Microsoft Office



Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988 at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. The first version of Office, released on November 19, 1990, contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, more applications have been added to the suite and the applications have been more unified.

Office is produced in several versions targeted towards different end-users and computing environments, the original and most widely used of which is the desktop, available for PCs running the Windows and MacOS operating systems. Microsoft also maintains mobile apps for Android and iOS, and a web version of the software can run within a web browser.

The current version of Office is Microsoft Office 2021, which was released on October 5, 2021.

Windows
Microsoft Office for Windows started in October 1990 as a bundle of three applications designed for Microsoft Windows 3.0: Microsoft Word 1.1, Microsoft Excel 2.0, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2.0.

Microsoft Office for Windows 1.5 updated the suite with Microsoft Excel 3.0, and version 1.6 added Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 to the bundle.

Microsoft Office 3.0, also called Microsoft Office 92, was released on 30 August 1992 and contained Word 2.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0, and Mail 3.0. It was the first version of Office to be also released on CD-ROM. In 1993, the Microsoft Office Professional was released, which added Microsoft Access 1.1.

Microsoft Office 4.0 was released in 1993 and contained Word 6.0, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0, and Mail.

Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows NT was released in 1994 for i386, Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC architectures, containing Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, and Microsoft Office Manager 4.2 (the precursor to the Office Shortcut Bar).

Microsoft Office 95 was released on 24 August 1995. Every program's version number was changed to 7.0 to create parity across the suite. It was a fully 32-bit version of Office meant for Windows 95. It was available in two versions: Standard (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Schedule) and Professional (every program in Standard plus Access).

Microsoft Office 97 (Office 8.0) included command bars, Natural Language Systems and grammar checking, and was the first version of Office to include the Office Assistant. In Brazil, it was also the first version to introduce Registration Wizard, a precursor to Microsoft Product Activation.

Microsoft Office 2000 (Office 9.0) introduced adaptive menus, where little-used options were hidden from the user. It also introduce a new security feature built around digital signatures to diminish the threat of macro viruses.

Microsoft Office XP (Office 10.0 or Office 2002) was released in conjunction with Windows XP. It introduced many major features: Safe Mode, which allows applications such as Outlook to boot when it might fail otherwise; smart tags; integrated voice command and text dictation capabilities; and handwriting recognition. It was also the first version of Office to require Microsoft Product Activation worldwide and in all editions as an anti-piracy measure.

Microsoft Office 2003 (Office 11.0) was released on 21 October 2003, with a new logo and two new applications: InfoPath and OneNote. Office 2003 provides improved functionality in many areas.

Microsoft Office 2007 (Office 12.0) was released to retail on 30 January 2007, with a new feature including a new graphical user interface called the Fluent User Interface, replacing the toolbars and menus with a tabbed toolbar known as the Ribbon. New XML-based file formats called Office Open XML were introduced, as was Microsoft Groove, a collaborative software application.

Microsoft Office 2010 (Office 14.0, because Microsoft skipped 13.0) was made available to consumers on June 15, 2010. It included the backstage file menu, new collaboration tools, a customizable ribbon, protected view, and a navigation panel. There have been two Service Packs released for Office 2010.

Microsoft Office 2013 (Office 15.0) was publicly released on January 29, 2013 and includes extended file format support, user interface updates, integration support for online services (including OneDrive, Outlook.com, Skype, Yammer, and Flickr), and support for multi-touch interfaces.

Microsoft Office 2016 (released for macOS on July 9, 2015 and for Windows on September 22, 2015) includes the ability to manage files in the cloud straight from the desktop, a new search tool called "Tell Me", a new "Insights" tool that integrates with Microsoft Bing to provide contextual information from the web, and other application-specific changes.

Microsoft Office 2019 was released on September 24, 2018 for Windows 10 and macOS that includes many of the features previously exclusive to Office 365, along with improved inking features, new animation features in PowerPoint, and new formulas and charts in Excel for data analysis. OneNote is absent from this release as the UWP version of OneNote bundled with Windows 10 replaces it.

