We’re all about Microsoft’s 50th birthday this year.
That’s why our HACKS also look BACK at some fascinating facts from the tech giant’s five decade-run helping shape commerce across the globe.
First up is Word and ‘my word’ there are some real gems here.
THE HACKS
Hack number one
There’s a hidden “Lorem Ipsum” generator which is handy for marketeers and designers who need a bit of time when it comes to copy.
Typing =lorem(p,l) into a blank line in a Word document and pressing Enter automatically generates random placeholder (Lorem Ipsum) text.
Here’s how it works:
p = number of paragraphs
l = number of lines per paragraph
Example:
If you type:
CopyEdit
=lorem(3,5)
…then press Enter, Word will generate 3 paragraphs, each with 5 lines of Lorem Ipsum text.
Bonus Tip:
You can also try:
=rand(p,l) — Generates English sample text (like “The quick brown fox…”)
Hack number two
Reveal Formatting (Shift + F1) is one of Word’s most underrated tools, especially when working on documents that need to look consistent (think reports, proposals, CVs, or anything client-facing).
It can fix formatting gremlins by showing everything about the selected text — font, size, line spacing, margins, paragraph settings, and more.
Hack number three
Compare two documents side-by-side by using Review > Compare. Great for version control as it highlights differences between two versions and can show a clean, revised version with tracked changes automatically applied.
THE FUN FACTS
There’s clearly so much built-in to trusty Word. What’s more, it’s quietly shaped how we work, write, and communicate. Here are things you might not know!
Word predates Windows
The first version launched in 1983 for MS-DOS — two years before Windows even existed.
It wasn’t always the top dog
In the ’80s and early ’90s, WordPerfect was the go-to. Word only gained dominance in the mid-90s when it was bundled into Microsoft Office.
Clippy was real
Between 1997–2003, the animated paperclip offered writing help (sometimes whether you wanted it or not). It was an early attempt at assistive tech.
Track Changes appeared in 1989
The feature revolutionised editing and collaboration. Before that, people would print documents and mark them up by hand (trees got a real hammering).
Word helped push Unicode adoption.
Its global usage forced early support for multiple writing systems — influencing standards we now rely on across the web, from emoji to accented characters.
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