Microsoft Office
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Office is a non-free
commercial
office suite
of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows
and Mac OS X
operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word
, Microsoft Excel
, and Microsoft PowerPoint
. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE
data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications
scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications
brand.
The current versions are Office 2010 for Windows, released on June 15, 2010; and Office 2011
for Mac OS X, released October 26, 2010.
The Microsoft Office for Windows 1.5 updated the suite with Microsoft Excel 3.0.
The Microsoft Office for Windows 1.6 added Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 to the bundle.
The Microsoft Office for Windows 3.0
, released in August 1992, contained Word 2.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail 3.0. It was the first version of Office also released on CD-ROM. In 1993, The Microsoft Office Professional was released, which added Microsoft Access 1.1.
In 1994, Microsoft Office 4.0 was released containing Word 6.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail. Word's version number jumped from 2.0 to 6.0 so that it would have the same version number as the MS-DOS and Macintosh versions (Excel and PowerPoint were already numbered the same as the Macintosh versions).
Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows NT was released in 1994 for i386, Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC architectures, containing Word 6.0 and Excel 5.0 (both 32-bit, PowerPoint 4.0 (16-bit), and Microsoft Office Manager 4.2 (the precursor to the Office Shortcut Bar).
Microsoft Office 4.3 was released as the last 16-bit version, containing Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0. Office 4.3 (plus Access 2.0 in the Pro version) is the last version to support Windows 3.x
, Windows NT 3.1
and Windows NT 3.5
. Windows NT 3.51 was supported up to and including Office 97.
Microsoft Office 95
was released in August 1995. Again, the version numbers were altered to create parity across the suite—every program was called version 7.0 meaning all but Word missed out versions. It was designed as a fully 32-bit
version to match Windows 95
. Office 95 was available in two versions, Office 95 Standard and Office 95 Professional. The standard version consisted of Word 7.0, Excel 7.0, PowerPoint 7.0, and Schedule+ 7.0. The professional edition contained all of the items in the standard version plus Access 7.0. If the professional version was purchased in CD-ROM
form, it also included Bookshelf
.
Microsoft Office 97
(Office 8.0), was a major milestone
release. It included hundreds of new features and improvements, introduced command bars, a paradigm in which menus and toolbar
s were made more similar in capability and visual design. Office 97 also featured Natural Language Systems
and grammar checking. Office 97 was the first version of Office to include the Office Assistant
.
Microsoft Office 2000
(Office 9.0) introduced adaptive menus, where little-used options were hidden from the user. It also introduced a new security feature, built around digital signature
s, to diminish the threat of macro viruses. Office 2000 automatically trusts macros (written in VBA 6) that were digitally signed from authors who have been previously designated as trusted. Office 2000 is the last version to support Windows 95
.
Microsoft Office XP
(Office 10.0 or Office 2002) was released in conjunction with Windows XP
, and was a major upgrade with numerous enhancements and changes over Office 2000. Office XP introduced the Safe Mode
feature, which allows applications such as Outlook to boot when it might otherwise fail. Safe Mode enables Office to detect and either repair or bypass the source of the problem, such as a corrupted registry
or a faulty add-in. Smart tag
is a technology introduced with Office XP. Some smart tags operate based on user activity, such as helping with typing errors. These smart tags are supplied with the products, and are not programmable. For developers, though, there is the ability to create custom smart tags. In Office XP, custom smart tags could work only in Word and Excel. Microsoft Office XP includes integrated voice command and text dictation capabilities, as well as handwriting recognition
. Office XP is the last version to support Windows 98
, ME
and NT 4.0
. It was the first version to require Product Activation
as an anti-piracy measure, which attracted widespread controversy.
Microsoft Office 2003
(Office 11.0) was released in 2003. It featured a new logo. Two new applications made their debut in Office 2003: Microsoft InfoPath
and OneNote. It is the first version to use Windows XP style icons. Outlook 2003 provides improved functionality in many areas, including Kerberos authentication, RPC
over HTTP, Cached Exchange Mode, and an improved junk mail filter. 2003 is the last Office version to support Windows 2000
.
Microsoft Office 2007
(Office 12.0) was released in 2007. Office 2007's new features include a new graphical user interface
called the Fluent User Interface, replacing the menus and toolbars that have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception with a tabbed toolbar, known as the Ribbon
; new XML-based file formats called Office Open XML; and the inclusion of Groove, a collaborative software
application.
Microsoft Office 2010 (Office 14.0) was finalized on April 15, 2010, and was made available to consumers on June 15, 2010. . The main features of Office 2010 include the backstage file menu, new collaboration tools, a customizable ribbon, protected view and a navigation pane. This is the first version to ship in 32- and 64-bits. Microsoft Office 2010 also features a new logo, which is similar to the 2007 logo, except in gold, and with a slightly modified shape. Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 was released on June 28th, 2011.
Microsoft Office 2012 is reportedly in Build 15.0.2703.1000, and has reached Milestone 2. It sports a revamped application interface; the interface is based on Metro Design Language
, the interface of Windows Media Center
for Windows Phone 7
. Microsoft Outlook has received the most pronounced changes so far; for example, the Metro interface enables users to have access to a new visualization for scheduled tasks. PowerPoint will include more templates and transition effects, and OneNote a new splash screen. On May 16, 2011, new images of Office 15 were revealed, showing Excel with a tool for filtering data in a storm, the ability to convert Roman numerals to Arabic numerals, and the integration of advanced trigonometric functions. In Word, the capability of inserting video and audio online as well as the broadcasting of documents on the Web were implemented.
1.0 in 1984, the first year of the Macintosh computer; Excel
1.0 in 1985; and PowerPoint
1.0 in 1987. Microsoft does not include its Access
database
application in Office for Mac.
Microsoft has noted that some features are added to Office for Mac before they appear in Windows versions, such as Office for Mac 2001's Office Project Gallery and PowerPoint Movie feature, which allows users to save presentations as QuickTime movies. However, Microsoft Office for Mac has been long criticized for its lack of support of Unicode
and right-to-left
languages, notably Arabic
and Hebrew
.
The Microsoft Office was introduced for Macintosh in 1989, before Office was released for Windows. It included Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, PowerPoint 2.01, and Mail 1.37. It was originally a limited-time promotion but later became a regular product. With the release of Office on CD-ROM later that year, Microsoft became the first major Mac publisher to put its applications on CD-ROM.
Microsoft Office 1.5 for Mac was released in 1991 and included the updated Excel 3.0, the first application to support Apple’s System 7
operating system
.
Microsoft Office 3.0 for Mac was released in 1992. It included Word 5.0, Excel 4.0, and PowerPoint 3.0. Excel 4.0 was the first application to support the new AppleScript
.
Microsoft Office 4.2 for Mac was released in 1994. (Version 4.0 was skipped to synchronize version numbers with Office for Windows.) Version 4.2 included Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0, and Mail 3.2. It was the first Office suite for the Power Macintosh
. Its user interface was identical to Office 4.2 for Windows, leading many customers to comment that it wasn't Mac-like enough. The final release for Mac 68K was Office 4.2.1, which updated Word to version 6.0.1, somewhat improving its performance.
Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition
was unveiled at MacWorld Expo/San Francisco
in 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer
4.0 web browser
and Outlook Express
, an Internet e-mail
client
and usenet newsgroup reader. Office 98 was re-engineered by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit
to satisfy customers' desire for software they felt was more Mac-like. It included drag–and-drop
installation, self-repairing applications and Quick Thesaurus
, before such features were available in Office for Windows. It also was the first version to support QuickTime
movies.
Microsoft Office 2001
, launched in 2000, was the last Office suite for the classic Mac OS
; it required Mac OS 8, although version 8.5 or later was recommended. Office 2001 introduced Entourage
, an e-mail client that included information management tools such as a calendar, an address book, task lists and notes.
Microsoft Office v. X
was released in 2001 for the new Mac OS X platform.
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac was released in 2004.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
was released in 2008. It was the first Office for Mac suite that was a universal binary
, running natively on both Intel- and PowerPC
-based Macs, and it supported Office Open XML file formats first introduced in Office 2007 for Windows. Five months after it was released, Microsoft said that Office 2008 was "selling faster than any previous version of Office for Mac in the past 19 years" and affirmed "its commitment to future products for the Mac."
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
was released on October 26, 2010, and features a Mac version of Outlook to replace the Entourage email client. This Mac version of Outlook is intended to make the Mac version of Office work better with Microsoft's Exchange server and with those using Office for Windows. Office 2011 includes a Mac-based Ribbon similar to Office for Windows.
is a word processor
and was previously considered the main program in Office. Its proprietary DOC
format is considered a de facto
standard, although Word 2007 can also use a new XML-based, Microsoft Office-optimized format called .DOCX, which has been standardized by Ecma International
as Office Open XML and its SP2 update will support ODF
and PDF
. Word is also available in some editions of Microsoft Works
. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. The first version of Word, released in the autumn of 1983, was for the MS-DOS operating system and had the distinction of introducing the mouse to a broad population. Word 1.0 could be purchased with a bundled mouse, though none was required. Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Macintosh attempted to add closer WYSIWYG features into its package. Word for Mac was released in 1985. Word for Mac was the first graphical version of Microsoft Word. Despite its bugginess, it became one of the most popular Mac applications.
is a spreadsheet
program that originally competed with the dominant Lotus 1-2-3
, but eventually outsold it. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Mac in 1985, and the first Windows version (numbered 2.05 to line up with the Mac and bundled with a standalone Windows run-time environment) in November 1987.
(not to be confused with Outlook Express) is a personal information manager
and e-mail
communication software. The replacement for Windows Messaging
, Microsoft Mail
and Schedule+ starting in Office 97, it includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book.
On the Mac, Microsoft offered several versions of Outlook in the late 1990s, but only for use with Microsoft Exchange Server
. In Office 2001, it introduced an alternative application with a slightly different feature set called Microsoft Entourage
. It reintroduced Outlook in Office 2011, replacing Entourage.
is a popular presentation program
for Windows and Mac. It is used to create slideshows, composed of text, graphics, movies and other objects, which can be displayed on-screen and navigated through by the presenter or printed out on transparencies
or slides
.
The following applications are no longer branded as part of Microsoft Office:
set and do not exactly match the native operating system. This is most apparent in Microsoft Office XP and 2003, where the standard menus were replaced with a colored flat looking, shadowed menu style. The user interface of a particular version of Microsoft Office often heavily influences a subsequent version of Microsoft Windows. For example, the toolbar, colored buttons and the gray-colored '3D' look of Office 4.3 were added to Windows 95. The Ribbon, introduced in Office 2007, has been incorporated into several applications bundled with Windows 7.
Users of Microsoft Office may access external data via connection-specifications saved in "Office Data Connection" (.odc) files.
Both Windows and Office use Service Packs to update software, Office used to release non-cumulative Service Releases, which were discontinued after Office 2000 Service Release 1.
Programs in past versions of Office often contained
substantial Easter eggs
. For example, Excel 97 contained a reasonably functional flight-simulator. Versions starting with Office XP have not contained any easter eggs in the name of Trustworthy Computing
.
. Previously, Microsoft had supplied such documentation freely but only on request.
Starting with Office 2007, the default file format has been a version of Office Open XML, though different than the one standardized and published by Ecma International
and by ISO
/IEC
. Microsoft has granted patent rights to the formats technology under the Open Specification Promise and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000 and Office 2004 for the Mac. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Mac platform (iWork
'08) and Linux
(OpenOffice.org
3.0). In addition, Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 supports the OpenDocument
Format (ODF) for opening and saving documents.
Microsoft provides the ability to remove metadata
from Office documents. This was in response to highly publicized incidents where sensitive data about a document was leaked via its metadata. Metadata removal was first available in 2004, when Microsoft released a tool called Remove Hidden Data Add-in for Office 2003/XP for this purpose It was directly integrated into Office 2007 in a feature called the Document Inspector.
support was dropped in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac but was restored in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.
There were efforts in the mid 1990s to port Office to RISC processors such as NEC
/ MIPS
and IBM
/ PowerPC
, but they met problems such as memory access being hampered by data structure alignment
requirements. Microsoft Word 97 and Excel 97 however did ship for the DEC Alpha
platform. Difficulties in porting Office may have been a factor in discontinuing Windows NT
on non-Intel platforms.
There is no mention of support for other operating systems, although Microsoft Office Mobile
, which supports the more popular features of Microsoft Office, is available for Windows Mobile
and is planned to soon be available for Symbian OS.
CrossOver
, a Windows compatibility layer by CodeWeavers
, makes it possible to run Microsoft Office on the Linux platform. Doing so, however, requires a license for Microsoft Office for Windows, as well as a license for CrossOver.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
commercial
Commercial software
Commercial software, or less commonly, payware, is computer software that is produced for sale or that serves commercial purposes.Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software packages may also be commercial software....
office suite
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
, and Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE
Object Linking and Embedding
Object Linking and Embedding is a technology developed by Microsoft that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects. For developers, it brought OLE Control eXtension , a way to develop and use custom user interface elements...
data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications
Visual Basic for Applications
Visual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6 and its associated integrated development environment , which are built into most Microsoft Office applications...
scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications
Office Business Applications
Office Business Applications are an emerging class of application that helps businesses unlock the value of their Line of Business systems and turn document-based processes into real applications....
brand.
The current versions are Office 2010 for Windows, released on June 15, 2010; and Office 2011
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is the most recent version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Mac OS X. It is the successor to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and is comparable to Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows....
for Mac OS X, released October 26, 2010.
Microsoft Windows versions
The Microsoft Office for Windows started in October 1990 as a bundle of three applications designed for Microsoft Windows 3.0: Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.0, and Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 2.0.The Microsoft Office for Windows 1.5 updated the suite with Microsoft Excel 3.0.
