Difference Between Microsoft Word and Wordpad

Edited by Diffzy | Updated on: April 30, 2023

       

Difference Between Microsoft Word and Wordpad

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Introduction

Microsoft has created a variety of applications to help us with our daily tasks, but we are often unaware of the actual roles that these programs accomplish. They may appear to do comparable functions to Notepad, WordPad, and Microsoft Word, but diverge significantly. Working with one of these programs, such as MS Word, has become second nature to the number of customers. In this post, we'll discuss the appropriate functionalities for Notepad, WordPad, and MS Word.

Microsoft Word vs. Wordpad 

The biggest distinction between Microsoft Word and Wordpad would be that Word has a lot of additional text editing and printing functionality than Wordpad, which is a lot simpler. Wordpad is also provided with the Windows operating system for free, whereas Word must be downloaded discretely from Microsoft. Microsoft Word, usually referred to as MS Word, is a software application developed by the Microsoft Corporation. MS Word is commonly used to compose official documents. The records can be readily saved, changed, and presented if desired. MS WordPad, on either extreme, involves a process designed for simple copy editing. Users can write, modify, and import photographs with WordPad. It is straightforward to utilize in correlation.

Differences Between Microsoft Word and Wordpad in Tabular Form

Parameters Microsoft Word Wordpad
Feature variation Microsoft Word has much more options. In comparison to MS Word, MS WordPad has less functionality.
License holders Microsoft Word was licensed by Trialware. Wordpad was licensed by Freemium.
Origin  Microsoft Word had first released on October 25, 1983. MS WordPad was introduced in 1989, which was a long time ago.
Updated version MS Word's stable launch date has been set for December 22nd, 2021. On December 14, 2021, Microsoft WordPad was issued in a stable state.
Privacy setting Users can safeguard their paperwork in MS Word by entering passcodes. MS WordPad does not have a password characteristic.

What is Microsoft Word?

Microsoft Word is a word handling application spawned by Microsoft. On October 25, 1983, it was launched underneath the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Commercial variants of Word are available as a stand-alone commodity or as part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, which can be procured as a commercial license or as a component of a Microsoft 365 premium membership. Word can also be obtained by buying Windows RT or the no longer available Microsoft Works toolkit.

Origin of Microsoft Word

In 1981, Microsoft recruited Charles Simonyi, the foremost programmer of Bravo, the first graphical user interface text editor created at Xerox PARC. Simonyi broke ground on Multi-Tool Word, a text editor, and soon hired Richard Brodie, an erstwhile Xerox intern, who had been the principal computer programmer. In 1983, Microsoft released Multi-Tool Word for Xenix and MS-DOS. Its name was quickly shortened to Microsoft Word. The implementation was dispersed on disc with the November 1983 issue of PC World, creating it the first to be dispersed with a journal. Microsoft illustrated Word operating on Windows that same year.

Microsoft Word, unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, was designed to be used with a mouse. Although it could not render fonts, advertisements depicted the Microsoft Mouse and characterized Word as a WYSIWYG, window function text processor with the potential to nullify and showcase bold, italic, and underlined text. It was at first unpopular because its consumer interface differed from that of the leading text editor at the period, WordStar. Microsoft, on the other hand, considerably enhanced the commodity, activating editions 2.0 through 5.0 within the next six years. Microsoft Word was first ported to the classic Mac OS in 1985. This was made much easier because Word for DOS was intended to be used with elevated showcases and laserjet, both of which were not yet widely available to the masses.

Features of Microsoft Word

Word includes a built-in grammar checker, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and text manipulation and formatting infrastructure. Some of its functionalities include the foregoing.

Templates: Users can create their formatting templates in later versions of Word, allowing them to define a file in which the title, heading, paragraph, and other element designs differ from the standard Word templates. Users can learn how to do this by visiting the Help section, which is situated adjacent to the top right-hand corner (Word 2013 on Windows 8). Normal.dotm, for instance, is the maestro framework on which all Word files are developed. It sets the margin defaults and the text design and typography defaults. Even though Normal.dotm is pre-configured with these delinquencies, the subscriber can override them. This will affect other files produced with the framework.

Image Layouts: Word supports the entry and showcase of images in popular bitmap file types such as JPG and GIF. It could also be used to make and display basic line craftsmanship. For Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions, Microsoft Word added support for the popular SVG vector graphic layout in 2017, and these capabilities were added to the original Office 2019 release.

Word Art: WordArt allows you to draw text in a Microsoft Word document, such as a headline, logo, or other caption, with diagrammatical impacts such as skewing, scattering, spinning, elongating, and also including three-dimensional implications. Users can easily apply formatting effects like shadow, bevel, glow, and reflection to their document text, just like they can bold or underline it. Users can also use text repercussions to spell-check paragraphs and add text impacts to paragraph designs.

Password Protection: Microsoft Word allows you to set three types of passwords: a password to open a document, the passcode to alter a file, and a password to constrain configuration and filtering. Microsoft created the second and third login forms to facilitate the sharing of records rather than to protect them. Documents shielded by such passcodes are not encrypted, and the Microsoft Office protection scheme saves a hash sum of a passcode in the document's header, where it can be made accessible and eliminated by software applications. Passcode lock for opening a file provides much stronger security, which has been steadily improved in successive versions of Microsoft Office.

