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Microsoft Word Viewer

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Microsoft Word Viewer is a standalone freeware program that lets users who do not own Microsoft Word to view and print documents that were created in Microsoft Office. Citation from Microsoft Word Viewer license terms included in software installation: "You may use the software only to view and print files created with Microsoft Office software."[1] [2] [3] It means, that usage of Word Viewer for viewing files created in any of availaible word processors except Microsoft Word, is a violation of this license agreement. In fact, it is usually unpossible to find out, what software was used for creating files.

Microsoft Word Viewer is not available for purchase but can be without a fee downloaded from the Microsoft web site.[4] In order to edit viewed documents it is necessary to copy text to the clipboard and paste into an alternative editor.[5]

Supported file formats in Microsoft Word Viewer are: doc, docx, docm, dot, rtf, wri, txt, htm, html, mht, mhtml, xml, wpd, wps. For viewing Microsoft Office 2007 files docx, docm, the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats" must be installed.[1]

Similar to Microsoft Word Viewer is also Microsoft Excel Viewer and Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer.

History

Word Viewer 97-2000 was released on 17 March 1999 and was able to open documents that were created with versions of Word for Windows 97 and 2000 and with version 4.x and later versions of Microsoft Word for Macintosh.[6] It was available in 16-bit and 32-bit Windows versions and optimised to display Word documents in Internet Explorer 3.x and later.

Word Viewer 2003 was released on 15 December 2004 replacing Word Viewer 97-2000. It added support for Word XP and Word 2003 in addition to support for earlier versions.

Word Viewer was released on 26 September 2007 replacing Word Viewer 2003. It added support for Microsoft Office Word 2007. An associated product, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, adds support for the additional file formats found in Office 2007. [7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Word Viewer download details, September 26, 2007[1]
  2. ^ Word Viewer 2003, August 9, 2005 [2]
  3. ^ License terms for Microsoft software [3]
  4. ^ How to obtain the latest Word Viewer [4]
  5. ^ Description of the Microsoft Word Viewer 97-2000
  6. ^ The Institution of Engineering and Technology
  7. ^ Word Viewer download page
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