The Microsoft Office for Windows 1.6 added Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 to the bundle.
The Microsoft Office for Windows 3.0
Microsoft Office 3.0
Microsoft Office 3.0 was the third version of Microsoft Office to be released for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Its main components included Word 2.0c, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0, and Mail, a network messaging client. Previously, these components were distributed separately, and it was...
, released in August 1992, contained Word 2.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail 3.0. It was the first version of Office also released on CD-ROM. In 1993, The Microsoft Office Professional was released, which added Microsoft Access 1.1.
In 1994, Microsoft Office 4.0 was released containing Word 6.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail. Word's version number jumped from 2.0 to 6.0 so that it would have the same version number as the MS-DOS and Macintosh versions (Excel and PowerPoint were already numbered the same as the Macintosh versions).
Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows NT was released in 1994 for i386, Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC architectures, containing Word 6.0 and Excel 5.0 (both 32-bit, PowerPoint 4.0 (16-bit), and Microsoft Office Manager 4.2 (the precursor to the Office Shortcut Bar).
Microsoft Office 4.3 was released as the last 16-bit version, containing Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0. Office 4.3 (plus Access 2.0 in the Pro version) is the last version to support Windows 3.x
Windows 3.1x
Windows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...
, Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1 is the first release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of server and business desktop operating systems, and was released to manufacturing on 27 July 1993. The version number was chosen to match the one of Windows 3.1, the then-latest operating environment from Microsoft, on account of...
and Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.5 is the second release of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. It was released on 21 September 1994.One of the primary goals during Windows NT 3.5's development was to increase the speed of the operating system; as a result, the project was given the codename "Daytona" in...
. Windows NT 3.51 was supported up to and including Office 97.
Microsoft Office 95
Microsoft Office 95
Microsoft Office for Windows 95 was the version of Microsoft Office designed specifically for Windows 95, succeeding Office 4.3. Previously, Microsoft had released Office 4.2 for Windows NT for several architectures, which included 32-bit Word 6.0 for Windows NT and Excel 5.0 for Windows NT ,...
was released in August 1995. Again, the version numbers were altered to create parity across the suite—every program was called version 7.0 meaning all but Word missed out versions. It was designed as a fully 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
version to match Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
. Office 95 was available in two versions, Office 95 Standard and Office 95 Professional. The standard version consisted of Word 7.0, Excel 7.0, PowerPoint 7.0, and Schedule+ 7.0. The professional edition contained all of the items in the standard version plus Access 7.0. If the professional version was purchased in CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
form, it also included Bookshelf
Microsoft Bookshelf
Microsoft Bookshelf was a reference collection introduced in 1987 as part of Microsoft's extensive work in promoting CD-ROM technology as a distribution medium for electronic publishing. The original MS-DOS version showcased the massive storage capacity of CD-ROM technology, and was accessed while...
.
Microsoft Office 97
Microsoft Office 97
Microsoft Office 97 was a major milestone release of Microsoft Office, which included hundreds of new features and improvements, introduced "Command Bars", a paradigm in which menus and toolbars were made more similar in capability and visual design featured natural language systems and...
(Office 8.0), was a major milestone
Milestone (Project management)
Within the framework of project management, a milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion of a work package or phase, typically marked by a high level event such as completion, endorsement or signing of a deliverable, document or a high level review meeting.In addition to signaling...
release. It included hundreds of new features and improvements, introduced command bars, a paradigm in which menus and toolbar
Toolbar
In a graphical user interface, on a computer monitor, a toolbar is a GUI widget on which on-screen buttons, icons, menus, or other input or output elements are placed. Toolbars are seen in office suites, graphics editors, and web browsers...
s were made more similar in capability and visual design. Office 97 also featured Natural Language Systems
Natural language processing
Natural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
and grammar checking. Office 97 was the first version of Office to include the Office Assistant
Office Assistant
The Office Assistant was a Microsoft Office feature to assist users by way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. It used technology initially from Microsoft Bob and later Microsoft Agent, offering advice based on Bayesian algorithms...
.
Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office 2000 is a release of Microsoft Office that succeeded Microsoft Office 97 and was designed as a fully 32-bit and Y2K compliant version to match Windows 2000 features. All the Office 2000 applications have OLE 2 capacity, which allows moving data automatically between various...
(Office 9.0) introduced adaptive menus, where little-used options were hidden from the user. It also introduced a new security feature, built around digital signature
Digital signature
A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...
s, to diminish the threat of macro viruses. Office 2000 automatically trusts macros (written in VBA 6) that were digitally signed from authors who have been previously designated as trusted. Office 2000 is the last version to support Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
.
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Office XP is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on March 5, 2001, it is the successor to Office 2000 and the predecessor to Office 2003, and was known as Office 10 in the early stages of its development cycle...
(Office 10.0 or Office 2002) was released in conjunction with Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, and was a major upgrade with numerous enhancements and changes over Office 2000. Office XP introduced the Safe Mode
Safe Mode
Safe mode is a diagnostic mode of a computer operating system . It can also refer to a mode of operation by application software. Safe mode is intended to fix most, if not all problems within an operating system...
feature, which allows applications such as Outlook to boot when it might otherwise fail. Safe Mode enables Office to detect and either repair or bypass the source of the problem, such as a corrupted registry
Windows registry
The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains settings for low-level operating system components as well as the applications running on the platform: the kernel, device drivers, services, SAM, user...
or a faulty add-in. Smart tag
Smart tag (Microsoft)
Smart tags are an early selection-based search feature found in later versions of Microsoft Word, and beta versions of the Internet Explorer 6 web browser by which the application recognizes certain words or types of data and converts it to a hyperlink. Selection-based search allows a user to...
is a technology introduced with Office XP. Some smart tags operate based on user activity, such as helping with typing errors. These smart tags are supplied with the products, and are not programmable. For developers, though, there is the ability to create custom smart tags. In Office XP, custom smart tags could work only in Word and Excel. Microsoft Office XP includes integrated voice command and text dictation capabilities, as well as handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
. Office XP is the last version to support Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
, ME
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
and NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996...
. It was the first version to require Product Activation
Product activation
Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented by Uniloc where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific...
as an anti-piracy measure, which attracted widespread controversy.
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2003 is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on October 21, 2003, it was the successor to Office XP and the predecessor to Office 2007.- Overview :...
(Office 11.0) was released in 2003. It featured a new logo. Two new applications made their debut in Office 2003: Microsoft InfoPath
Microsoft InfoPath
Microsoft Office InfoPath is a software application for designing, distributing, filling and submitting electronic forms containing structured data...
and OneNote. It is the first version to use Windows XP style icons. Outlook 2003 provides improved functionality in many areas, including Kerberos authentication, RPC
Remote procedure call
In computer science, a remote procedure call is an inter-process communication that allows a computer program to cause a subroutine or procedure to execute in another address space without the programmer explicitly coding the details for this remote interaction...
over HTTP, Cached Exchange Mode, and an improved junk mail filter. 2003 is the last Office version to support Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
.
