In memory of the man who put red and green squiggles under words
13 hours ago
- #Microsoft Word
- #Software Development
- #User Interface Design
- Tony Krueger was a key developer on many versions of Microsoft Word, likely shipping more versions than anyone else.
- He improved Word's spell checker by making it non-blocking and introducing real-time red squiggles for misspellings (and later green for grammar errors), which reduced user interruption.
- His work on the squiggles gained recognition from Penn and Teller, who expressed their love for the feature, and later appeared in 'Weird Al' Yankovic's 'Word Crimes' parody video.
- The red squiggle design was carefully chosen to be noticeable yet non-distracting, avoiding confusion with regular text formatting, and has since become a standard in word processors and beyond.
- Krueger also ported Chip's Challenge to Windows without source code by reverse-engineering the MS-DOS version, showcasing his technical skill.
- The squiggle feature originated in Word 95, with the zigzag design adopted to prevent confusion with underlines, especially in red text.