Microsoft Office is an office suite of applications, servers and services.

It was first announced

by Bill Gates of Microsoft on 1 August 1988 at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing
term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, Office applications have grown
substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration
and Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a
development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications
brand.

On 10 July 2012, Softpedia reported that Office is used by over a billion people worldwide.[4]

The desktop version of Office is available for Windows and OS X. A touch-optimised version of
Microsoft Office is available pre-installed on Windows RT tablets. A mobile version of Office,
Office Mobile, is available for free on Windows Phone, iOS and Android. A web-based version
of Office, Office Online, is also available.[5] Microsoft has stated that it plans to create a version
of Office for "other popular platforms" as well.[citation needed]

The current desktop versions are Office 2013 for Windows, released on 11 October 2012;[6] and
Office 2016 for Mac, released on 9 July 2015.[3] The Windows version of Microsoft Office 2016
will be released in the second half of 2015.[7]

Contents
 1 Desktop components
o 1.1 Word
o 1.2 Excel
o 1.3 PowerPoint
o 1.4 Access
o 1.5 Outlook
o 1.6 OneNote
o 1.7 Other desktop applications
o 1.8 Server applications
o 1.9 Web services
 2 Office Mobile
 3 Common features
 4 File formats and metadata
 5 Extensibility
 6 Password protection
 7 Versions available
o 7.1 Compatibility
o 7.2 Licensing
o 7.3 Support
 8 Discontinued applications and features
o 8.1 Discontinued server applications
 o 8.2 Discontinued web services
 9 Version history
o 9.1 Windows versions
o 9.2 Mac versions
 10 References
 11 External links

Desktop components
Word

Main article: Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor and was previously considered the main program in Office.
Its proprietary DOC format is considered a de facto standard, although Word 2007 can also use a
new XML-based, Microsoft Office-optimized format called .DOCX, which has been
standardized by Ecma International as Office Open XML, and its SP2 update supports PDF and a
limited ODF.[8] Word is also available in some editions of Microsoft Works. It is available for the
Windows and OS X platforms. The first version of Word, released in the autumn of 1983, was
for the MS-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 none was required.
Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Macintosh attempted to add
closer WYSIWYG features into its package. Word for Mac was released in 1985. Word for Mac
was the first graphical version of Microsoft Word.

Excel

Main article: Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that originally competed with the dominant Lotus 1-2-
3, and eventually outsold it. It is available for the Windows and OS X platforms. Microsoft
released the first version of Excel for the Mac OS in 1985, and the first Windows version
(numbered 2.05 to line up with the Mac and bundled with a standalone Windows run-time
environment) in November 1987. It provided more functionality than the previous version.

PowerPoint

Main article: Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program for Windows and OS X. It is used to create

slideshows, composed of text, graphics, and other objects, which can be displayed on-screen and
shown by the presenter or printed out on transparencies or slides.

Access
Main article: Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a database management system for Windows that combines the relational
Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools.
Microsoft Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Jet Database Engine. It can
also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.[9]

Outlook

Main articles: Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage

Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) is a personal information manager.
The replacement for Windows Messaging, Microsoft Mail, and Schedule+ starting in Office 97,
it includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book.

On the Mac OS, Microsoft offered several versions of Outlook in the late 1990s, but only for use
with Microsoft Exchange Server. In Office 2001, it introduced an alternative application with a
slightly different feature set called Microsoft Entourage. It reintroduced Outlook in Office 2011,
replacing Entourage.[10]

OneNote

Main article: Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is a freeware notetaking program. It gathers notes (handwritten or typed),

drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote
users over the Internet or a network. OneNote was initially introduced as a standalone app that
was not included in any of Microsoft Office 2003 editions. However, OneNote eventually
became a core component of Microsoft Office; with the release of Microsoft Office 2013,
OneNote was included in all Microsoft Office offerings before eventually becoming completely
free of charge. OneNote is available as a web application on Office Online, a Windows desktop
app, a mobile app for Windows Phone, iOS, Android, and Symbian, and a Metro-style app for
Windows 8 or later.

Other desktop applications

Other desktop applications included in Microsoft Office suite include:

 Microsoft Publisher: desktop publishing app mostly used for designing brochures, labels,
calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletters, web site, and postcards
 Microsoft Lync: integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real
time (known as Microsoft Office Communicator in Office 2007, bundled with
Professional Plus and Enterprise editions[11]). In 2015 Q1 Microsoft re branded Lync as
'skype for business' after acquiring Skype.
 Microsoft Project: project management software to keep track of events and to create
network charts and Gantt charts, not bundled in any Office suite
  Microsoft Visio: diagram and flowcharting program not bundled in any Office suite
 Microsoft SharePoint Designer: a specialized HTML editor for Windows that develops
SharePoint sites, now part of Microsoft SharePoint family and offered as an independent
freeware download

Server applications

 Microsoft SharePoint: collaboration server

o Excel Services
o InfoPath Forms Services
o Microsoft Project Server: project management server
o Microsoft Search Server
 Microsoft Lync Server (formerly Office Communications Server and Live
Communications Server) – real time communications server

Web services

 Microsoft Office Online: A suite of web-based versions of Microsoft Word, Excel,

OneNote and PowerPoint
o Sway: A presentation web app in preview status released in October 2014. Also
has a native mobile app for iOS under limited release; support for more mobile
platforms underway.
 Microsoft Office website: The official website of Microsoft Office
 Microsoft Update: Web site. Patch detection and installation service for Microsoft Office.
 Microsoft Office 365: Subscription-based software services that licenses Microsoft
Office products for on-premise or cloud-based use.

