Microsoft Office
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
\n*Word word processor,\n*Excel spreadsheet,\n*Outlook Personal information manager and communication software\n*PowerPoint presentation software,
Other programs and Web-based services sometimes included
\n*Access database manager\n*Microsoft Binder incorporates several documents into one file.\n*Microsoft Entourage Personal information manager and communication software for Apple Macintosh only\n*Microsoft Publisher Desktop publishing software\n*Microsoft FrontPage web design software\n*Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser\n*Microsoft Visio diagram software\n*Microsoft Project project manager\n*Microsoft Mail mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Outlook)\n*InfoPath is an application that enables users to design rich XML-based forms.\n*Live Communication Server real time communication software\n*Microsoft Office Online Web site
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.
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
\nMajor Microsoft Windows versions
\n*Office 3.0 (CD-ROM version: Word 2.0c, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0, Mail) - released 1992\n*Office 4.0 (Word 6.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0),1993\n*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 1994\n*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),1994\n*Office 95 (Word 95, etc.)\n*Office 97 (Word 97, etc.) - released January 1997\n*Office 2000 (Word 2000, etc.) - released June 1999\n*Office XP (Word 2002, etc.) - released June 2001\n*Office 2003 (Word 2003, etc.) - released October 21, 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
\n*Office 1 (Word 3, etc.)\n*Office 2 (Word 4, etc.)\n*Office 3 (Word 5, etc.)\n*Office 4.2 (The first Power Mac-aware version; Word 6.0, etc.)\n*Office 98 (Word 98, etc.)\n*Office 2001 (Word 2001, etc.)\n*Office v.X (Word X, etc.)\n*Office 2004 (Word 2004, etc.)
Competitors
\n* GNOME Office (Open Source)\n* KOffice (Open source)\n* OpenOffice.org (Open source)\n* StarOffice (Commercial office suite based on OpenOffice.org, combined with proprietary and third-party code modules)\n* WPS Office (Chinese)
See also
\n*List of Macintosh software
External links
\n*Microsoft Office (for Windows) Home Page\n*Microsoft Office 2004 (for Mac OS X) Home Page\n*Microsoft Office X (for Mac OS X) Home Page\n*Microsoft Office 2001 (for Mac OS 8-9) Home Page
Category:Microsoft software\nCategory:Office applications suites
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