Microsoft Office (also known as MS Office or simply Office) is a family of productivity applications from Microsoft, announced on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas by Bill Gates, and officially launched for Microsoft Windows on October 1, 1990.^[3] It was also made available for Windows Phone, macOS, iOS, and Android. A web browser-based version, Office Online, is also available.

The first version of Microsoft Office contained Microsoft Word (a word processor), Microsoft Excel (a spreadsheet program), and Microsoft PowerPoint (a presentation program) – all three of which remain core products in the suite. Over time, the Office suite has grown substantially, adding programs such as OneNote and Outlook; the suite has also been made highly extensible with the use of the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripting language.

Along with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the suite currently also includes a note-taking program (OneNote) and an email client (Outlook); the Windows version also includes a database management system (Access).

Since Office 2013, Microsoft has promoted Microsoft 365 (formerly 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 2017, revenue from Office 365 overtook conventional license sales.

Microsoft continues to sell the perpetually licensed Office suite, the latest version of which is Office 2024.^[4][5]

Components

See also: List of Microsoft 365 applications and services

Core apps and services

• Microsoft Word – word processor
• Microsoft Excel – spreadsheet editor
• Microsoft PowerPoint – presentation program
• Microsoft OneNote – note-taking program
• Microsoft Outlook – personal information manager
• OneDrive – file hosting and cloud storage service
• Microsoft Teams – business communication platform

Windows-only apps

• Microsoft Publisher – desktop publishing
• Microsoft Access – database management system
• Microsoft Project – project management app
• Microsoft Visio – diagram and flow-charting app

Mobile-only apps

• Microsoft Lens – image scanner
• Office Mobile – unified Office mobile app that combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app
• Office Remote – remote control app for desktop versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Server applications

• Microsoft SharePoint – a web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office.
• Skype for Business Server – communications platform with instant messaging and video-conferencing capabilities
• Microsoft Exchange Server – mail and calendaring server

Web services

• Microsoft Sway – presentation web app
• Delve – allows Microsoft 365 users to manage and search their emails, meetings, contacts, social networks, and documents stored on OneDrive or Sites in Office 365
• Microsoft Forms – online survey creator
• Microsoft To-Do – task management service
• Outlook.com – free webmail
• Microsoft Planner – planning application
• Microsoft Stream – corporate video sharing service for enterprise users
• Microsoft Bookings – appointment booking application

Discontinued applications and web services

• Office Assistant
• Microsoft Binder
• Microsoft Bookshelf
• Docs.com
• Entourage
• FrontPage
• InfoPath
• Microsoft Office Live
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting
• Schedule+

File formats and metadata

Microsoft Office, before Office 2007, used proprietary file formats based on the OLE Compound File Binary Format. This forced users who share data to adopt the same software platform. In 2008, Microsoft made the entire documentation for the binary Office formats freely available for download and granted any possible patent rights for use or implementations of those binary formats for free under the Open Specification Promise. Previously, Microsoft had supplied such documentation freely but on request.

Starting with Office 2007, the default file format has been a version of Office Open XML, though different from 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 and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office, including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000, and Office 2004 for Mac OS X. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms, such as LibreOffice, iWork '08, and OpenOffice.org. In addition, Office 2010, Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, and Office 2016 for Mac support the OpenDocument Format (ODF) for opening and saving documents – only the old ODF 1.0 (2006 ISO/IEC standard) is supported, not the 1.2 version (2015 ISO/IEC standard).

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. 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. 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.^[6] Plugins and other tools can be downloaded by users.^[7] Developers can make money by selling their applications in the Office Store. The revenue is divided between the developer and Microsoft, where the developer gets 80% of the money. Developers can share applications with all Office users.^[8]

The app travels with the document, and it is the developer's choice to decide what the recipient will see when they open it. The recipient will either have the option to download the app from the Office Store for free, start a free trial, or be directed to payment.^[8] With Office's cloud abilities, IT departments can create a set of apps for their business employees to increase their productivity.^[9] When employees go to the Office Store, they will see their company's apps under My Organization. The apps that employees have personally downloaded will appear under My Apps.^[8] Developers can use web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, XML, JavaScript, and APIs for building apps.^{[citation needed]} An application for Office is a webpage that is hosted inside an Office client application. Users 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.^[10]

The type of add-ins supported differs by Office versions:

• Office 97 onwards (standard Windows DLLs, such as Word WLLs and Excel XLLs)
• Office 2000 onwards (COM add-ins)
• Office XP onwards (COM/OLE Automation add-ins)
• Office 2003 onwards (managed code add-ins - VSTO solutions)

Password protection

Main article: Microsoft Office password protection

Microsoft Office has a security feature that allows users to encrypt Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Skype Business) documents with a user-provided password. The password can contain up to 255 characters and uses AES 128-bit advanced encryption by default.^[11] Passwords can also be used to restrict modification of the entire document, worksheet, or presentation. Due to a lack of document encryption, though, these passwords can be removed using third-party cracking software.^[12]

Support policies

All versions of Microsoft Office products from Office 2000 to Office 2016 are eligible for ten years of support following their release, during which Microsoft releases security updates for the product version and provides paid technical support. The ten years are divided into two five-year phases: the mainstream and the extended phase. During the mainstream phase, Microsoft may provide limited complimentary technical support and release non-security updates or change the design of the product. During the extended phase, said services stop. Office 2019 only receives five years of mainstream and two years of extended support, and Office 2021 only receives five years of mainstream support.