Office Mobile
Main article: Microsoft Office Mobile

Office Mobile includes the scaled-down and touch-optimised versions of Word, Excel and
PowerPoint. Other Office applications such as OneNote, Lync and Outlook are available as
standalone apps.[12] Office Mobile enables users to save and access documents on OneDrive,
OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint. Additionally, the Windows Phone version also allows
users to save files locally on the device. According to Microsoft, Office Mobile for iPhone and
Android are "very similar" to each other, whereas the Windows Phone version provides a "richer,
more integrated experience".[13]

Office Mobile for iPhone was released on 14 June 2013 in the United States.[14] Support for 135
markets and 27 languages was rolled out over a few days.[15] It requires iOS 7 or later.[16]
Although the app also works on iPad devices, excluding the first generation, it is designed for a
small screen.[14] Office Mobile was released for Android phones on 31 July 2013 in the United
States. Support for 117 markets and 33 languages was added gradually over several weeks.[13] It
is supported on Android 4.0 and later.[17] Office Mobile for both iPhone and Android, available
for free from the App Store and Google Play Store respectively, initially required a qualifying
Office 365 subscription to activate, but in March 2014, with the release of Office for iPad, the
apps were updated making them fully free for home use, although a subscription is still required
for business use.[18][19][20][21]

On 6 November 2014, Microsoft released updated versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint for
iOS.[22]

On 24 June 2015, Microsoft released updated versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint for
Android.[23]

In January 2015, Microsoft unveiled updated universal app versions of the Office applications
for Windows 10 devices—including tablets and smartphones—that are based upon the
previously released Android and iOS apps.[24][25]

Common features
Most versions of Microsoft Office (including Office 97 and later) use their own widget set and
do not exactly match the native operating system. This is most apparent in Microsoft Office XP
and 2003, where the standard menus were replaced with a colored, flat-looking, shadowed menu
style. The user interface of a particular version of Microsoft Office often heavily influences a
subsequent version of Microsoft Windows. For example, the toolbar, colored buttons and the
gray-colored 3D look of Office 4.3 were added to Windows 95, and the ribbon, introduced in
Office 2007, has been incorporated into several programs bundled with Windows 7 and later.

Users of Microsoft Office may access external data via connection-specifications saved in Office
Data Connection (.odc) files.[26]

Both Windows and Office use service packs to update software. Office had non-cumulative
service releases, which were discontinued after Office 2000 Service Release 1.

Past versions of Office often contained Easter eggs. For example, Excel 97 contained a
reasonably functional flight-simulator. Office XP and later do not have any Easter eggs, in
compliance with Trustworthy Computing guidelines.

File formats and metadata

Microsoft Office prior to Office 2007 used proprietary file formats based on the OLE Compound
File Binary Format.[27] This forced users who share data to adopt the same software platform.[28]
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.[29][30] Previously, Microsoft had supplied
such documentation freely but only on request.[31]
Starting with Office 2007, the default file format has been a version of Office Open XML,
though different than the one standardized and published by Ecma International and by ISO/IEC.
Microsoft has granted patent rights to the formats technology under the Open Specification
Promise[32] and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of
Microsoft Office including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000[33] and Office 2004 for OS X.
Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Windows platform (LibreOffice,
all platforms), OS X platform (iWork '08, LibreOffice) and Linux (LibreOffice and
OpenOffice.org 3.0). In addition, Office 2010 and Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 supports the
OpenDocument Format (ODF) for opening and saving documents.

Microsoft provides the ability to remove metadata from Office documents. This was in response
to highly publicized incidents where sensitive data about a document was leaked via its
metadata.[34] Metadata removal was first available in 2004, when Microsoft released a tool called
Remove Hidden Data Add-in for Office 2003/XP for this purpose.[35] It was directly integrated
into Office 2007 in a feature called the Document Inspector.

Extensibility
A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write add-
ins (plug-ins) that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and
specialized features. One of the new features is the Office Store.[36] Plugins and other tools can be
downloaded by users.[37] Developers can make money by selling their applications in the Office
Store. The revenue is divided between the developer and Microsoft where developer gets 80% of
the money.[38] Developers are able to share applications with all Office users (who Microsoft says
number at 1 billion).[38] One such example of Office app is a heat map for Excel. The app travels
with the document, and it's up to the developer what the recipient will see when they open it.
They'll either have the option to download the app from the Office Store for free, start a free trial
or be directed to payment.[38] With Office's cloud abilities, IT department can create a set of apps
for their business employees.[39] When employees go to the Office Store, they'll see their
company's apps under My Organization. The apps that employees have personally downloaded
will appear under My Apps.[38] Developers can use web technologies like HTML5, XML, CSS3,
JavaScript, and APIs for building the apps.[40] An application for Office is a webpage that is
hosted inside an Office client application. User can use apps to amplify the functionality of a
document, email message, meeting request, or appointment. Apps can run in multiple
environments and by multiple clients, including rich Office desktop clients, Office Web Apps,
mobile browsers, and also on-premises and in the cloud.[40] The type of add-ins supported differ
by Office versions:

 Office 97 onwards (standard Windows DLLs i.e. Word WLLs and Excel XLLs)
 Office 2000 onwards (COM add-ins)[41]
 Office XP onwards (COM/OLE Automation add-ins)[42]
 Office 2003 onwards (Managed code add-ins – VSTO solutions)[43]

Password protection
Main article: Microsoft Office password protection

Microsoft Office has security feature which allows users to encrypt Office (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint) documents with user provided password. User password can contain up to 255
characters and uses AES 128-bit advanced encryption by default.[44] Password could be used to
restrict modification of the entire document, worksheet or presentation. Due to lack of document
encryption most passwords could be cracked using a third-party cracking software.[45]

Versions available
Compatibility

Microsoft supports Office for the Windows and OS X platforms, as well as mobile versions for
Windows Phone, Android and iOS platforms. Beginning with Mac Office 4.2, the OS X and
Windows versions of Office share the same file format, and are interoperable. Visual Basic for
Applications support was dropped in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac,[46] then reintroduced in
Office for Mac 2011.[47]

