Word processors can be distinguished from several other, related forms of software. text editor programs were the precursors of word processors. While offering facilities for composing and editing text, they do not offer direct support for document formatting, and are now used mainly by programmers and web site designers for creating and modifying computer programs. [Desktop publishing]? programs, meanwhile, were specifically designed to allow elaborate layout for publication, but offer only limited support for editing. Typically, desktop publishing programs use text that has already been written using a text editor or word processor and then imported into the desktop publishing program.
The word processor has become a central component of the office applications suite and are increasingly only available in this form, rather than as a standalone program.
Word processing programs
Historically important programs
Programs still manufactured and in use