}}\par\null\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.70\columnwidth]{figures/Wordperfect-5.1-dos/Wordperfect-5.1-dos}
\caption{{WordPerfect 5.1 for Microsoft DOS. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
{\label{964730}}%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\par\null\par\null

Only recently did document editors become available online, but document
editors in a general sense have been available offline in some form
since the late
sixties.~\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QED_(text_editor)}{QED} was
a \href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_editor}{line-oriented} text
editor written in 1965, a later version of which was used at Bell
Labs.~\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O26_(text_editor)}{O26} was
written for the CDC 6000 series mainframe computer in
1967.~\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi}{Vi}~was a
\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_editor}{screen-oriented} text
editor written for Unix in 1976 and which was later outpaced in
popularity by
\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim_(text_editor)}{VIM} (or Vi
IMproved), a command-line or GUI-based interface for editing text.

\par\null

On the document editor side of things, when Microsoft released its
flagship document editor program Microsoft Word in 1983, there were
plenty of so-called visual or full-screen editor competitors such as
WordStar (released 1978), WordPerfect (released 1979), Multimate
(released 1982), Samna (released 1984), and MacWrite (released 1984).
Word innovated relative to DOS applications by supporting the use of a
mouse \cite{wiki:xxx}.~

\par\null

Today, \textbf{Microsoft Word is the dominant document editor globally
with some 1.2 billion users worldwide}~\cite{msft} while Google
comes in second with more than 240M users \cite{tnw}. But
Microsoft wasn't always the dominant document editor -- and only
recently did Office 365 move online.

\par\null

\section*{Philosophy of the document editor and
WYSIWYG}

{\label{158426}}

The modern document editor more or less mirrors the pen-and-paper tools
of the pre-computing age. Google Docs and Microsoft Word present to the
user a workspace that is intended to mimic ~the look and feel of a
physical piece of paper.

\par\null\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{figures/google-docs-and-ms-word-side-by-side/google-docs-and-ms-word-side-by-side}
\caption{{Google Docs and Microsoft Word side-by-side. The interface is meant to
mimic physical sheets of paper -- a vestige of an earlier computing
paradigm.
{\label{877269}}%
}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\par\null

This paradigm is commonly referred to as a WYSISYG (what you see is what
you get) environment. It is understood that the page will print exactly
like it displays in the visual editor -- and it comes with some benefits
and some drawbacks.

\par\null

For document editors that follow the WYSIWYG paradigm, it's useful to
understand the exact way text will display without an intermediate
rendering step or typesetting step. \textbf{The document editor model of
Google Docs and Microsoft Word is technically WYSIWYG -- but is
purpose-built to produce a printed page as output, rather than the
modern web.} As a result, it is extremely difficult to use Docs or Word
to produce anything that is presentation-worthy to an online audience.~

\par\null

\section*{When did document editors move
online?}

{\label{447000}}

Microsoft announced
\href{https://office.live.com/start/Word.aspx}{Office Online}~in 2008,
released a preview in 2009, and released to the public in 2010. In many
ways, Microsoft fell substantially behind Google, who was able to
release the first version of Google Docs in 2006 after acquiring a
service called Writely, produced by a company called Upstartle.~

\par\null

The benefits of working with a document editor online were immediately
apparent. The two biggest advantages of an online document editor are:

\begin{enumerate}
\tightlist
\item
  Collaborate easily with colleagues and coauthors
\item
  Backup work to the cloud automatically
\end{enumerate}

Since these two issues plague offline document editors, it's no surprise
to see the success and proliferation of online document editors. Other
tools like \href{https://quip.com/}{Quip}~and
\href{https://www.apple.com/pages/}{Pages}~have more recently entered
the field of online collaborative document editors.

\par\null\par\null

\section*{The future of online document
editors}

{\label{961330}}

For writing simple documents collaboratively, it's hard to beat Google
Docs or Microsoft Word 365. For more technical documents -- ~including
and especially scientific research --
\href{http://www.authorea.com}{\textbf{Authorea}}\textbf{~is the only
document editor that is combining collaboration, technical writing
tools, and a web-first writing paradigm}.

\par\null

Authorea is available for free
(\href{http://www.authorea.com/product}{www.authorea.com/product}) and
supports research-writing efforts of nearly one hundred thousand
researchers.

\par\null\par\null

\section*{Further reading}

{\label{286430}}

\begin{itemize}
\tightlist
\item
  \href{https://www.authorea.com/users/5713/articles/19359-latex-is-dead-long-live-latex-typesetting-in-the-digital-age/_show_article}{LaTeX
  is Dead (Long Live LaTeX)}
\item
  \href{https://www.authorea.com/users/3/articles/110031-caltech-library-demo-interactive/_show_article}{Caltech
  Library Demo Interactive}
\end{itemize}

\par\null

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