Microsoft tried in the mid-1990s to port Office to RISC processors such as NEC/MIPS and
IBM/PowerPC, but they met problems such as memory access being hampered by data structure
alignment requirements. Microsoft Word 97 and Excel 97 however did ship for the DEC Alpha
platform. Difficulties in porting Office may have been a factor in discontinuing Windows NT on
non-Intel platforms.[48]

Stuart Cohen, CEO of Open Source Development Labs, conjectured in 2006 that Microsoft
would eventually release a Linux port of Office,[49] which occurred via Microsoft Office Mobile
for Android phones (OS 4.0 or later) in 2013 and tablets (OS 4.4 or later) in 2015. Office is also
available for iOS, another Unix-like platform. Office for Windows Phone and the older Windows
Mobile are distinguished from the main Windows version, but Office 2016 for Windows 10 will
consist of one Universal App compatible with both main and mobile versions of Windows.
Microsoft Word is a word processor developed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under
the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems.[3][4][5] Subsequent versions were later written for
several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running Mac
OS (1985), AT&T Unix PC (1985), Atari ST (1988), OS/2 (1989), Microsoft Windows (1989)
and SCO Unix (1994). Commercial versions of Word are licensed as a standalone product or as a
component of Microsoft Office, Windows RT or the discontinued Microsoft Works suite.
Microsoft Word Viewer and Office Online are Freeware editions of Word with limited features.

Contents
 1 History
o 1.1 Origins and growth
o 1.2 Word for Windows
o 1.3 Word for Mac
 2 File formats
o 2.1 File extensions
o 2.2 Binary formats (Word 97–2007)
o 2.3 XML Document (Word 2003)
o 2.4 Cross-version compatibility
o 2.5 Third-party formats
o 2.6 Image formats
 3 Features and flaws
o 3.1 WordArt
o 3.2 Macros
o 3.3 Layout issues
o 3.4 Bullets and numbering
o 3.5 AutoSummarize
 4 Password protection
 5 Reception
 6 Release history
 7 References
 8 Further reading
 9 External links

History
Main article: History of Microsoft Word

Origins and growth

In 1981, Microsoft hired Charles Simonyi, the primary developer of Bravo, the first GUI word
processor, which was developed at Xerox PARC.[6] Simonyi started work on a word processor
called Multi-Tool Word and soon hired Richard Brodie, a former Xerox intern, who became the
primary software engineer.[6][7][8]
Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word for Xenix[6] and MS-DOS in 1983.[9] Its name was soon
simplified to Microsoft Word.[3] Free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with
the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first to be distributed on-disk with a
magazine.[3][10] That year Microsoft demonstrated Word running on Windows.[11]

Unlike most MS-DOS programs at the time, Microsoft Word was designed to be used with a
mouse.[9] Advertisements depicted the Microsoft Mouse, and described Word as a WYSIWYG,
windowed word processor with the ability to Undo and display bold, italic, and underlined text,
[12]
although it could not render fonts.[3] It was not initially popular, since its user interface was
different from the leading word processor at the time, WordStar.[13] However, Microsoft steadily
improved the product, releasing versions 2.0 through 5.0 over the next six years. In 1985,
Microsoft ported Word to Mac OS. This was made easier by Word for DOS having been
designed for use with high-resolution displays and laser printers, even though none were yet
available to the general public.[14] Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word
for Mac OS added true WYSIWYG features. It fulfilled a need for a word processor that was
more capable than MacWrite.[15] After its release, Word for Mac OS's sales were higher than its
MS-DOS counterpart for at least four years.[6]

The second release of Word for Mac OS, shipped in 1987, was named Word 3.0 to synchronize
its version number with Word for DOS; this was Microsoft's first attempt to synchronize version
numbers across platforms. Word 3.0 included numerous internal enhancements and new features,
including the first implementation of the Rich Text Format (RTF) specification, but was plagued
with bugs. Within a few months, Word 3.0 was superseded by a more stable Word 3.01, which
was mailed free to all registered users of 3.0.[14] After MacWrite Pro was discontinued in the
mid-1990s, Word for Mac OS never had any serious rivals. Word 5.1 for Mac OS, released in
1992, was a very popular word processor owing to its elegance, relative ease of use and feature
set. Many users say it is the best version of Word for Mac OS ever created.[14][16]

In 1986, an agreement between Atari and Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST[17] under the
name Microsoft Write. The Atari ST version was a port of Word 1.05 for the Mac OS[18][19] and
was never updated due to the outstanding degree of software piracy on the Atari platform.

The first version of Word for Windows was released in 1989. With the release of Windows 3.0
the following year, sales began to pick up and Microsoft soon became the market leader for word
processors for IBM PC-compatible computers.[6] In 1991, Microsoft capitalized on Word for
Windows' increasing popularity by releasing a version of Word for DOS, version 5.5, that
replaced its unique user interface with an interface similar to a Windows application.[20][21] When
Microsoft became aware of the Year 2000 problem, it made Microsoft Word 5.5 for DOS
available for download free. As of March 2014, it is still available for download from Microsoft's
web site.[22] In 1991, Microsoft embarked on a project code-named Pyramid to completely
rewrite Microsoft Word from the ground up. Both the Windows and Mac OS versions would
start from the same code base. It was abandoned when it was determined that it would take the
development team too long to rewrite and then catch up with all the new capabilities that could
have been added in the same time without a rewrite. Instead, the next versions of Word for
Windows and Mac OS, dubbed version 6.0, both started from the code base of Word for
Windows 2.0.[16]
With the release of Word 6.0 in 1993, Microsoft again attempted to synchronize the version
numbers and coordinate product naming across platforms, this time across DOS, Mac OS, and
Windows (this was the last version of Word for DOS). It introduced AutoCorrect, which
automatically fixed certain typing errors, and AutoFormat, which could reformat many parts of a
document at once. While the Windows version received favorable reviews (e.g.,[23]), the Mac OS
version was widely derided. Many accused it of being slow, clumsy and memory intensive, and
its user interface differed significantly from Word 5.1.[16] In response to user requests, Microsoft
offered Word 5 again, after it had been discontinued.[24] Subsequent versions of Word for Mac
OS X are no longer direct ports of Word for Windows, instead featuring a mixture of ported code
and native code.

