66 Facts About Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft.

Microsoft Office is produced in several versions targeted towards different end-users and computing environments.

Microsoft Office on the web is a version of the software that runs within a web browser.

Since Office 2013, Microsoft has promoted Office 365 as the primary means of obtaining Microsoft Office: it allows the use of the software and other services on a subscription business model, and users receive feature updates to the software for the lifetime of the subscription, including new features and cloud computing integration that are not necessarily included in the "on-premises" releases of Office sold under conventional license terms.

In October 2022, Microsoft announced that all instances of the Office name would be replaced with Microsoft 365, starting with Office on the web in November that year, and the individual desktop and mobile apps of the Office suite in January 2023—effectively retiring the Office brand after 32 years.

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Additionally, Microsoft offers a service under the name of Online Doc Viewer to view Office documents on a website via Office on the web.

Microsoft Office had non-cumulative service releases, which were discontinued after Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1.

Now, Windows and Microsoft Office have shifted to predictable release schemes to update software.

In 2008, Microsoft made the entire documentation for the binary Office formats freely available for download and granted any possible patents rights for use or implementations of those binary format for free under the Open Specification Promise.

Previously, Microsoft Office had supplied such documentation freely but only on request.

Major feature of the Microsoft Office suite is the ability for users and third-party companies to write add-ins that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features.

An application for Microsoft Office is a webpage that is hosted inside an Microsoft Office client application.

Microsoft Office has a security feature that allows users to encrypt Office documents with a user-provided password.

In 2010, Microsoft introduced a software as a service platform known as Office 365, to provide cloud-hosted versions of Office's server software, including Exchange e-mail and SharePoint, on a subscription basis.

Microsoft Office is available in several editions, which regroup a given number of applications for a specific price.

Microsoft Office has been criticized in the past for using proprietary file formats rather than open standards, which forces users who share data into adopting the same software platform.

However, on February 15,2008, Microsoft made the entire documentation for the binary Office formats freely available under the Open Specification Promise.

Ecma International has published the Office Open XML specification free of copyrights and Microsoft has granted patent rights to the formats technology under the Open Specification Promise and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000 and Office 2004 for the Mac.

Researchers observed that Microsoft "seemingly tried to make the system GDPR compliant by storing Office documents on servers based in the EU".

In 1993, Microsoft Office Professional was released, which added Microsoft Access 1.

Microsoft Office 95 included new components to the suite such as Schedule+ and Binder.

Microsoft Office 97 featured new components to the suite including FrontPage 97, Expedia Streets 98, and Internet Explorer 3.

Exchange Server, a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft Office, is the server for Outlook after discontinuing Exchange Client.

Microsoft Office 2000 introduces PhotoDraw, a raster and vector imaging program, as well as Web Components, Visio, and Vizact.

Microsoft Office XP introduced the Safe Mode feature, which allows applications such as Outlook to boot when it might otherwise fail by bypassing a corrupted registry or a faulty add-in.

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Microsoft Office XP introduces new components including Document Imaging, Document Scanning, Clip Organizer, MapPoint, and Data Analyzer.

Microsoft Office XP includes integrated voice command and text dictation capabilities, as well as handwriting recognition.

Microsoft Office 2003 introduces three new programs to the Microsoft Office product lineup: InfoPath, a program for designing, filling, and submitting electronic structured data forms; OneNote, a note-taking program for creating and organizing diagrams, graphics, handwritten notes, recorded audio, and text; and the Picture Manager graphics software which can open, manage, and share digital images.

SharePoint, a web collaboration platform codenamed as Microsoft Office Server, has integration and compatibility with Microsoft Office 2003 and so on.

The main features of Microsoft Office 2010 include the backstage file menu, new collaboration tools, a customizable ribbon, protected view and a navigation panel.

Microsoft Office 2010 featured a new logo, which resembled the 2007 logo, except in gold, and with a modification in shape.

Microsoft Office Online was first released online along with SkyDrive, an online storing service.

