Word docs being the medium of exchange created enough of a network effect. I remember trying to use other programs but importing/exporting to Word wasn't perfect.

Windows 95/98 shipped with some kind of half-implemented Word, the name of which I forgot. So you could send a Word doc to anyone basically and they could read it, a great business strategy.

Paradoxically the Internet killed the others; now printouts weren’t the standard document exchange format.