Microsoft Word 2007

Word for Windows

A full-featured word processing program for Windows and Mac OS X from Microsoft. Available
stand-alone or as part of the Microsoft Office suite, Word contains rudimentary desktop
publishing capabilities and is the most widely used word processing program on the market.
Word files are commonly used as the format for sending text documents via e-mail because
almost every user with a computer can read a Word document by using the Word application, a
Word viewer or a word processor that imports the Word format (see Microsoft Word Viewer).
Word 6 for Windows NT was the first 32-bit version of the product,[25] released with Microsoft
Office for Windows NT around the same time as Windows 95. It was a straightforward port of
Word 6.0. Starting with Word 95, releases of Word were named after the year of its release,
instead of its version number.[26]

Word 2010 allows more customization of the Ribbon,[27] adds a Backstage view for file
management,[28] has improved document navigation, allows creation and embedding of
screenshots,[29] and integrates with Word Web App.[30]

Word for Mac

See also: Microsoft Office § Mac versions

In 1997, Microsoft formed the Macintosh Business Unit as an independent group within
Microsoft focused on writing software for Mac OS. Its first version of Word, Word 98, was
released with Office 98 Macintosh Edition. Document compatibility reached parity with Word
97,[24] and it included features from Word 97 for Windows, including spell and grammar
checking with squiggles.[31] Users could choose the menus and keyboard shortcuts to be similar
to either Word 97 for Windows or Word 5 for Mac OS.

Word 2001, released in 2000, added a few new features, including the Office Clipboard, which
allowed users to copy and paste multiple items.[32] It was the last version to run on classic Mac
OS and, on Mac OS X, it could only run within the Classic Environment. Word X, released in
2001, was the first version to run natively on, and required, Mac OS X,[31] and introduced non-
contiguous text selection.[33]

Word 2004 was released in May 2004. It included a new Notebook Layout view for taking notes
either by typing or by voice.[34] Other features, such as tracking changes, were made more similar
with Office for Windows.[35]

Word 2008, released on January 15, 2008, included a Ribbon-like feature, called the Elements
Gallery, that can be used to select page layouts and insert custom diagrams and images. It also
included a new view focused on publishing layout, integrated bibliography management,[36] and
native support for the new Office Open XML format. It was the first version to run natively on
Intel-based Macs.[37]

Word 2011, released in October 2010, replaced the Elements Gallery in favor of a Ribbon user
interface that is much more similar to Office for Windows,[38] and includes a full-screen mode
that allows users to focus on reading and writing documents, and support for Office Web Apps.
[39]

File formats
File extensions

Microsoft Word's native file formats are denoted either by a .doc or .docx file extension.

Although the .doc extension has been used in many different versions of Word, it actually
encompasses four distinct file formats:

1. Word for DOS

2. Word for Windows 1 and 2: Word 3 and 4 for Mac OS
3. Word 5 and Word 95 for Windows; Word 6 for Mac OS
4. Word 97 and later for Windows; Word 98 and later for Mac OS

The newer .docx extension signifies the Office Open XML international standard for Office
documents and is used by Word 2007, 2010 and 2013 for Windows, Word 2008 and 2011 for
Mac OS X, as well as by a growing number of applications from other vendors, including
OpenOffice.org Writer, an open source word processing program.[40]

Binary formats (Word 97–2007)

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the default Word document format (.DOC) became a de
facto standard of document file formats for Microsoft Office users. There are different versions
of "Word Document Format" used by default in Word 97–2007.[41] Each binary word file is an
OLE Compound File,[42] a hierarchical file system within a file.[43] According to Joel Spolsky,
Word Binary File Format is extremely complex mainly because its developers had accommodate
an overwhelming number of features and prioritize performance over anything else.[43]

As with all OLE Compound Files, Word Binary Format consists of "storages", which are
analogues to computer folders, and "streams", which are similar to computer files. Each storage
may contain streams or other storages. Each Word Binary File must contain a stream called
"WordDocument" stream and this stream must start with a File Information Block (FIB).[44] FIB
serves as the first point of reference for locating everything else, such as where the text in a
Word document starts, ends, what version of Word created the document and other attributes.

Word 2007 and later continue to support the DOC file format, although it is no longer the
default.

XML Document (Word 2003)

Main article: Microsoft Office XML formats

This section requires expansion. (December 2013)

The XML format introduced in Word 2003[45] was a simple, XML-based format called
WordprocessingML.

Cross-version compatibility

Opening a Word Document file in a version of Word other than the one with which it was
created can cause incorrect display of the document. The document formats of the various
versions change in subtle and not so subtle ways (such as changing the font, or the handling of
more complex tasks like footnotes). Formatting created in newer versions does not always
survive when viewed in older versions of the program, nearly always because that capability
does not exist in the previous version.[46] Rich Text Format (RTF), an early effort to create a
format for interchanging formatted text between applications, is an optional format for Word that
retains most formatting and all content of the original document.