Microsoft Office 2021 was released on October 5, 2021, and is available for Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2019, and macOS Catalina onwards. It introduces new dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP features for Excel, full dark mode support, and performance improvements.

macOS
Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition was unveiled at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco in 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer 4.0 web browser and the Outlook Express email client and usenet newsgroup reader to classic mac OS. It included drag-and-drop installation, self-repairing applications, and support for QuickTime movies.

Microsoft Office 2001 was launched in 2000 and is the last Office suit for classic Mac OS. It introduced Entourage (an email client with information management tools such as a calendar, address book, task lists, and notes).

Microsoft Office v.X. was released in 2001 and is the first version released for Mac OS X. It included MSN Messenger for Mac, Windows Media Player 9 for Mac, Internet Explorer for Mac, Word X, Excel X, PowerPoint X, and Entourage X.

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac was released in May 2004 and includes updated versions of Word, Excel, Entourage, and the Virtual PC virtualization software. It also included support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac was released in January 2008. New features include native Office Open XML file format support, stronger Microsoft Office password protection employing AES-128 and SHA-1.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 was released on October 26, 2010, and is comparable to Microsoft Office 2010. It includes a more similar interface to Office 2007 and 2010 for Windows, with the addition of the ribbon. Support for Visual Basic for Applications macros have returned. Office for Mac 2011 supports online collaboration tools such as OneDrive and Office Web Apps. Microsoft Outlook replaces Entourage in this release.

Starting with Microsoft Office 2016, the version numbering will match that of the Windows versions of Office.

Desktop
Unless stated otherwise, desktop apps are available for Windows and macOS.
 * Microsoft Word – a word processor
 * Microsoft Excel – a spreadsheet program
 * Microsoft PowerPoint – a presentation program
 * Microsoft Access – a Windows-only database management system
 * Microsoft Outlook – a personal information manager
 * Microsoft OneNote – a note-taking application
 * Microsoft Publisher – a Windows-only desktop publishing application
 * Skype for Business – an integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real time

Mobile

 * Office Lens – an image scanner optimized for mobile devices.
 * Office Remote – turns the mobile device into a remote control for desktop versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Server

 * Microsoft SharePoint – a collaboration server
 * Excel Services
 * Microsoft InfoPath

Online

 * Office Online
 * Word Online
 * Excel Online
 * PowerPoint Online
 * OneNote Online
 * Outlook.com – a free webmail service
 * Docs.com – a public document sharing service where Office users can upload and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Sway and PDF files for others to discover and use.
 * OneDrive – a file hosting service that allows users to sync files and later access them from a web browser or mobile device.
 * Office Sway – a presentation web app
 * Delve – allows Office 365 users to search and manage their emails, meetings, contacts, social networks and documents stored on OneDrive or Sites in Office 365.
 * Office Forms – n online survey creator, available for Office 365 Education subscribers
 * Microsoft Bookings – an appointment booking application for Office 365
 * Microsoft Planner – a planning application for Office 365
 * Office 365 Video – a video sharing service for enterprise users with an Office 365 Academic or Enterprise license

Office on the web
Office on the web is a free lightweight web version of Microsoft Office and primarily includes three web applications: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The offering also includes Outlook.com, OneNote, and OneDrive which are accessible through a unified app switcher.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on the web can all natively open, edit, and save Office Open XML files (docx, xlsx, pptx) as well as OpenDocument files (odt, ods, odp). They can also open the older Office file formats (doc, xls, ppt), but will be to the newer Open XML formats if the user wishes to edit them online. Other formats cannot be opened in the browser apps, such as CSV in Excel or HTML in Word, nor can Office files that are encrypted with a password be opened. Files with macros can be opened in the browser apps, but the macros cannot be accessed or executed. Starting in July 2013, Word can render PDF documents or convert them to Microsoft Word documents, although the formatting of the document may deviate from the original. Since November 2013, the apps have supported real-time co-authoring and autosaving files.

Office on the web lacks a number of the advanced features present in the full desktop versions of Office, including lacking the Access and Publisher entirely. However, users are able to select the command "Open in Desktop App" that brings up the document in the desktop version of Office on their computer or device to utilize the advanced features there.

Supported web browsers include Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, the latest versions of Firefox or Google Chrome, as well as Safari for OS X 10.8 or later.