Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is an office suite of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Microsoft Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 for Windows,[2] with a version for Windows in 1990.[3] Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Additionally, a "Pro" (Professional) version of Office included Microsoft Access and Schedule Plus. 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 (OBA) brand.

The current versions are Office 2007 for Windows which was released on January 30, 2007,[4] and Office 2008 for Mac OS X, released January 15, 2008. Office 2007/Office 2008 introduced a new user interface and new Office Open XML document formats (docx, xlsx, pptx). Consequently, Microsoft has made available, free of charge, an add-on known as the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack to allow Office 2000-2003 for Windows and Office 2004 for Mac editions to open, edit, and save documents created under the new formats for Office 2007.

According to Forrester Research, as of June 2009, some version of Microsoft Office is used in 80% of enterprises and the latest Office versions hold roughly 80% of those installations.


Desktop applications

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor and was previously considered to be 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.[35] 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 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 one was not required. The following spring Apple introduced the Mac, and Microsoft released Word for the Mac, which became the most popular Mac application and which, like all Mac apps, required the use of a mouse.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program. It was originally a competitor to the dominant Lotus 1-2-3, but it eventually outsold it. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. The current Mac version (Office 2008) has removed Visual Basic functionality so macros cannot be used and those generated in previous iterations of Office no longer work. Microsoft announced in May 2008, that Visual Basic would be returning to Excel in future versions.
Outlook/Entourage


Microsoft Outlook, 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+ (Plus) starting in Office 97, it includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book. Although historically it has been offered for the Mac, the closest to an equivalent for Mac OS X is Microsoft Entourage, which offers a slightly different feature set. Office 2010 for Mac will reintroduce Outlook, replacing Entourage.[36]
PowerPoint


Microsoft PowerPoint 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. This is convenient for school or work presentations.Office Mobile for Windows Mobile 5.0 and later features a version of PowerPoint called PowerPoint Mobile. Movies, videos, sounds and music, as well as Wordart and Autoshapes can be added to slideshows.
Publisher

Microsoft Publisher is a program mostly used for designing brochures, labels, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletter, and postcards.


Other desktop applications (Windows version only)

* Microsoft Access – Database manager.
* Microsoft Publisher – software for creating newsletters, business cards, flyers, greeting cards or postcards.
* Microsoft InfoPath – an application to design rich XML-based forms.
* Microsoft OneNote – Note-taking software for use with tablet PCs or regular PCs.
* Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer – a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web design program for customizing SharePoint applications, it replaces Microsoft Office FrontPage (it is not bundled in any Office 2007 suite).
* Microsoft Project – Project management software to keep track of events and to create network charts and Gantt charts (it is not bundled in any Office 2007 suite).
* Microsoft Visio – Diagram and flowcharting software (it is not bundled in any Office 2007 suite).
* Microsoft Office Accounting – a tool for managing business finances (it is not bundled in any Office 2007 suite, except for the aa Express edition).
* Microsoft Office Communicator – Integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real time (it is bundled with Office 2007 Professional Plus and Enterprise 2007.[37]).
* Microsoft Office Document Imaging – an application that supports editing scanned documents.
* Microsoft Office Document Scanning – a scanning and OCR application.
* Microsoft Office Groove – a proprietary peer-to-peer collaboration software leveled at businesses.
* Microsoft Office InterConnect – Business-relationship database available only in Japan.
* Microsoft Office Picture Manager – Basic photo management software (similar to Google's Picasa or Adobe's Photoshop Elements). Replaced Microsoft Photo Editor.