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007 is a Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006 and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007...
(Office 12.0) was released in 2007. Office 2007's new features include a new graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
called the Fluent User Interface, replacing the menus and toolbars that have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception with a tabbed toolbar, known as the Ribbon
Ribbon (computing)
In GUI-based application software, a ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar. Recent releases of some Microsoft applications have embraced this form with a modular ribbon as their main interface. The Ribbon is a contextual interface that offers functionality...
; new XML-based file formats called Office Open XML; and the inclusion of Groove, a collaborative software
Collaborative software
Collaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...
application.
Microsoft Office 2010 (Office 14.0) was finalized on April 15, 2010, and was made available to consumers on June 15, 2010. . The main features of Office 2010 include the backstage file menu, new collaboration tools, a customizable ribbon, protected view and a navigation pane. This is the first version to ship in 32- and 64-bits. Microsoft Office 2010 also features a new logo, which is similar to the 2007 logo, except in gold, and with a slightly modified shape. Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 was released on June 28th, 2011.
Microsoft Office 2012 is reportedly in Build 15.0.2703.1000, and has reached Milestone 2. It sports a revamped application interface; the interface is based on Metro Design Language
Metro Design Language
Metro is an internal code name for a typography-based design language created by Microsoft, originally for use in Windows Phone 7. Early uses of the Metro principles, such as the typography, began as early as Microsoft Encarta 95, and later evolved into products such as Windows Media Center and Zune...
, the interface of Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
for Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
. Microsoft Outlook has received the most pronounced changes so far; for example, the Metro interface enables users to have access to a new visualization for scheduled tasks. PowerPoint will include more templates and transition effects, and OneNote a new splash screen. On May 16, 2011, new images of Office 15 were revealed, showing Excel with a tool for filtering data in a storm, the ability to convert Roman numerals to Arabic numerals, and the integration of advanced trigonometric functions. In Word, the capability of inserting video and audio online as well as the broadcasting of documents on the Web were implemented.
Macintosh versions
Prior to packaging its various office-type Macintosh software applications into Office, Microsoft released Mac versions of WordMicrosoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
1.0 in 1984, the first year of the Macintosh computer; Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
1.0 in 1985; and PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
1.0 in 1987. Microsoft does not include its Access
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of...
database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
application in Office for Mac.
Microsoft has noted that some features are added to Office for Mac before they appear in Windows versions, such as Office for Mac 2001's Office Project Gallery and PowerPoint Movie feature, which allows users to save presentations as QuickTime movies. However, Microsoft Office for Mac has been long criticized for its lack of support of Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
and right-to-left
Bi-directional text
Bi-directional text is text containing text in both text directionalities, both right-to-left and left-to-right . It generally involves text containing different types of alphabets, but may also refer to boustrophedon, which is changing text directionality in each row.Some writing systems of the...
languages, notably Arabic
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
and Hebrew
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
.
The Microsoft Office was introduced for Macintosh in 1989, before Office was released for Windows. It included Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, PowerPoint 2.01, and Mail 1.37. It was originally a limited-time promotion but later became a regular product. With the release of Office on CD-ROM later that year, Microsoft became the first major Mac publisher to put its applications on CD-ROM.
Microsoft Office 1.5 for Mac was released in 1991 and included the updated Excel 3.0, the first application to support Apple’s System 7
System 7
System 7 is the name of a Macintosh operating system introduced in 1991.System 7 may also refer to:* System 7 , a British dance/ambient band* System 7 , 1991 album* IBM System/7, a 1970s computer system...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
.
Microsoft Office 3.0 for Mac was released in 1992. It included Word 5.0, Excel 4.0, and PowerPoint 3.0. Excel 4.0 was the first application to support the new AppleScript
AppleScript
AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. and built into Macintosh operating systems since System 7. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the scripting system itself, or to particular scripts that are written in the AppleScript language....
.
Microsoft Office 4.2 for Mac was released in 1994. (Version 4.0 was skipped to synchronize version numbers with Office for Windows.) Version 4.2 included Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0, and Mail 3.2. It was the first Office suite for the Power Macintosh
Power Macintosh
Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, was a line of Apple Macintosh workstation-class personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors that were developed, marketed, and supported by Apple Inc. from March 1994 until August 2006. The first models were the Power Macintosh 6100,...
. Its user interface was identical to Office 4.2 for Windows, leading many customers to comment that it wasn't Mac-like enough. The final release for Mac 68K was Office 4.2.1, which updated Word to version 6.0.1, somewhat improving its performance.
Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition
Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition is a Mac OS version of Microsoft Office unveiled at Macworld Expo/San Francisco on January 6, 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer 4.0 browser and Outlook Express, an Internet e-mail client and usenet newsgroup reader...
was unveiled at MacWorld Expo/San Francisco
Macworld Conference & Expo
Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld | iWorld is a trade-show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It is held annually in the United States, usually during the second week of January...
in 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
4.0 web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
and Outlook Express
Outlook Express
Outlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...
, an Internet e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
client
Client (computing)
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
and usenet newsgroup reader. Office 98 was re-engineered by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit
Macintosh Business Unit
Macintosh Business Unit is an operating unit of Microsoft that, as of 2009, is the largest software developer outside of Apple Inc. for the Mac OS operating system...
to satisfy customers' desire for software they felt was more Mac-like. It included drag–and-drop
Drag-and-drop
In computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the action of selecting a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object...
installation, self-repairing applications and Quick Thesaurus
Thesaurus
A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...
, before such features were available in Office for Windows. It also was the first version to support QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
movies.
Microsoft Office 2001
Microsoft Office 2001
Microsoft Office 2001, launched in 2000, was the last Office suite for Mac OS, or the Classic operating system; it required Mac OS 8, although version 8.5 or later was recommended.-Applications:...
, launched in 2000, was the last Office suite for the classic Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
; it required Mac OS 8, although version 8.5 or later was recommended. Office 2001 introduced Entourage
Microsoft Entourage
Microsoft Entourage was an e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. Microsoft first released Entourage in October 2000 as part of the Microsoft Office 2001 office suite; Office 98, the previous version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS included...
, an e-mail client that included information management tools such as a calendar, an address book, task lists and notes.
Microsoft Office v. X
Microsoft Office v. X
Microsoft Office v. X was released in 2001 for the new Mac OS X platform.Office v.x was followed by Office 2004, while Support for Office v. X ended on January 9, 2007 after the release of the final update, 10.1.9-External links:*...
was released in 2001 for the new Mac OS X platform.
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac was released in 2004.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is a version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Mac OS X. It supersedes Office 2004 for Mac and is the Mac OS X equivalent of Office 2007. Office 2008 was developed by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit and released on January 15, 2008...
was released in 2008. It was the first Office for Mac suite that was a universal binary
Universal binary
A universal binary is, in Apple parlance, an executable file or application bundle that runs natively on either PowerPC or Intel-manufactured IA-32 or Intel 64-based Macintosh computers; it is an implementation of the concept more generally known as a fat binary.With the release of Mac OS X Snow...