Microsoft Office Outlook has received the most pronounced changes so far; for example, the Metro interface provides a new visualization for scheduled tasks.

On May 16,2011, new images of Microsoft Office 15 were revealed, showing Excel with a tool for filtering data in a timeline, the ability to convert Roman numerals to Arabic numerals, and the integration of advanced trigonometric functions.

Microsoft has promised support for Office Open XML Strict starting with version 15, a format Microsoft has submitted to the ISO for interoperability with other office suites, and to aid adoption in the public sector.

Microsoft Office 2013 was released to general availability on January 29,2013.

On January 22,2015, the Microsoft Office blog announced that the next version of the suite for Windows desktop, Office 2016, was in development.

Microsoft Office 2016 was released for Mac OS X on July 9,2015 and for Windows on September 22,2015.

On September 26,2017, Microsoft announced that the next version of the suite for Windows desktop, Office 2019, was in development.

On February 18,2021, Microsoft announced that the next version of the suite for Windows desktop, Office 2021, was in development.

Microsoft Office 2001 was launched in 2000 as the last Office suite for the classic Mac OS.

Benchmarks suggested that compared to its predecessor, Microsoft Office 2008 ran at similar speeds on Intel machines and slower speeds on PowerPC machines.

Microsoft Office 2008 lacked Visual Basic for Applications support, leaving it with only 15 months of additional mainstream support compared to its predecessor.

Microsoft Office 2011 includes a Mac-based Ribbon similar to Microsoft Office for Windows.

On that day, Microsoft confirmed that it would release the next version of Office for Mac in late 2015.

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Microsoft Office Mobile was released for Android phones on July 31,2013, in the United States.

Microsoft Office Mobile is or was available, though no longer supported, on Windows Mobile, Windows Phone and Symbian.

In June 2007, Microsoft announced a new version of the office suite, Office Mobile 2007.

In February 2012, Microsoft Office released OneNote, Lync 2010, Document Connection and PowerPoint Broadcast for Symbian.

On October 21,2010, Microsoft debuted Office Mobile 2010 with the release of Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft Office Mobile was released for iPhone on June 14,2013, and for Android phones on July 31,2013.

In March 2014, Microsoft released Office Lens, a scanner app that enhances photos.

Microsoft Office Lens is an app in the Windows Phone store, as well as built into the camera functionality in the OneNote apps for iOS and Windows 8.

On March 27,2014, Microsoft launched Office for iPad, the first dedicated version of Office for tablet computers.

On November 6,2014, Microsoft Office was made free for personal use on the iPad in addition to phones.

On January 21,2015, during the "Windows 10: The Next Chapter" press event, Microsoft unveiled Office for Windows 10, Windows Runtime ports of the Android and iOS versions of the Office Mobile suite.

On June 24,2015, Microsoft Office released Word, Excel and PowerPoint as standalone apps on Google Play for Android phones, following a one-month preview.

On February 19,2020, Microsoft announced a new unified Office mobile app for Android and iOS.

On July 13,2009, Microsoft announced at its Worldwide Partners Conference 2009 in New Orleans that Microsoft Office 2010 reached its "Technical Preview" development milestone and features of Office Web Apps were demonstrated to the public for the first time.

Additionally, Microsoft announced that Office Web Apps would be made available to consumers online and free of charge, while Microsoft Software Assurance customers will have the option of running them on premises.

However, in August 2009, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that there had been a delay in the release of Office Web Apps Technical Preview and it would not be available by the end of August.

On October 22,2012, Microsoft Office announced the release of new features including co-authoring, performance improvements and touch support.

On November 6,2013, Microsoft Office announced further new features including real-time co-authoring and an Auto-Save feature in Word.

Microsoft Office had previously attempted to unify its online services suite under a brand known as Windows Live, first launched in 2005.

However, with the impending launch of Windows 8 and its increased use of cloud services, Microsoft Office dropped the Windows Live brand to emphasize that these services would now be built directly into Windows and not merely be a "bolted on" add-on.

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In July 2019, Microsoft announced that they were retiring the "Online" branding for Office Online.