Microsoft Office is a series of suites 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.

Common programs included

• Word – word processor,
• Excel – spreadsheet,
• Outlook – Personal information manager and communication software
• PowerPoint – presentation software,

Other programs and Web-based services sometimes included

• Microsoft Access – database manager
• Microsoft Binder – incorporates several documents into one file.
• Microsoft Entourage – Personal information manager and communication software for Apple Macintosh only
• Virtual PC – emulation software
• Microsoft Publisher – Desktop publishing software
• Microsoft FrontPage – web design software
• Microsoft Internet Explorer – web browser
• Microsoft Visio – diagram software
• Microsoft MapPoint – mapping and travel planning 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
• Microsoft Project – project manager
• Microsoft Mail – mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Outlook)
• Microsoft Outlook Express – mail clent (in Office 98 Macintosh Edition, later replaced by Microsoft Entourage)
• Microsoft OneNote – note taking software for use with tablet PCs or regular PCs
• Microsoft InfoPath – application that enables users to design rich XML-based forms
• Live Communication Server – real time communication software
• Microsoft Office Online – Web site
• Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 - [1] (http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/001172.html)
• Developer Tools – (only included with developer editions)

Beginning with the 1997 edition, Microsoft Agent (in 2000 and up) and a similar actor technology (in 97) have been used to provide the Office Assistant, sometimes dubbed "Clippy" or "Clippit", an interactive help tool.

Also, beginning with Office 1998, the Macintosh and Windows versions of Office share the same file format. Consequently, any Macintosh with Office 1998 or later can read documents created with Office 1997 or later, and vice-versa.

Office 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.

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. It can also run in a virtual machine such as VMware.

Versions

Major Microsoft Windows versions

• Office 3.0 (CD-ROM version: Word 2.0c, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0, Mail) - released 30-Aug-1993
• Office 4.0 (Word 6.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0) - released 17-Jan-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 3-Jul-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 2-Jun-1994
• Office 95 (Word 95, etc.) - released 30-Aug-1995
• Office 97 (Word 97, etc.) - released 30-Dec-1996 (was published on CD-Rom as well as on a set of 45 3 1/4 inch disks.)
• Office 2000 (Word 2000, etc.) - released 27-Jun-1999
• Office XP (Word 2002, etc.) - released 31-May-2001
• Office 2003 (Word 2003, etc.) - released 17-Nov-2003

There have been variants of the later versions such as Small Business Edition, Professional Edition and Developer Edition with slightly different collections of applications.

Apple Macintosh versions

• Office 1 (Word 3, etc.)
• Office 2 (Word 4, etc.)
• Office 3 (Word 5, etc.)
• Office 4.2 (The first Power Mac-aware version; Word 6.0, etc.) - released 2-Jun-1994
• Office 98 (Word 98, etc.) - released 15-Mar-1998
• Office 2001 (Word 2001, etc.) - released 11-Oct-2000
• Office v.X (The first Mac OS X/Aqua edition; Word X, etc.) - released 3-Sep-2001
• Office 2004 (Word 2004, etc.) - released 13-Jul-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.

Competitors

OpenOffice.org and StarOffice have secured 14% of the large enterprise market with Microsoft Office leading by a big margin with 95% of the general market. [2] (http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1011227,00.html)

• GNOME Office (Open Source)
• KOffice (Open source)
• OpenOffice.org (Open source office)
• StarOffice by Sun Microsystems
• Word Perfect Office by Corel
• WPS Office (Chinese)
• AppleWorks/ClarisWorks (Apple Macintosh)

External links

• Microsoft Office (for Windows) Home Page (http://www.microsoft.com/office/)
• Microsoft Office 2004 (for Mac OS X) Home Page (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/office2004.aspx?pid=office2004)
• Microsoft Office X (for Mac OS X) Home Page (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/officex/)
• Microsoft Office 2001 (for Mac OS 8-9) Home Page (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office/2001/office_default.asp?navindex=s1)