, running natively on both Intel- and PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
-based Macs, and it supported Office Open XML file formats first introduced in Office 2007 for Windows. Five months after it was released, Microsoft said that Office 2008 was "selling faster than any previous version of Office for Mac in the past 19 years" and affirmed "its commitment to future products for the Mac."
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is the most recent version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Mac OS X. It is the successor to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and is comparable to Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows....
was released on October 26, 2010, and features a Mac version of Outlook to replace the Entourage email client. This Mac version of Outlook is intended to make the Mac version of Office work better with Microsoft's Exchange server and with those using Office for Windows. Office 2011 includes a Mac-based Ribbon similar to Office for Windows.
Word
Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
is a word processor
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
and was previously considered the main program in Office. Its proprietary DOC
DOC (computing)
In computing, DOC or doc is a filename extension for word processing documents; most commonly for Microsoft Word. Historically, the extension was used for documentation in plain-text format, particularly of programs or computer hardware, on a wide range of operating systems...
format is considered a de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
standard, although Word 2007 can also use a new XML-based, Microsoft Office-optimized format called .DOCX, which has been standardized by Ecma International
Ecma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
as Office Open XML and its SP2 update will support ODF
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
and PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
. Word is also available in some editions of Microsoft Works
Microsoft Works
Microsoft Works is an integrated package software that is produced by Microsoft. Works is smaller, less expensive, and has fewer features than Microsoft Office or other major office suites. Its core functionality includes a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database management system...
. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. The first version of Word, released in the autumn of 1983, was for the MS-DOS operating system and had the distinction of introducing the mouse to a broad population. Word 1.0 could be purchased with a bundled mouse, though none was required. Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Macintosh attempted to add closer WYSIWYG features into its package. Word for Mac was released in 1985. Word for Mac was the first graphical version of Microsoft Word. Despite its bugginess, it became one of the most popular Mac applications.
Excel
Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
is a spreadsheet
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
program that originally competed with the dominant Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software . It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.-Beginnings:...
, but eventually outsold it. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Mac in 1985, and the first Windows version (numbered 2.05 to line up with the Mac and bundled with a standalone Windows run-time environment) in November 1987.
Outlook/Entourage
Microsoft OutlookMicrosoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
(not to be confused with Outlook Express) is a personal information manager
Personal information manager
A personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study...
and e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
communication software. The replacement for Windows Messaging
Windows Messaging
Windows Messaging, initially called Microsoft Exchange, is an e-mail client that was included with Windows 95 , 98 and Windows NT 4.0.In Windows 98, it is not installed by default, but available as a separate program in the setup CD....
, Microsoft Mail
Microsoft Mail
Microsoft Mail was the name given to several early Microsoft e-mail products.-Mac Networks:The first Microsoft Mail product was introduced in 1988 for AppleTalk Networks. It was based on InterMail, a product that Microsoft purchased and updated. An MS-DOS client was added for PCs on AppleTalk...
and Schedule+ starting in Office 97, it includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book.
On the Mac, Microsoft offered several versions of Outlook in the late 1990s, but only for use with Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
. In Office 2001, it introduced an alternative application with a slightly different feature set called Microsoft Entourage
Microsoft Entourage
Microsoft Entourage was an e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. Microsoft first released Entourage in October 2000 as part of the Microsoft Office 2001 office suite; Office 98, the previous version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS included...
. It reintroduced Outlook in Office 2011, replacing Entourage.
PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPointMicrosoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
is a popular presentation program
Presentation program
A presentation program is a computer software package used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show...
for Windows and Mac. It is used to create slideshows, composed of text, graphics, movies and other objects, which can be displayed on-screen and navigated through by the presenter or printed out on transparencies
Transparency (projection)
A transparency, also known in industrial settings as a "viewfoil" or "foil", is a thin sheet of transparent flexible material, typically cellulose acetate, onto which figures can be drawn. These are then placed on an overhead projector for display to an audience...
or slides
Presentation slide
A slide is a single page of a presentation. Collectively, a group of slides may be known as a slide deck. Historically, a slide was created on a transparency and viewed with an overhead projector. In today's digital age, a slide most commonly refers to a single page developed using a presentation...
.
Other desktop applications (Windows version only)
- Microsoft AccessMicrosoft AccessMicrosoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of...
— databaseDatabaseA database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
manager - Microsoft InfoPathMicrosoft InfoPathMicrosoft Office InfoPath is a software application for designing, distributing, filling and submitting electronic forms containing structured data...
— an application to design rich XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based forms - Microsoft OneNote — note-taking software for use with both tablet and conventional PCs
- Microsoft ProjectMicrosoft ProjectMicrosoft Project is a project management software program, developed and sold by Microsoft, which is designed to assist a project manager in developing a plan, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.The application creates critical path...
— project managementProject managementProject management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
software to keep track of events and to create network charts and Gantt chartGantt chartA Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...
s (not bundled in any Office suite) - Microsoft PublisherMicrosoft PublisherMicrosoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It is an entry-level application, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing...
— desktop publishingDesktop publishingDesktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
software mostly used for designing brochures, labels, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletters, and postcards. - Microsoft SharePoint Workspace (formerly known as Groove) — a proprietary peer-to-peerPeer-to-peerPeer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
collaboration software leveled at businesses - Microsoft VisioMicrosoft VisioMicrosoft Visio , formerly known as Microsoft Office Visio, is a commercial diagramming program for Microsoft Windows that uses vector graphics to create diagrams.- Features :...
— diagram and flowcharting software (not bundled in any Office suite) - Microsoft Office InterConnect — business-relationship database available only in Japan
- Microsoft Office Picture ManagerMicrosoft Office Picture ManagerMicrosoft Office Picture Manager is a software program included with Microsoft Office suite starting with version 2003. It is a basic image editing and image management program...
— basic photo management software (similar to GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's PicasaPicasaPicasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...
or AdobeAdobe SystemsAdobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
's Photoshop Elements), replaced Microsoft Photo EditorMicrosoft Photo EditorMicrosoft Photo Editor is an image-editing application found in Microsoft Office 97–XP versions for Windows, classified as one of Microsoft Office Tools...
The following applications are no longer branded as part of Microsoft Office:
- Microsoft SharePoint DesignerMicrosoft SharePoint DesignerMicrosoft SharePoint Designer is a specialized HTML editor and web design freeware for creating or modifying Microsoft SharePoint sites and web pages. It is a part of Microsoft SharePoint family of products...
— a WYSIWYGWYSIWYGWYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
HTML editorHTML editorAn HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related...
and web design program for customizing SharePointMicrosoft SharePointMicrosoft SharePoint is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. First launched in 2001, SharePoint is typically associated with web content management and document management systems, but it is actually a much broader platform of web technologies, capable of being configured into a wide...
applications, it replaces Microsoft FrontPageMicrosoft FrontPageMicrosoft FrontPage was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003...
