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; not very widely used., Office 97 (Word 97, etc.) - released 30-Dec-1996 (was published on CD-ROM as well as on a set of 45 3½-inch floppy 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, Student and Teacher 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.

Trivia

For some reason, most versions of Microsoft Office (including 97 and later, and possibly 4.3) use their own widget set, and as a result do not blend in with the native operating system. Whereas Windows uses "Service Packs", Office uses "Service Releases".

Competitors

OpenOffice.org (Open source office)

StarOffice by Sun Microsystems

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. [4] (http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1011227,00.html)

WordPerfect Office by Corel

GNOME Office (Open Source)

KOffice (Open source)

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)

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