Criticism

Data formats

Microsoft Office has been criticized in the past for using proprietary file formats rather than open standards, which forces users who share data to adopt the same software platform.^[13] However, on February 15, 2008, Microsoft made the documentation for the binary Office formats freely available under the Open Specification Promise.^{[citation needed]} Also, Office Open XML, the document format for the latest versions of Office for Windows and Mac, has been standardized under both Ecma International and ISO. Ecma International has published the Office Open XML specification free of copyrights, and Microsoft has granted patent rights to the format's technology under the Open Specification Promise.^{[citation needed]} Microsoft has also made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office, including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000, and Office 2004 for Mac. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Mac platform (iWork 08) and Linux (OpenOffice 2.3 - Novell Edition only).

Unicode and bi-directional texts

Microsoft Office has faced criticism for its limited support for Unicode and bidirectional text in its Mac versions, notably in languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. This issue, which had existed since the first release in 1989, was addressed in the 2016 release.^[14]

Privacy

On November 13, 2018, a report initiated by the Government of the Netherlands concluded that Microsoft Office 2016 and Office 365 do not comply with GDPR, the European law that regulates data protection and privacy for all citizens in and outside the European Union and the EFTA region.^{[citation needed]} The investigation was initiated by the observation that Microsoft does not reveal or share publicly any data collected about users of its software. In addition, the company does not provide users of its Office software an option to turn off diagnostic and telemetry data sent back to the company. Researchers found out that most of the data that Microsoft software collects and "sends home" is diagnostics. Researchers also observed that Microsoft "seemingly tried to make the system GDPR compliant by storing Office documents on servers based in the EU". However, they discovered the software packages collected additional data that contained private user information, some of which was stored on servers located in the US.^{[citation needed]} The Netherlands Ministry of Justice hired Privacy Company to probe and evaluate the use of Microsoft Office products in the public sector.^{[citation needed]} "Microsoft systematically collects data on a large scale about the individual use of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Covertly, without informing people", researchers of the Privacy Company stated in their blog post. "Microsoft does not offer any choice with regard to the amount of data, or possibility to switch off the collection, or ability to see what data are collected, because the data stream is encoded."^{[citation needed]}

The researchers commented that there is no need for Microsoft to store information such as IPs and email addresses, which are collected automatically by the software. "Microsoft should not store these transient, functional data, unless the retention is strictly necessary, for example, for security purposes", the researchers conclude in the final report by the Netherlands Ministry of Justice.^{[citation needed]}

As a result of this in-depth study and its conclusions, the Netherlands regulatory body concluded that Microsoft had violated GDPR "on many counts," including "lack of transparency and purpose limitation, and the lack of a legal ground for the processing."^{[citation needed]} Microsoft has provided the Dutch authorities with an "improvement plan" that should satisfy Dutch regulators that it "would end all violations". The Dutch regulatory body is monitoring the situation and states that "If progress is deemed insufficient or if the improvements offered are unsatisfactory, SLM Microsoft Rijk will reconsider its position and may ask the Dutch Data Protection Authority to carry out a prior consultation and to impose enforcement measures."^{[citation needed]} When asked for a response by an IT professional publication, a Microsoft spokesperson stated: "We are committed to our customers’ privacy, putting them in control of their data and ensuring that Office ProPlus and other Microsoft products and services comply with GDPR and other applicable laws. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our diagnostic data handling practices in Office ProPlus with the Dutch Ministry of Justice and look forward to a successful resolution of any concerns."^{[citation needed]} The user privacy data issue affects ProPlus subscriptions of Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 365, including the online version of Microsoft Office 365.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

Microsoft Office 1.0 for Macintosh

Microsoft Multiplan, Word, and Excel for Macintosh

Back side of the 3 products

Logo timeline

1995-2001 as Microsoft Office 95-XP

2001-2003 as Microsoft Office XP-2003

2003-2006 as Microsoft Office 2003-2007

2006-2009 as Microsoft Office 2007-2010

2012-2019 as Microsoft Office 2013, 2016, 2019 and 365

2019-present as Microsoft Office 2019 and 365

References

External links

• Office is becoming Microsoft 365 at Microsoft
• Microsoft Office at Logopedia
• Microsoft Office at Wikipedia