Third-party formats

Plugins permitting the Windows versions of Word to read and write formats it does not natively
support, such as international standard OpenDocument format (ODF) (ISO/IEC 26300:2006), are
available. Up until the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Office 2007, Word did not natively
support reading or writing ODF documents without a plugin, namely the SUN ODF Plugin or the
OpenXML/ODF Translator. With SP2 installed, ODF format 1.1 documents can be read and
saved like any other supported format in addition to those already available in Word 2007.[46][47]
[48][49][50]
The implementation faces substantial criticism, and the ODF Alliance and others have
claimed that the third-party plugins provide better support.[51] Microsoft later declared that the
ODF support has some limitations.[52]

In October 2005, one year before the Microsoft Office 2007 suite was released, Microsoft
declared that there was insufficient demand from Microsoft customers for the international
standard OpenDocument format support, and that therefore it would not be included in Microsoft
Office 2007. This statement was repeated in the following months.[53][54][55][56] As an answer, on
October 20, 2005 an online petition was created to demand ODF support from Microsoft.[57]

In May 2006, the ODF plugin for Microsoft Office was released by the OpenDocument
Foundation.[58] Microsoft declared that it had no relationship with the developers of the plugin.[59]

In July 2006, Microsoft announced the creation of the Open XML Translator project – tools to
build a technical bridge between the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats and the
OpenDocument Format (ODF). This work was started in response to government requests for
interoperability with ODF. The goal of project was not to add ODF support to Microsoft Office,
but only to create a plugin and an external toolset.[60][61] In February 2007, this project released a
first version of the ODF plugin for Microsoft Word.[62]

In February 2007, Sun released an initial version of its ODF plugin for Microsoft Office.[63]
Version 1.0 was released in July 2007.[64]

Microsoft Word 2007 (Service Pack 1) supports (for output only) PDF and XPS formats, but
only after manual installation of the Microsoft 'Save as PDF or XPS' add-on.[65][66] On later
releases, this was offered by default.

Image formats

Word can import and display images in common bitmap formats such as JPG and GIF. It can
also be used to create and display simple line-art. No version of Microsoft Word has support for
the common SVG vector image format.

Features and flaws

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article
by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (November 2010)

Among its features, Word includes a built-in spell checker, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and utilities
for manipulating and editing text. The following are some aspects of its feature set.

WordArt

Main article: WordArt

An example image created with WordArt

WordArt enables drawing text in a Microsoft Word document such as a title, watermark, or other
text, with graphical effects such as skewing, shadowing, rotating, stretching in a variety of
shapes and colors and even including three-dimensional effects. Users can apply formatting
effects such as shadow, bevel, glow, and reflection to their document text as easily as applying
bold or underline.. Users can also spell-check text that uses visual effects, and add text effects to
paragraph styles.

Macros

A Macro is a rule of pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of
characters) should be mapped to an output sequence according to defined process. Frequently
used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated. Like other
Microsoft Office documents, Word files can include advanced macros and even embedded
programs. The language was originally WordBasic, but changed to Visual Basic for Applications
as of Word 97.

This extensive functionality can also be used to run and propagate viruses in documents. The
tendency for people to exchange Word documents via email, USB flash drives, and floppy disks
made this an especially attractive vector in 1999. A prominent example was the Melissa virus,
but countless others have existed.

These macro viruses were the only known cross-platform threats between Windows and
Macintosh computers and they were the only infection vectors to affect any Mac OS X system up
until the advent of video codec trojans in 2007. Microsoft released patches for Word X and Word
2004 that effectively eliminated the macro problem on the Mac by 2006.

Word's macro security setting, which regulates when macros may execute, can be adjusted by the
user, but in the most recent versions of Word, is set to HIGH by default, generally reducing the
risk from macro-based viruses, which have become uncommon.

Layout issues

Before Word 2010 (Word 14) for Windows, the program was unable to correctly handle ligatures
defined in TrueType fonts.[67] Those ligature glyphs with Unicode codepoints may be inserted
manually, but are not recognized by Word for what they are, breaking spell checking, while
custom ligatures present in the font are not accessible at all. Since Word 2010, the program now
has advanced typesetting features which can be enabled:[68] OpenType ligatures,[69] kerning, and
hyphenation. Other layout deficiencies of Word include the inability to set crop marks or thin
spaces. Various third-party workaround utilities have been developed.[70]

In Word 2004 for Mac OS X, support of complex scripts was inferior even to Word 97,[71] and
Word 2004 does not support Apple Advanced Typography features like ligatures or glyph
variants.[72]

Bullets and numbering

Microsoft Word supports bullet lists and numbered lists. It also features a numbering system that
helps add correct numbers to pages, chapters, headers, footnotes, and entries of tables of content;
these numbers automatically change to correct ones as new items are added or existing items are
deleted. Bullets and numbering can be applied directly to paragraphs and convert them to lists.[73]
Word 97 through 2003, however, had problems adding correct numbers to numbered lists. In
particular, a second irrelevant numbered list might have not started with number one, but instead
resumed numbering after the last numbered list. Although Word 97 supported a hidden marker
that said the list numbering must restart afterwards, the command to insert this marker (Restart
Numbering command) was only added in Word 2003. However, if one cut the first item of the
listed and pasted it as another item, e.g. fifth, the restart marker would have moved with it and
the list would have restarted in the middle instead of at the top.[74]

Users can also create tables in Word. Depending on the version, Word can perform simple
calculations. Formulae are supported as well.

AutoSummarize

AutoSummarize highlights passages or phrases that it considers valuable. The amount of text to
be retained can be specified by the user as a percentage of the current amount of text.

According to Ron Fein of the Word 97 team, AutoSummarize cuts wordy copy to the bone by
counting words and ranking sentences. First, AutoSummarize identifies the most common words
in the document (barring "a" and "the" and the like) and assigns a "score" to each word - the
more frequently a word is used, the higher the score. Then, it "averages" each sentence by adding
the scores of its words and dividing the sum by the number of words in the sentence - the higher
the average, the higher the rank of the sentence. "It's like the ratio of wheat to chaff," explains
Fein.[75]

AutoSummarize was removed from Microsoft Word for Mac OS X 2011, although it was present
in Word for Mac 2008. AutoSummarize was removed from the Office 2010 release version (14)
as well.[76]

Password protection
Main article: Microsoft Office password protection
There are three password types that can be set in Microsoft Word:

 Password to open a document[77]

 Password to modify a document[77]
 Password restricting formatting and editing [78]

The second and the third type of passwords were developed by Microsoft for convenient shared
use of documents rather than for their protection. There's no encryption of documents that are
protected by such passwords, and Microsoft Office protection system saves a hash sum of a
password in a document's header where it can be easily accessed and removed by the specialized
software. Password to open a document offers much tougher protection that had been steadily
enhanced in the subsequent editions of Microsoft Office.

