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  Name Microsoft Office
  Developer Microsoft
  Operating System Microsoft Windows , Mac OS X
  Genre Office Suite
  License Proprietary
  Website officemicrosoftcom


Microsoft Office is an Office Suite from Microsoft , which is available on the Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. As well as the core office applications brand includes associated Server s 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 1989 on the Mac ,1 with a version for Windows following it in 1990. It 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 Microsoft Word , Microsoft Excel , and Microsoft 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. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software.

The current versions are Office 2007 for Windows, launched on January 30 , 2007 ,2 and Office 2004 For Mac , released May 19 , 2004 3. Office 2007, announced on February 15 , 2006 4, was released on November 30 , 2006 for businesses via the Volume License and MSDN channels. It features a radically different user interface and a new XML -based primary file format. The new Mac version, Office 2008 For Mac , is expected to be released in January 2008 .5


COMMON 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.


Word

Microsoft Word is a Word Processor and was long considered to be the main program of Office, although with the rise of electronic communication that distinction has now passed to Outlook. Word 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 2007 uses a new XML-based format called .DOCX, but has the capability of saving and opening the old .DOC format. 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 fall 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.

Common extensions: ''.doc (Word 97-2003), .docx (Word 2007), .dot''


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 Mac platforms.


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 the 1997 version of Office, 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.

Common extensions: ''.msg .pst (Outlook 97-2003)'', - Microsoft Outlook 2007


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 . Windows Mobile 2005 (Magneto) has a version of this program. It possesses a dominant market share. Movies, videos, sounds and music, as well as wordart and autoshapes can be added to slideshows. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms.

Common extensions: ''.ppt (Powerpoint 97-2003), .pptx (Powerpoint 2007), .pot''


OTHER PROGRAMS INCLUDED IN SOME OF THE WINDOWS VERSIONS



OTHER PROGRAMS INCLUDED IN THE MAC VERSIONS

  • Virtual PC – Emulates a standard PC and its hardware. Included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2004.

  • Microsoft Entourage – an e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft



WEB SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH MICROSOFT OFFICE



OLDER PROGRAMS NO LONGER INCLUDED

running on Windows NT 3.51 . Note that there is an Office Assistant named Clippit (informally, Clippy) in the corner.]]

  • Microsoft Binder – Incorporates several documents into one file.

  • Binder was originally designed as a container system for storing related documents in a single file. The complexity of use, combined with Binder being "yet another application to learn", meant it received little usage. It was removed from releases after Office 2000 to save the effort of ongoing maintenance. ''.obd-files''

  • Microsoft Schedule Plus – Released with Office 95. It featured a planner, to-do list, and contact information. Its functions were incorporated into Microsoft Outlook. ''.scd-files''

  • Microsoft Mail – Mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Schedule Plus and subsequently Microsoft Outlook). ''.mmf-files''

  • Microsoft Vizact 2000 – 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 PhotoDraw – A graphics program that was first released in 1998 and later repackaged as PhotoDraw 2000 v2 as part of the Office 2000 Premium Edition. Microsoft discontinued the program in 2001 because their consumer graphics program Microsoft Picture It! offered richer capabilities. ''.mix-files''

  • 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.

  • and Microsoft Expression Web .


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 Paper Clip character, coded as CLIPPIT.ACS. The Assistant is the main use of Microsoft Agent technology. The Office Agent was hidden by default in Office XP and, following mixed public response, not installed by default in Office 2003. It has been removed entirely in Office 2007.

Also, 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 Windows Office 4.2 or later, and vice-versa.


SUPPORT LIFECYCLE

Beginning in 2002, Microsoft instituted a policy of "Support Lifecycles". [http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

For Office:
  • Earlier versions than Office 97 (including Outlook 97) are no longer supported.

  • Office 97 (including Outlook 98) – Mainstream hotfix support ended on August 31, 2001. Extended hotfix support ended on February 28, 2002. Assisted support ended on January 16, 2004.

  • Office 2000 – Mainstream support ended June 30, 2004. Extended support is available through July 14, 2009.

  • Office XP – Mainstream support ended July 11, 2006. Extended support will be provided until July 12, 2011.

  • Office 2003 - Mainstream support will end on January 13, 2009. Extended support will end at January 14, 2014.

  • Office 2007 - Mainstream support will end on April 10, 2012. Extended support will end on April 11, 2017.

  • Current and future versions - Mainstream support will end 5 years after release, or 2 years after the next release, whenever time is later, and extended support will end 5 years after that.



SERVER COMPONENTS



EDITIONS


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  Both Office V X And 2004 Suites Run On Intel Macs Through The "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Rosetta_(software)" class="copylinks">Rosetta emulation layer Microsoft does not intend to update Office 2004 as a universal application, but has announced that Office 2008 for Mac will have universal binaries capable of running natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs{{cite news url=