(not bundled in any Office suite) - Microsoft Lync — Integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real time (known as Microsoft Office Communicator in Office 2007, bundled with Professional Plus and Enterprise editions)
Server applications
- Microsoft SharePointMicrosoft SharePointMicrosoft SharePoint is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. First launched in 2001, SharePoint is typically associated with web content management and document management systems, but it is actually a much broader platform of web technologies, capable of being configured into a wide...
— collaboration server- Excel ServicesExcel ServicesExcel Services is a new server technology included in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. This shared service enables users to load, calculate, and display Excel 2007 workbooks on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007....
- InfoPath Forms ServicesInfoPath Forms ServicesInfoPath Forms Services is a component of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 which allows Microsoft Office InfoPath forms to be hosted in a SharePoint web site and serve them using a browser based interface...
- Excel Services
- Microsoft Lync Server (formerly Office Communications Server and Live Communications Server) — real time communications server
- Microsoft Office Forms ServerMicrosoft Office Forms ServerMicrosoft Office Forms Server 2007 converts InfoPath client forms into html/ajax forms that can be accessed and filled out using any browser, including mobile phone browsers. Forms Server 2007 also supports using a database or other data source as the back-end for the form. Additionally, it allows...
— lets users use any browser to access and fill InfoPath forms. Office Forms Server is a standalone server installation of InfoPath Forms Services. - Microsoft Office Groove ServerMicrosoft Office Groove ServerMicrosoft Office Groove Server 2007 is for centrally managing all deployments of Microsoft Office Groove 2007 in the enterprise. It enables using Active Directory for Groove user accounts, and create Groove Domains, with individual policy settings....
— centrally managing all deployments of Microsoft Office GrooveMicrosoft Office GrooveMicrosoft SharePoint Workspace, previously known as Microsoft Office Groove, is a desktop application designed for document collaboration in teams with members who are regularly off-line or who do not share the same network security clearance....
in the enterprise - Microsoft Office Project ServerMicrosoft Office Project ServerMicrosoft Office Project Server is a project management server solution made by Microsoft. It uses Microsoft SharePoint as its foundation, and supports both a web interface and Microsoft Project as the client application.- Versions for Windows :...
— project management server - Microsoft Office Project Portfolio ServerMicrosoft Office Project Portfolio ServerMicrosoft Office Project Portfolio Server is a project portfolio management application from Microsoft. It is part of their Enterprise Project Management suite which includes Microsoft Office Project Server.- Versions for Windows :...
— allows creation of a project portfolio, including workflows, hosted centrally - Microsoft Office PerformancePoint ServerMicrosoft Office PerformancePoint ServerMicrosoft Office PerformancePoint Server was a software product from Microsoft for the business intelligence sector. Development on PerformancePoint was discontinued in April 2009...
— allows customers to monitor, analyze, and plan their business
Web services
- Office Web AppsOffice Web AppsMicrosoft Office Web Apps is a web-based version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite. It includes the web-based versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote. The web applications allow users to access their documents directly from anywhere within a...
— Web-based companions to Microsoft Office applications to view, create, and edit documents. - Office LiveMicrosoft Office LiveMicrosoft Office Live is a discontinued web-based service providing document sharing and website creation tools for consumers and small businesses...
- Office Live Small Business — Web hosting services and online collaboration tools for small businesses.
- Office Live Workspace — Online storage and collaboration service for documents, superseded by Office Web Apps and SkyDrive
- Live Meeting — Web conferencing service.
- Microsoft Office product web siteMicrosoft Office OnlineMicrosoft Office web site is the official web site of Microsoft Office. The site provides Office how-to articles, tips, training courses, templates, clip art, stock photos and media, add-ins for Microsoft Office programs, productivity-enhancing tools, and web-based services.As of November 2004,...
— Provides support for all Microsoft Office products. - Microsoft Update — Web site. Patch detection and installation service for Microsoft Office.
- Microsoft Office 365Microsoft Office 365Microsoft Office 365 is a commercial software plus services offering a set of products from Microsoft Corporation, with the initial plan including a Professional subscription and an Enterprise subscription...
- Cloud-based version of office, available for purchase since early 2011.
Common features
Most versions of Microsoft Office (including Office 97 and later) use their own widgetWidget toolkit
In computing, a widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of widgets for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces...
set and do not exactly match the native operating system. This is most apparent in Microsoft Office XP and 2003, where the standard menus were replaced with a colored flat looking, shadowed menu style. The user interface of a particular version of Microsoft Office often heavily influences a subsequent version of Microsoft Windows. For example, the toolbar, colored buttons and the gray-colored '3D' look of Office 4.3 were added to Windows 95. The Ribbon, introduced in Office 2007, has been incorporated into several applications bundled with Windows 7.
Users of Microsoft Office may access external data via connection-specifications saved in "Office Data Connection" (.odc) files.
Both Windows and Office use Service Packs to update software, Office used to release non-cumulative Service Releases, which were discontinued after Office 2000 Service Release 1.
Programs in past versions of Office often contained
Easter eggs in Microsoft products
Some of Microsoft's early products included hidden Easter eggs. Microsoft formally stopped including Easter eggs in its programs as part of its Trustworthy Computing Initiative in 2002.- Microsoft Bear :...
substantial Easter eggs
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
. For example, Excel 97 contained a reasonably functional flight-simulator. Versions starting with Office XP have not contained any easter eggs in the name of Trustworthy Computing
Trustworthy Computing
The term Trustworthy Computing has been applied to computing systems that are inherently secure, available, and reliable. The Committee on Information Systems Trustworthiness’ publication, Trust in Cyberspace, defines such a system as one which...
.
File formats and metadata
Microsoft Office prior to Office 2007 used proprietary file formats. This forced users who share data to adopt the same software platform. In 2008, Microsoft made the entire documentation for the binary Office formats freely available for download and granted any possible patents rights for use or implementations of those binary format for free under the Open Specification PromiseMicrosoft Open Specification Promise
The Microsoft Open Specification Promise , is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert legal rights over certain Microsoft patents on implementations of an included list of technologies....
. Previously, Microsoft had supplied such documentation freely but only on request.
Starting with Office 2007, the default file format has been a version of Office Open XML, though different than the one standardized and published by Ecma International
Ecma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
and by ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
/IEC
IEC
-Organisations:* Independent Electoral Commission * Independent Electrical Contractors, a U.S. national trade association.* Institut d'Estudis Catalans , a Catalan academic institution....
. Microsoft has granted patent rights to the formats technology under the Open Specification Promise and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000 and Office 2004 for the Mac. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Mac platform (iWork
IWork
iWork is an office suite of desktop applications created by Apple for the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. The first version of iWork, iWork '05, was released in 2005. The suite originally bundled Keynote, a presentation program which had previously been sold as a standalone application, and...
'08) and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
3.0). In addition, Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 supports the OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
Format (ODF) for opening and saving documents.