Word 95 and all the preceding editions had the weakest protection that utilized a conversion of a
password to a 16-bit key.

Key length in Word 97 and 2000 was strengthened up to 40 bit. However, modern cracking
software allows removing such a password very quickly – a persistent cracking process takes one
week at most. Use of rainbow tables reduces password removal time to several seconds. Some
password recovery software can not only remove a password, but also find an actual password
that was used by a user to encrypt the document using brute-force attack approach. Statistically,
the possibility of recovering the password depends on the password strength.

Word's 2003/XP version default protection remained the same but an option that allowed
advanced users choosing a Cryptographic Service Provider was added.[79] If a strong CSP is
chosen, guaranteed document decryption becomes unavailable, and therefore a password can't be
removed from the document. Nonetheless, a password can be fairly quickly picked with brute-
force attack, because its speed is still high regardless of the CSP selected. Moreover, since the
CSPs are not active by the default, their use is limited to advanced users only.

Word 2007 offers a significantly more secure document protection which utilizes the modern
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) that converts a password to a 128-bit key using a SHA-1
hash function 50000 times. It makes password removal impossible (as of today, no computer that
can pick the key in reasonable amount of time exists), and drastically slows the brute-force attack
speed down to several hundreds of passwords per second.

Word's 2010 protection algorithm was not changed apart from increasing number of SHA-1
conversions up to 100000 times, and consequently, the brute-force attack speed decreased two
times more.

Reception
BYTE in 1984 criticized the documentation for Word 1.1 and 2.0 for DOS, calling it "a complete
farce". It called the software "clever, put together well, and performs some extraordinary feats",
but concluded that "especially when operated with the mouse, has many more limitations than
benefits ... extremely frustrating to learn and operate efficiently".[80] PC Magazine‍‍ 's‍ review was
very mixed, stating "I've run into weird word processors before, but this is the first time one's
nearly knocked me down for the count" but acknowledging that Word's innovations were the
first that caused the reviewer to consider abandoning WordStar. While the review cited an
excellent WYSIWYG display, sophisticated print formatting, windows, and footnoting as merits,
it criticized many small flaws, very slow performance, and "documentation apparently produced
by Madame Sadie's Pain Palace". It concluded that Word was "two releases away from potential
greatness".[81]

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows,

Mac OS X, and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro
programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. It has been a very widely applied
spreadsheet for these platforms, especially since version 5 in 1993, and it has replaced Lotus 1-2-
3 as the industry standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of Microsoft Office.

Contents
 1 Features
o 1.1 Basic operation
o 1.2 Macro programming
 1.2.1 VBA programming
 1.2.2 History
o 1.3 Charts
 2 Data storage and communication
o 2.1 Number of rows and columns
o 2.2 File formats
 2.2.1 Binary
 2.2.2 XML Spreadsheet
 2.2.3 Current file extensions
 2.2.4 Old file extensions
o 2.3 Using other Windows applications
o 2.4 Using external data
o 2.5 Export and migration of spreadsheets
o 2.6 Password protection
 3 Microsoft Excel Viewer
 4 Quirks
o 4.1 Statistical functions
o 4.2 Excel MOD function error
o 4.3 Date problems
o 4.4 Filenames
 o 4.5 Numeric precision
 5 Versions
o 5.1 Early history
o 5.2 Microsoft Windows
 5.2.1 Excel 2.0 (1987)
 5.2.2 Excel 3.0 (1990)
 5.2.3 Excel 4.0 (1992)
 5.2.4 Excel 5.0 (1993)
 5.2.5 Excel 95 (v7.0)
 5.2.6 Excel 97 (v8.0)
 5.2.7 Excel 2000 (v9.0)
 5.2.8 Excel 2002 (v10.0)
 5.2.9 Excel 2003 (v11.0)
 5.2.10 Excel 2007 (v12.0)
 5.2.11 Excel 2010 (v14.0)
 5.2.12 Excel 2013 (v15.0)
o 5.3 Apple Macintosh
o 5.4 OS/2
 6 Impact
 7 Security
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 General references
 11 External links

Features
Basic operation

Main article: Spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets,[2] using a grid of cells arranged in
numbered rows and letter-named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic
operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering and financial
needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a very
limited three-dimensional graphical display. It allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies
on various factors for different perspectives (using pivot tables and the scenario manager).[3] It
has a programming aspect, Visual Basic for Applications, allowing the user to employ a wide
variety of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential equations of mathematical
physics,[4][5] and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet. It also has a variety of
interactive features allowing user interfaces that can completely hide the spreadsheet from the
user, so the spreadsheet presents itself as a so-called application, or decision support system
(DSS), via a custom-designed user interface, for example, a stock analyzer,[6] or in general, as a
design tool that asks the user questions and provides answers and reports.[7][8][9] In a more
elaborate realization, an Excel application can automatically poll external databases and
measuring instruments using an update schedule,[10] analyze the results, make a Word report or
PowerPoint slide show, and e-mail these presentations on a regular basis to a list of participants.

Use of a user-defined function sq(x) in Microsoft Excel. The named variables x & y are identified in the
Name Manager. The function sq is introduced using the Visual Basic editor supplied with Excel.

