It was a straightforward port of MS Word 6.0. MS Word 6 for Windows NT was the first 32-bit version of the product, released with Microsoft Office for Windows NT around the same time as Windows 95.

MS Word files are commonly used as the format for sending text documents via e-mail because almost every user with a computer can read a Word document by using the Word application, a word processor or a Word viewer that imports the Word format. It contains rudimentary desktop publishing capabilities and is the most widely used word processing program on the market.

MS Word for Windows is available stand-alone or as part of the Microsoft Office suite.