Microsoft provides the ability to remove metadata
Metadata removal tool
Metadata removal tool or Metadata scrubber is a type of privacy software built to protect the privacy of its users by removing potentially privacy-compromising metadata from files before they are shared with others Metadata removal tool or Metadata scrubber is a type of privacy software built to...
from Office documents. This was in response to highly publicized incidents where sensitive data about a document was leaked via its metadata. Metadata removal was first available in 2004, when Microsoft released a tool called Remove Hidden Data Add-in for Office 2003/XP for this purpose It was directly integrated into Office 2007 in a feature called the Document Inspector.
Extensibility
A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write add-ins (plug-ins) that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features. The type of add-ins supported differ by Office versions:- Office 97 onwards (standard Windows DLLs i.e. Word WLLs and Excel XLLs)
- Office 2000 onwards (COMComponent Object ModelComponent Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
add-ins) - Office XP onwards (COM/OLE AutomationOLE AutomationIn Microsoft Windows applications programming, OLE Automation , is an inter-process communication mechanism based on Component Object Model that was intended for use by scripting languages – originally Visual Basic – but now are used by languages run on Windows...
add-ins) - Office 2003 onwards (Managed code add-ins - VSTO solutionsVisual Studio Tools for OfficeVisual Studio Tools for Office is a set of development tools available in the form of a Visual Studio add-in and a runtime that allows Microsoft Office 2003 and later versions of Office applications to host the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime to expose their functionality via the .NET...
)
Supported operating systems
Microsoft supports Office for the Windows and Mac platforms. Beginning with Mac Office 4.2, the Mac and Windows versions of Office share the same file format. Consequently, any Mac with Office 4.2 or later can read documents created with Office 4.2 for Windows or later, and vice-versa. Visual Basic for ApplicationsVisual Basic for Applications
Visual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6 and its associated integrated development environment , which are built into most Microsoft Office applications...
support was dropped in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac but was restored in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011.
There were efforts in the mid 1990s to port Office to RISC processors such as NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
/ MIPS
MIPS architecture
MIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
and IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
/ PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
, but they met problems such as memory access being hampered by data structure alignment
Data structure alignment
Data structure alignment is the way data is arranged and accessed in computer memory. It consists of two separate but related issues: data alignment and data structure padding. When a modern computer reads from or writes to a memory address, it will do this in word sized chunks...
requirements. Microsoft Word 97 and Excel 97 however did ship for the DEC Alpha
DEC Alpha
Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation , designed to replace the 32-bit VAX complex instruction set computer ISA and its implementations. Alpha was implemented in microprocessors...
platform. Difficulties in porting Office may have been a factor in discontinuing Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
on non-Intel platforms.
There is no mention of support for other operating systems, although Microsoft Office Mobile
Microsoft Office Mobile
Microsoft Office Mobile is an office suite by Microsoft for Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile Professional, Classic, and Standard editions. It consists of Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, OneNote Mobile, and Outlook Mobile. It is meant to be compatible with desktop versions of the...
, which supports the more popular features of Microsoft Office, is available for Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...
and is planned to soon be available for Symbian OS.
CrossOver
Crossover
-Fiction and media:* Fictional crossover, a storyline combining characters or settings from separate fictional properties** Fictional crossovers in video games* Crossover , a 2002 documentary by Justin Lin...
, a Windows compatibility layer by CodeWeavers
CodeWeavers
CodeWeavers is a company that sells a proprietary version of Wine called CrossOver, for running Windows applications on Mac OS X and Linux. The company was founded in 1996 as a consultancy, eventually moving entirely over to Wine development and support...
, makes it possible to run Microsoft Office on the Linux platform. Doing so, however, requires a license for Microsoft Office for Windows, as well as a license for CrossOver.
Version compatibility
Beginning in 3/02/89 , Microsoft instituted a new support lifecycle policy. Versions earlier than Office 2003 are no longer supported. For current and future versions of Office mainstream support will end five years after release, or two years after the next release, whichever time is later, and extended support will end five years after that.Versions available for Windows
| Microsoft Windows version | Last version | Mainstream support end-date | Extended support end-date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 3.51 is the third release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems. It was released on 30 May 1995, nine months after Windows NT 3.5. The release provided two notable feature improvements; firstly NT 3.51 was the first of a short-lived outing of Microsoft Windows on the... with Service Pack 5 |
Office 97 Microsoft Office 97 Microsoft Office 97 was a major milestone release of Microsoft Office, which included hundreds of new features and improvements, introduced "Command Bars", a paradigm in which menus and toolbars were made more similar in capability and visual design featured natural language systems and... |
August 31, 2001 | February 28, 2002 |
| Windows 95 Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products... |
Office 2000 Microsoft Office 2000 Microsoft Office 2000 is a release of Microsoft Office that succeeded Microsoft Office 97 and was designed as a fully 32-bit and Y2K compliant version to match Windows 2000 features. All the Office 2000 applications have OLE 2 capacity, which allows moving data automatically between various... |
June 30, 2004 | July 14, 2009 |
| Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996... |
Office XP Microsoft Office XP Microsoft Office XP is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on March 5, 2001, it is the successor to Office 2000 and the predecessor to Office 2003, and was known as Office 10 in the early stages of its development cycle... |
July 11, 2006 | July 12, 2011 |
| Windows 98 Windows 98 Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid... |
Office XP | July 11, 2006 | July 12, 2011 |
| Windows 2000 Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the... with Service Pack 2 |
Office XP | July 11, 2006 | July 12, 2011 |
| Windows 2000 Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the... with Service Pack 3 or later |
Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2003 is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on October 21, 2003, it was the successor to Office XP and the predecessor to Office 2007.- Overview :... |
April 14, 2009 | April 8, 2014 |
| Windows Me Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006.... |
Office XP | July 11, 2006 | July 12, 2011 |
| Windows XP Windows XP Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base... with Service Pack 2 |
Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 is a Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006 and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007... |
April 10, 2012 | April 11, 2017 |
| Windows XP Windows XP Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base... with Service Pack 3 |
Office 2010 | October 13, 2015 | October 13, 2020 |
| Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005... |
Office 2003 | April 14, 2009 | April 8, 2014 |
| Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005... with Service Pack 2 |
Office 2010 | October 13, 2015 | October 13, 2020 |
| Windows Vista Windows Vista Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs... without Service Pack |
Office 2007 | April 10, 2012 | April 11, 2017 |
| Windows Vista Windows Vista Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs... with Service Pack 1 |
Office 2010 | October 13, 2015 | October 13, 2020 |
| Windows Server 2008 | Office 2010 | October 13, 2015 | October 13, 2020 |
| Windows 7 | Office 2010 | October 13, 2015 | October 13, 2020 |
Versions available for Macintosh
| Macintosh version | CPU | Last version | Support end-date |
|---|---|---|---|
| System 7.0-Mac OS 8.1 | 68K | Office 4.2.1 | |
| System 7.1.2 | PPC | Office 4.2.1 | |
| System 7.5-Mac OS 8.0 | PPC | Office 98 Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition is a Mac OS version of Microsoft Office unveiled at Macworld Expo/San Francisco on January 6, 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer 4.0 browser and Outlook Express, an Internet e-mail client and usenet newsgroup reader... |
June 30, 2003 |
| Mac OS 8.1-9.2.2 | PPC | Office 2001 Microsoft Office 2001 Microsoft Office 2001, launched in 2000, was the last Office suite for Mac OS, or the Classic operating system; it required Mac OS 8, although version 8.5 or later was recommended.-Applications:... |
December 31, 2005 |
| Mac OS X 10.1-10.5 | PPC | Office v. X Microsoft Office v. X Microsoft Office v. X was released in 2001 for the new Mac OS X platform.Office v.x was followed by Office 2004, while Support for Office v. X ended on January 9, 2007 after the release of the final update, 10.1.9-External links:*... |
January 9, 2007 |
| Mac OS X 10.2-10.5 | PPC | Office 2004 Office 2004 for Mac Office 2004 for Mac is a version of Microsoft Office developed for Apple's Mac OS X operating system. The software was originally written for the PowerPC Macs, so Macs with Intel CPUs must run the program under Mac OS X's Rosetta emulation layer.... |
January 10, 2012 |
| Mac OS X 10.4-10.6 | Universal | Office 2008 Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is a version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Mac OS X. It supersedes Office 2004 for Mac and is the Mac OS X equivalent of Office 2007. Office 2008 was developed by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit and released on January 15, 2008... |
April 9, 2013 |
| Mac OS X 10.5-10.6 | Intel | Office 2011 | January 12, 2016 |
Discontinued applications and features
- Microsoft Binder — Incorporates several documents into one file and was originally designed as a container system for storing related documents in a single file. The complexity of use and learning curve led to little usage, and it was discontinued after Office 2002.