Originally, there were a few MS Word software packages, but the prevailing one is Office 365. It has also been revealed that MS Word's license is Trialware. It is not open-source; it must be installed. Furthermore, MS Word documents are typically saved with the file extensions .docx and Open Document Text (.odt). Furthermore, one could safeguard their files with a username and pin code, ensuring that the data is not quickly looted. As we all know, Microsoft Word is a renowned word processor, but it has several vulnerabilities. But first, a few potential benefits of MS Word include its availability on multiple platforms, reliability, a plethora of features, mail merging capabilities, and so on. The downsides are that it is not open source, that it is a bit difficult to use, that it has large data files, and so forth.

What is Wordpad?

WordPad is a piece of software that allows users to compose and modify content. It is commonly used by people to jot down their ideas or other essential text. It is simple and convenient to use. As a result, it is more obvious for everyone to use. It employs the well-known Freemium license. It has been 33 years since the introduction of WordPad, which occurred in 1989. Its steady relaunch was later released on December 14, 2021. Microsoft first introduced it. And it has been functioning flawlessly. Windows 95 is the functioning framework for MS WordPad. People can also use it for free since it is at first placed on the gadgets. Documents in Microsoft WordPad can be saved as Rich Text Format (RTF) or plain-text files.txt. People enjoy using it because it is simple to use. MS WordPad has both benefits and drawbacks. WordPad's obvious advantages include its ease of use, low cost, and speed of processing. On the other side, the downsides of MS WordPad also include the fact that Mac users will use it, that it has limited functionality, and so forth.

Origin

WordPad debuted in Windows 95, substituting Microsoft Write, which had been included with all previous versions (version 3.11 and earlier). Microsoft also dispersed the software for WordPad as a Microsoft Foundation Class Library prototype implementation with MFC 3.2 and later, briefly before Microsoft released Windows 95. This is still downloadable from the Microsoft Developer Network webpage. From Windows 95 to Windows Vista, the fallback typeface was Arial at 10pt; in Windows 7, it was altered to Calibri at 11pt. WordPad for Windows XP now includes the full Unicode support, allowing it to endorse various languages, but UTF-16/UCS-2 Big Endian is not endorsed. It can access Microsoft Word files (versions 6.0–2003), but it opens updated incarnations of the.doc format with incorrect formatting. Furthermore, unlike earlier WordPad versions, it does not support saving files in the.doc format (only .txt, .odt, and .rtf). Unicode text files are encoded as UTF-16 LE. Windows XP Service Pack 2 and subsequent Windows versions and their system updates lowered assistance for having opened for security purposes.

Features of Wordpad

Its benefits include low system resource utilization, clarity, and maneuverability. Reposting into WordPad from an Html file, including a Web page or email, usually gets converted the majority or all of it to RTF (this depends partly on the Web browser from which the text is copied). WordPad is ideal for taking notes, writing letters and stories, and using it on a variety of tablets, PCs, and smartphones. It is inadequate for a job that depends heavily on visuals and formatting, such as the majority of publication prerequisites for providing a final printed version.

Drawbacks of Wordpad

WordPad can file format and publish a message, including fonts and bold, italic, colored, and centered text, but it lacks features like a spell checker, thesaurus, and scrollbars regulation. Notes and footnotes are not endorsed. Columns, strikeout, superscript, subscript, "extra" colors, text color scheme, bulleted and numbered lists, right and left indentation, quasi-hypertext and URL linking, and line breaks greater than are all characteristics that WordPad has can perused, deliver, and save but not start creating.

Differences Between Microsoft Word and Wordpad in Points

  1. MS Word contains numerous features, whereas MS WordPad contains fewer and limited functionalities.
  2. MS Word runs under the Trialware authorization, whereas MS WordPad runs under the Freemium permit.
  3. MS Word was introduced to the industry for the first time on October 25, 1983, whereas WordPad founded its origins in 1989.
  4. MS Word was modified and launched in a stable form on December 22nd, 2021, whereas WordPad was published in a stable state on December 14th, 2021.
  5. We can secure MS Word files by adding passcodes to them, but we could not do the exact thing for MS WordPad.
  6. MS word has the feature of Word Art, which enables a text to be displayed in an exaggerated form of design, even in 3-D form; but, Wordpad lacks the very feature.
  7. MS Word is more vibrant than Wordpad.

Conclusion

Microsoft Word (also known as simply Word) is a word and program processor that includes all of the features needed to create highly structured programs. It is among the most widely utilized MS Office programs in the world. A text-based file can be conveniently formulated by experimenting with various configuration options, and then saved in print or decided to share as needed. The documents can be secured as.doc files, and it supports all types of text files.

WordPad is an improved text editor than Notepad because it offers more than just clear text. It is bulkier to open than a notepad but much more comfortable than MS Word and allows users to create pamphlets, articles, notations, and banners. The WordPad program includes a toolbar, progress bar, navigation menu, and page customization options. It also accepts files in the .txt, .doc, and .odt formats. Users can also input photographs, web links, and date and time. WordPad, apart from Notepad, endorses visuals and provides configuration options to the consumer.

Microsoft Word and WordPad are two examples of software that allow users to create and customize any piece of product. Such an operating system is now obtainable not only on desktops and laptops but also on our cellphones. When such applications are downloaded onto phones, they assist the user in a variety of ways. When they want to write and edit, they can carry their files on their respective smartphones, making it simple to combine things. MS Word and WordPad files are also transferrable. It is one of the beneficial software programs created by Microsoft Incorporation.

References

  • "Microsoft Word." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
  • "Microsoft Word." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.

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"Difference Between Microsoft Word and Wordpad." Diffzy.com, 2024. Wed. 10 Apr. 2024. <https://www.diffzy.com/article/difference-between-microsoft-word-and-wordpad-284>.



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