MS Word predates both of those. I was in the electronic publishing
market in the early 80s -- it's been a long while since it's been
considered a "market," since Word rendered the category horizontal.
Word had capabilities like those described in late 84, early 85
on the Macintosh. Frame first came on the radar screen in 86 and
Quark in 86 or 87. In fact Pagemaker (then Aldus, now Adobe and
nearly moribund) offered styles as early as 1984, on the Mac. If
Moft applied for a patent on the basis of Word (though that would
be some long-old submarine journey) then the prior art they'd have
to worry about would be in Pagemaker, Xyvision, Texet, and Interleaf;
and possibly in the Xerox Star and Bravo etc. before that. The
commercial guys (I was at Texet) weren't inclined to publish much.
_____________________________________________________
Keith Dawson dawson@world.std.com http://dawson.nu/
Layer of ash separates morning and evening milk.