1st Word and 1st Word Plus are word processors developed by GST Computer Systems in the 1980s. The original package, 1st Word, was given away free with all Atari STs. The later 1st Word Plus was sold by GST and was more advanced. Atari ST disk magazine ST News was written entirely and exclusively using 1st Word and, later, 1st Word Plus. The first Volume (1986) was distributed as a plain 1st Word .DOC file, after that a custom shell was produced that enabled the 1st Word documents to be displayed in a userfriendly disk magazine shell.
1st Word first began being bundled with the Atari ST in December 1985. 1st Word Plus version 2.0 credits Mike Bees, Howard Chalkley, Phil Champ, Martin Dickens, Chris Scheybeler, and Alun Gladman.
A PC version was produced that ran using Digital Research's GEM interface. Other versions were produced for the Arthur and RISC OS operating systems for Acorn's ARM-based machines, the Torch XXX, and for Digital Research's FlexOS.