Subroutine in Excel calculates the square of named column variable x read from the spreadsheet, and
writes it into the named column variable y.

Graph made using Microsoft Excel

Microsoft allows for a number of optional command-line switches to control the manner in
which Excel starts.[11]

Macro programming

VBA programming
Main article: Visual Basic for Applications

The Windows version of Excel supports programming through Microsoft's Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA), which is a dialect of Visual Basic. Programming with VBA allows
spreadsheet manipulation that is awkward or impossible with standard spreadsheet techniques.
Programmers may write code directly using the Visual Basic Editor (VBE), which includes a
window for writing code, debugging code, and code module organization environment. The user
can implement numerical methods as well as automating tasks such as formatting or data
organization in VBA[12] and guide the calculation using any desired intermediate results reported
back to the spreadsheet.

VBA was removed from Mac Excel 2008, as the developers did not believe that a timely release
would allow porting the VBA engine natively to Mac OS X. VBA was restored in the next
version, Mac Excel 2011,[13] although the build lacks support for ActiveX objects, impacting
some high level developer tools.[14]

A common and easy way to generate VBA code is by using the Macro Recorder.[15] The Macro
Recorder records actions of the user and generates VBA code in the form of a macro. These
actions can then be repeated automatically by running the macro. The macros can also be linked
to different trigger types like keyboard shortcuts, a command button or a graphic. The actions in
the macro can be executed from these trigger types or from the generic toolbar options. The
VBA code of the macro can also be edited in the VBE. Certain features such as loop functions
and screen prompts by their own properties, and some graphical display items, cannot be
recorded, but must be entered into the VBA module directly by the programmer. Advanced users
can employ user prompts to create an interactive program, or react to events such as sheets being
loaded or changed.

Users should be aware that using Macro Recorded code may not be compatible from one version
of Excel to another. Some code that is used in Excel 2010 can not be used in Excel 2003. Making
a Macro that changes the cell colors and making changes to other aspects of cells may not be
backward compatible.

VBA code interacts with the spreadsheet through the Excel Object Model,[16] a vocabulary
identifying spreadsheet objects, and a set of supplied functions or methods that enable reading
and writing to the spreadsheet and interaction with its users (for example, through custom
toolbars or command bars and message boxes). User-created VBA subroutines execute these
actions and operate like macros generated using the macro recorder, but are more flexible and
efficient.
History

From its first version Excel supported end user programming of macros (automation of repetitive
tasks) and user defined functions (extension of Excel's built-in function library). In early versions
of Excel these programs were written in a macro language whose statements had formula syntax
and resided in the cells of special purpose macro sheets (stored with file extension .XLM in
Windows.) XLM was the default macro language for Excel through Excel 4.0.[17] Beginning with
version 5.0 Excel recorded macros in VBA by default but with version 5.0 XLM recording was
still allowed as an option. After version 5.0 that option was discontinued. All versions of Excel,
including Excel 2010 are capable of running an XLM macro, though Microsoft discourages their
use.[18]

Charts

Excel supports charts, graphs, or histograms generated from specified groups of cells. The
generated graphic component can either be embedded within the current sheet, or added as a
separate object.

These displays are dynamically updated if the content of cells change. For example, suppose that
the important design requirements are displayed visually; then, in response to a user's change in
trial values for parameters, the curves describing the design change shape, and their points of
intersection shift, assisting the selection of the best design.

Data storage and communication

Number of rows and columns

Versions of Excel up to 7.0 had a limitation in the size of their data sets of 16K (214 = 16384)
rows. Versions 8.0 through 11.0 could handle 64K (216 = 65536) rows and 256 columns (28 as
label 'IV'). Version 12.0 can handle 1M (220 = 1048576) rows, and 16384 (214 as label 'XFD')
columns.[19]

File formats

Excel Spreadsheet

.xls, (.xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb

Filename extension
- Excel 2007)

Internet media type application/vnd.ms-excel

Uniform Type
com.microsoft.excel.xls[20]
Identifier (UTI)
 Developed by Microsoft

Type of format Spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel up until 2007 version used a proprietary binary file format called Excel Binary
File Format (.XLS) as its primary format.[21] Excel 2007 uses Office Open XML as its primary
file format, an XML-based format that followed after a previous XML-based format called
"XML Spreadsheet" ("XMLSS"), first introduced in Excel 2002.[22]

Although supporting and encouraging the use of new XML-based formats as replacements,
Excel 2007 remained backwards-compatible with the traditional, binary formats. In addition,
most versions of Microsoft Excel can read CSV, DBF, SYLK, DIF, and other legacy formats.
Support for some older file formats was removed in Excel 2007.[23] The file formats were mainly
from DOS-based programs.

Binary

OpenOffice.org has created documentation of the Excel format.[24] Since then Microsoft made the
Excel binary format specification available to freely download.[25]

XML Spreadsheet
Main article: Microsoft Office XML formats

The XML Spreadsheet format introduced in Excel 2002[22] is a simple, XML based format
missing some more advanced features like storage of VBA macros. Though the intended file
extension for this format is .xml, the program also correctly handles XML files with .xls
extension. This feature is widely used by third-party applications (e.g. MySQL Query Browser)
to offer "export to Excel" capabilities without implementing binary file format.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a slide show presentation program currently developed by Microsoft.

PowerPoint's predecessor, "Presenter", was created by Forethought Inc., and PowerPoint was
officially launched on May 22, 1990, as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. PowerPoint is well
known for helping develop the slide based presentation format, and is currently one of the most
commonly-used presentation programs available.

