Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity programs created by Microsoft and developed for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems. As well as the office applications, it includes associated servers and Web-based services. Recent versions of Office are now called the 'Office System' rather than the 'Office Suite' to reflect the fact that they include Servers as well.

Office made its first appearance in the early '90s, and was initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications that were previously marketed and sold separately. The main selling point was that buying the bundle was substantially cheaper than buying each of the individual applications on their own. The first version of Office contained Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Additionally, a "Pro" version of Office included Microsoft Access and Schedule Plus. Over the years the Office applications have grown substantially closer together from a technical standpoint, sharing features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. In recent years, Microsoft has attempted to position Office as a development platform in its own right, but has had mixed results with this.

Office is currently the most popular office suite in the world and considered to be the de facto standard for productivity programs, although its market share is currently decreasing with the rise of viable free and open source alternatives. It has certain features not present in other suites, and other programs have capabilities Office lacks. The next version, 12.0, will have a radically different user interface from the older versions.

Office programs

These programs are included in all editions of Microsoft Office 2003, except Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003. Microsoft Office Basic Edition includes Word, Excel and Outlook only.

Office Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor. It is considered to be the main program of Office. It possesses a dominant market share in the word processor market. Its proprietary DOC format is considered a de facto standard, although its most recent version, Word 11.0/2003, also supports an XML-based format. Word is also available in some editions of Microsoft Works. It is available for the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Its main competitors are OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice, Corel WordPerfect, Apple Pages and AbiWord.

Office Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program. Like Microsoft Word, it possesses a dominant market share. It was originally a competitor to the dominant Lotus 1-2-3 but it eventually outsold it and became the de facto standard. It is available for the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Its main competitors are OpenOffice.org Calc, StarOffice, Corel Quattro Pro and Gnumeric. SPSS is often used for advanced statistical applications.

Office Outlook

Microsoft Outlook, not to be confused with Outlook Express, is a personal information manager and e-mail communication software. The replacement for Microsoft Mail starting in the 1997 version of Office, it includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book. Its e-mail program's main competitors are Mozilla Thunderbird/Mozilla, and Eudora. Its personal information manager's main competitors are Mozilla, Lotus Organizer, and Novell Evolution. It is available for Windows; a version is also included with most Pocket PC handhelds. Its Macintosh equivalent is Microsoft Entourage.

Office PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation program for Windows and Macintosh. 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. Windows Mobile 2005 (Magneto) will have a version of this program. It possesses a dominant market share. Its main competitors are OpenOffice.org Impress, Corel WordPerfect and Apple Keynote.

Other programs included in the Windows versions

• Microsoft Access – database manager. For the 2003 version, included in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, and Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003.
• Microsoft InfoPath – application that enables users to design rich XML-based forms. Included in Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003.
• Microsoft Publisher – Desktop publishing software. For the 2003 version, included in Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, and Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003.
• Microsoft FrontPage – web design software (also requires its own server program). Offered only as a stand-alone program for the 2003 version (not part of the office suite).
• Microsoft Visio – diagram software.
• Microsoft Office Picture Manager – basic photo management software (similar to a basic version of Google's Picasa or Adobe's Photoshop Elements).
• Microsoft Photo Editor – photo editing/raster graphics software in older Office versions, and again in XP. It was temporarily supplemented by Microsoft PhotoDraw in Office 2000 Premium edition.
• Microsoft Project – project manager.
• Microsoft OneNote – note taking software for use with tablet PCs or regular PCs.
• Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 - [1]
• Developer Tools – (included only with developer editions)

Other programs included in the Mac versions

• Microsoft Entourage – Personal information manager and communication software for Macintosh only (similar to Outlook).
• Virtual PC – Emulates a standard PC and its hardware. Included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2004

Web services associated with Microsoft Office

• Microsoft Update – Web site. Similar to Windows Update, but also encompasses other Microsoft applications.
• Microsoft Office Live – Web service. An online Office suite as part of Microsoft's Windows Live initiative.
• Microsoft Office Online – Web site. Included in all versions of Microsoft Office 2003.
• Microsoft Office Update – Web site. Patch detection and installation service for Office 2000, XP, and 2003. - [2]

Older programs no longer included

• Microsoft Binder – incorporates several documents into one file.

• Microsoft Schedule Plus – released with Office 95. It featured a Planner, To do list, and Contact Information. Its functions were incorporated into Microsoft Outlook.
• Microsoft Mail – mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Outlook).
• Microsoft Outlook Express – mail client (in Office 98 Macintosh Edition, later replaced by Microsoft Entourage).
• Microsoft Vizact 2000 – a program that "activated" documents using HTML, adding effects such as animation. The main reason for its unpopularity was because many people had no idea what it did by looking at its box alone, and therefore did not buy it.

Since 1997 Office has included Office Assistant, a system that uses animated characters to offer unrequested context-sensitive suggestions to users and access to relevant parts of the help system. Intended to make the software less intimidating to new users, it is typically disabled by experienced users. The Assistant is often dubbed "Clippy" or "Clippit," due to its default to a paperclip character, coded as CLIPPIT.ACS. The Assistant is the main use of Microsoft Agent technology.

Also, beginning with Macintosh Office 4.2, the Macintosh and Windows versions of Office share the same file format. Consequently, any Macintosh with Office 4.2 or later can read documents created with Windows Office 4.2 or later, and vice-versa.

Office 11.0/2003 introduced a new, optional file format for the entire suite, built on XML technology. Office X for Mac is also built to handle this file format.

