[[WordStar]] was created in four months by Seymour Rubinstein after founding [[MicroPro International]] in 1978. WordStar is commonly attributed as the first [[WYSIWYG]] (what you see is what you get) editor, as the WordStar editor replicated the printed output.
Inspired by the success of WordStar by 1982 many competitors began to release their offerings,<ref name="mace19820412iw19820412">{{Cite magazine |last=MaceFreiberger |first=ScottPaul |last2=Dvorak |first2=John C. |date=1982-04-12 |title=ZenithWest workingCoast onComputer 16-bitFaire microsdraws 40,000 people |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjAEAAAAMBAJ&pglpg=PA3&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=true |access-date=2025-03-16 |magazine=InfoWorld |pages=1,4 6-7}}</ref> including [[WordPerfect]] in 1979, [[MultiMate]] in 1982, and [[Microsoft Word]] in 1983.<ref name="origins-2006" /><ref name="proliferation-2006">{{cite journal |last1=Bergin |first1=Thomas J. |title=The Proliferation and Consolidation of Word Processing Software: 1985-1995 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |date=October 2006 |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=48–63 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.2006.77 |s2cid=20785663 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4042485 |access-date=29 June 2022 |issn=1934-1547}}</ref>