Contents
 1 History
 2 Operation
 3 Cultural impact
o 3.1 Military excess
o 3.2 Artistic medium
 4 PowerPoint Viewer
 5 Versions
o 5.1 Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
 6 File formats
 7 Password protection
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 Further reading
 11 External links

History
Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the initial release was called "Presenter",
developed by Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin[2] of Forethought, Inc.[3] In 1987, it was
renamed to "PowerPoint" due to problems with trademarks, the idea for the name coming from
Robert Gaskins.[4] In August of the same year, Forethought was bought by Microsoft for $14
million USD ($29.1 million in present-day terms[5]), and became Microsoft's Graphics Business
Unit, which continued to develop the software further. PowerPoint was officially launched on
May 22, 1990, the same day that Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

PowerPoint introduced many new changes with the release of PowerPoint 97. PowerPoint 97
incorporated the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language, underlying all macro generation
in Office 97.

PowerPoint 2000 (and the rest of the Office 2000 suite) introduced a clipboard that could hold
multiple objects at once. Another change was that the Office Assistant was changed to be less
intrusive.[6]

PowerPoint 2002 massively overhauled the animation engine, allowing users to create more
advanced and custom animations.[7]
As of 2012, various versions of PowerPoint claim ~95% of the presentation software market
share, with installations on at least 1 billion computers. Among presenters world-wide, this
program is used at an estimated frequency of 350 times per second.[8]

Operation
PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide"
analogy is a reference to the slide projector. A better analogy would be the "foils" (or
transparencies/plastic sheets) that are shown with an overhead projector, although they are in
decline now. Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be
arranged freely. The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated
through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often
projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts.

PowerPoint provides three types of movements:

1. Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are controlled by what
PowerPoint calls Custom Animations.
2. Transitions, on the other hand, are movements between slides. These can be animated in
a variety of ways.
3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to enter,
exit or move.

PowerPoint provides numerous features that offer flexibility and the ability to create a
professional presentation. One of the features provides the ability to create a presentation that
includes music which plays throughout the entire presentation or sound effects for particular
slides. In addition to the ability to add sound files, the presentation can be designed to run, like a
movie, on its own. PowerPoint allows the user to record the slide show with narration and a laser
pointer. The user may customize slide shows to show the slides in a different order than
originally designed and to have slides appear multiple times. Microsoft also offers the ability to
broadcast the presentation to specific users via a link and Windows Live.

Cultural impact

A PowerPoint presentation in progress.

Supporters say that[9][10][11] the ease of use of presentation software can save a lot of time for
people who otherwise would have used other types of visual aid—hand-drawn or mechanically
typeset slides, blackboards or whiteboards, or overhead projections. Ease of use also encourages
those who otherwise would not have used visual aids, or would not have given a presentation at
all, to make presentations. As PowerPoint's style, animation, and multimedia abilities have
become more sophisticated, and as the application has generally made it easier to produce
presentations (even to the point of having an "AutoContent Wizard" that was discontinued in
PowerPoint 2007, suggesting a structure for a presentation), the difference in needs and desires
of presenters and audiences has become more noticeable.[12] Experienced PowerPoint designers
point out that the "AutoContent Wizard" caused a glitch which contributed greatly to on-screen
freezing of slides. Many designers opt to use the "blank slide layout" in lieu of the other layout
choices for this reason. Nevertheless, in normal business use, most presentations created using
PowerPoint are based on its default layout and font choices.[13]

The benefit of PowerPoint is continually debated, though most people believe that the benefit
may be to present structural presentations to business workers, such as Raytheon Elcan does.[14]
Its use in classroom lectures has influenced investigations of PowerPoint's effects on student
performance in comparison to lectures based on overhead projectors, traditional lectures, and
online lectures. There are no compelling results to prove or disprove that PowerPoint is more
effective for learner retention than traditional presentation methods.[15] Statistician and designer
Edward Tufte suggests that as PowerPoint on its own has limited ability to present complex
tables and graphics, a better approach is to provide the audience with printed data and a written
report for them to read at the start of the meeting, before leading them through the report with a
talk. He noted that after the Columbia disaster, a report on the accident recommended that
PowerPoint should never be used as the sole method for presenting scientific material.

Military excess

The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with USA and do not
represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the
issue on the talk page. (March 2015)

A "PowerPoint Ranger" is a military member who relies heavily on presentation software to the
point of excess. Some junior officers spend the majority of their time preparing PowerPoint
slides.[16] Because of its usefulness for presenting mission briefings, it has become part of the
culture of the military,[17][18] but is regarded as a poor decision-making tool.[19] As a result, some
generals, such as Brigadier-General Herbert McMaster, have banned the use of PowerPoint in
their operations.[16] In September 2010, Colonel Lawrence Sellin was fired from his post at the
ISAF for publishing a piece critical of the over-dependence of military staffs on the presentation
method and bloated bureaucracy.[20]

Artistic medium

Musician David Byrne has been using PowerPoint as a medium for art for years, producing a
book and DVD and showing at galleries his PowerPoint based artwork.[21] The expressions
"PowerPoint Art" or "pptArt" are used to define a contemporary Italian artistic movement which
believes that the corporate world can be a unique and exceptional source of inspiration for the
artist.

PowerPoint Viewer
Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer is a program used to run presentations on computers that do
not have PowerPoint installed. Office PowerPoint Viewer (or in PowerPoint 2007 and later, a
link to a viewer download) is added by default to the same disk or network location that contains
one or more presentations packaged by using the Package for CD feature.

PowerPoint Viewer is installed by default with a Microsoft Office 2003 installation for use with
the Package for CD feature. The PowerPoint Viewer file is also available for download from the
Microsoft Office Online Web site.[22]

Presentations password-protected for opening or modifying can be opened by PowerPoint

Viewer. The Package for CD feature allows packaging any password-protected file or setting a
new password for all packaged presentations. PowerPoint Viewer prompts for a password if the
file is open password-protected.

PowerPoint Viewer supports opening presentations created using PowerPoint 97 and later. In
addition, it supports all file content except OLE objects and scripting. PowerPoint Viewer is
currently only available for computers running on Microsoft Windows