Other related companion servers

• Microsoft Office Live Communications Server - real time communications server
• Microsoft Office Project Server - project management server
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server collaboration server

Editions

The Windows version of Microsoft Office 11.0/2003 is available in six editions: (Please note that for the most part, pricing reflects installation on only a single computer.)

• Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 11.0/2003 (MSRP New User Price $149 US)
• Microsoft Office Basic Edition 11.0/2003 (bundled with new computers only)
• Microsoft Office Standard Edition 11.0/2003 (MSRP New User Price $399 US; Upgrade Price $239 US)
• Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 11.0/2003 (MSRP New User Price $449 US; Upgrade Price $279 US)
• Microsoft Office Professional Edition 11.0/2003 (MSRP New User Price $499 US; Upgrade Price $329 US)
• Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 11.0/2003 (volume licensing only)

The Macintosh version, Microsoft Office for Mac 2004, is available in three editions. All include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage. They are identical except for pricing and the inclusion of Virtual PC in the Professional Edition.

• Office for Mac 2004 Standard Edition (MSRP New User Price $399 US; Upgrade Price $239 US)
• Office for Mac 2004 Student and Teacher Edition (MSRP New User Price $149 US)
• Office for Mac 2004 Professional Edition (MSRP New User Price $499 US; Upgrade Price $329 US)

Pricing as of April 9, 2005 [3] [4]

Cross-platform use

Microsoft develops Office primarily for Windows and secondarily for Macintosh. However, most versions of the suite can also be run on Unix-like operating systems through the use of a compatibility layer such as CrossOver Office or WINE.

The older, simpler versions tend to run considerably better on WINE than newer ones. However, all versions are known to work to some extent.

Versions

Major Microsoft Windows versions

• Office 3.0 (CD-ROM version: Word 2.0c, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0, Mail) - released August 30, 1992 (repackaged as Office 92)
• Office 4.0 (Word 6.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0) - released January 17, 1994
• Office for NT 4.2 (Word 6.0 [32-bit, i386 and Alpha], Excel 5.0 [32-bit, i386 and Alpha], PowerPoint 4.0 [16-bit], "Microsoft Office Manager") - released July 3, 1994
• Office 4.3 (The last 16-bit version; Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0 and in the pro version: Access 2.0) - released June 2, 1994
• Office 7.0/'95 (Word '95, etc.) - released August 30, 1995
• Office 8.0/'97 (Word '97, etc.) - released December 30, 1996 (was published on CD-ROM as well as on a set of 45 3½-inch floppy disks)
• Office 9.0/2000 (Word 2000, etc.) - released January 27, 1999
• Office 10.0/2002/XP (Word 2002, etc.) - released May 31, 2001
• Office 11.0/2003 (Word 2003, etc.) - released November 17, 2003
• Office 12.0 - due to be released simultaneously, or near simultaneously with Windows Vista, Microsoft's next major consumer operating system.

There are variants of more recent versions such as Small Business Edition, Student and Teacher Edition, Professional Edition and Developer Edition with different collections of applications and pricing points.

Apple Macintosh versions

• Office 1 (Word 3, etc.) - released 1990
• Office 2 (Word 4, etc.) - released 1992
• Office 3 (Word 5, etc.) - released 1993
• Office 4.2 (The first Power Mac-aware version; Word 6.0, etc.) - released June 2, 1994
• Office 98 (Word 98, etc.) - released March 15, 1998
• Office 2001 (Word 2001, etc.) - released October 11, 2000
• Office v.X (The first Mac OS X/Aqua edition; Word X, etc.) - released November 19, 2001
• Office 2004 (Word 2004, etc.) - released May 11, 2004

Add ins

A major feature of applications in the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write Office COM add-ins. Component Object Model (COM) add-ins are supplemental programs that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features that can accommodate specific tasks.

Trivia

For some reason, most versions of Microsoft Office (including 97 and later, and possibly 4.3) use their own widget set, and as a result do not exactly match the native operating system.

Whereas Windows uses "Service Packs", Office used to release "Service Releases". However, after Office 2000 Service Release 1, Office releases only Service Packs. Service Releases are not cumulative (i.e. it is necessary to install each release in turn) whereas Service Packs are. This means that any copy of the original Office 2000 ("RTM" or "Gold" in Microsoft documentation) requires Service Release 1 to be installed before a Service Pack can be installed.

Alternatives

There are also several alternative office suites available, including:

• OpenOffice.org, a completely free and open-source suite available for download to Windows, Linux, and Macintosh users. It includes practically full compatibility with Microsoft Office (with the exception of lack of full support for Microsoft Office Publisher (pub) files and a lack of a mail client à la Microsoft Office Outlook, however, there are many alternative mail clients to choose from.)
  • NeoOffice, an open-source OpenOffice.org port for Mac OS X that integrates into its Aqua interface.
  • StarOffice, based on the OpenOffice code.
• Corel's WordPerfect Office.
• iWork, Apple's Mac-only office suite. Includes Pages, for word-processing, and Keynote, for presentations.
• KOffice, an open-source office suite which is part of the KDE Desktop Environment.
• GNOME Office, a loosely coupled group of open-source applications including Abiword and Gnumeric, which is targetted for the GNOME desktop environment.
• Lotus SmartSuite, provided by IBM contains a word-processing program called Word Pro, spreadsheet program called Lotus 1-2-3, a program similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance Graphics and a database program called Lotus Approach. Lotus Notes provides the email/PIM portion of the Lotus offering.
• ThinkFree Office, a free web-based alternative office suite. It is almost fully compatible with Microsoft Office files.

Microsoft Office Converters and Viewers, provided by Microsoft. It is not designed to replace MS Office, and has only compatibilities of reading Office files. It is for Windows, free-of-charge. [5]