- Microsoft FrontPageMicrosoft FrontPageMicrosoft FrontPage was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003...
— This web design software requires its own server program for some functions. It was offered only as a stand-alone program for the 2003 version. In 2006, Microsoft announced they would discontinue it, and replace it with two software packages: Microsoft SharePoint DesignerMicrosoft SharePoint DesignerMicrosoft SharePoint Designer is a specialized HTML editor and web design freeware for creating or modifying Microsoft SharePoint sites and web pages. It is a part of Microsoft SharePoint family of products...
and Microsoft Expression WebMicrosoft Expression WebMicrosoft Expression Web, code-named Quartz, is an HTML editor and general web design software product by Microsoft. It is part of the Expression Studio suite....
. - Microsoft MailMicrosoft MailMicrosoft Mail was the name given to several early Microsoft e-mail products.-Mac Networks:The first Microsoft Mail product was introduced in 1988 for AppleTalk Networks. It was based on InterMail, a product that Microsoft purchased and updated. An MS-DOS client was added for PCs on AppleTalk...
— Mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Schedule Plus and subsequently Microsoft Outlook). - Microsoft Office Document Image Writer — a virtual printerVirtual printerA virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resemble that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer....
that takes documents from Microsoft Office or any other application and prints them, or stores them in an image file as TIFF or Microsoft Document Imaging FormatMicrosoft Document Imaging FormatMDI is a file format created by Microsoft for storing raster images of scanned documents together with optional annotations or metadata which can include the text of the document, generated by OCR...
format. It was discontinued with Office 2010. - Microsoft Office Document ImagingMicrosoft Office Document ImagingMicrosoft Office Document Imaging is a Microsoft Office application that supports editing documents scanned by Microsoft Office Document Scanning. It was first introduced in Microsoft Office XP and is included in later Office versions including Office 2007. It is no longer available in Office 2010...
— an application that supports editing scanned documents. Discontinued with Office 2010. - Microsoft Office Document Scanning — a scanning and OCROptical character recognitionOptical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
application. Discontinued with Office 2010. - Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 — A graphics program that was first released as part of the Office 2000 Premium Edition. A later version for Windows XPWindows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
compatibility was released, known as PhotoDraw 2000 Version 2. Microsoft discontinued the program in 2001. - Microsoft Photo EditorMicrosoft Photo EditorMicrosoft Photo Editor is an image-editing application found in Microsoft Office 97–XP versions for Windows, classified as one of Microsoft Office Tools...
— Photo-editing/raster-graphics software in older Office versions up to Office XP. It was supplemented by Microsoft PhotoDraw in Office 2000 Premium edition. - Microsoft Schedule PlusMicrosoft Schedule PlusMicrosoft Schedule Plus was a time management software product developed by Microsoft, but was discontinued as part of Microsoft Office when most of its functionality was incorporated into Outlook 97...
— Released with Office 95. It featured a planner, to-do list, and contact information. Its functions were incorporated into Microsoft Outlook. - Microsoft Virtual PCMicrosoft Virtual PCWindows Virtual PC is a virtualization program for Microsoft Windows. In July 2006 Microsoft released the Windows-hosted version as a free product...
— Included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2004 for Mac. Microsoft discontinued support for Virtual PC on the Mac in 2006 owing to new Macs possessing the same Intel architecture as Windows PCs. It emulated a standard PC and its hardware. - Microsoft Vizact 2000Microsoft Vizact 2000Microsoft Vizact 2000 was a program that allowed creation of interactive documents using HTML+TIME, adding effects such as animation. It allowed users to create dynamic documents for the Web. According to Microsoft's PressPass, it was "the first document activation application". Development was...
— A program that "activated" documents using HTML, adding effects such as animation. It allows users to create dynamic documents for the Web. Development has ended due to unpopularity. - Microsoft Data Analyzer 2002 — A business intelligenceBusiness intelligenceBusiness intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....
program for graphical visualization of data and its analysis. - Office AssistantOffice AssistantThe Office Assistant was a Microsoft Office feature to assist users by way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. It used technology initially from Microsoft Bob and later Microsoft Agent, offering advice based on Bayesian algorithms...
, included since Office 97 (Windows) and Office 98 (Mac) as a part of Microsoft AgentMicrosoft AgentMicrosoft Agent is a technology developed by Microsoft which employs animated characters, text-to-speech engines, and speech recognition software to enhance interaction with computer users. Thus it is an example of an embodied agent. It comes preinstalled as part of Microsoft Windows 2000 through...
technology, is a system that uses animated characters to offer context-sensitiveContext-sensitive helpContext-sensitive help is a kind of online help that is obtained from a specific point in the state of the software, providing help for the situation that is associated with that state....
suggestions to users and access to the help system. The Assistant is often dubbed "Clippy" or "Clippit", due to its default to a paper clipPaper Clip"Paper Clip" is a 1995 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the second episode broadcast in the show's third season. Paper Clip concludes the story regarding the agents' possession of a digital tape containing government secrets on extraterrestrials.- Plot :Continuing from the previous...
character, coded as CLIPPIT.ACS. The latest versions that include the Office Assistant were Office 2003 (Windows) and Office 2004 (Mac).