Microsoft® Office Application

Before discussing about applications of Microsoft® Office, here is a brief description of Microsoft® Office. An office suite of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft® Windows® and Mac OS X operating systems, Microsoft® office was launched in 1989 for Mac OS®, with a version for Windows® in 1990.

The very first version of Microsoft® Office included Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® Excel® and Microsoft® PowerPoint®. Later on a professional version, which was called "Pro" was introduced and consisted of Microsoft® Access® and Schedule Plus. Subsequent changes in the technology also led to the growth of Microsoft® Office Applications and had shared features, such as common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications scripting language. As per Microsoft®, Office is a development platform for line-of-business software under the Microsoft® Office Business Applications (OBA) brand.

Latest versions of Microsoft® Office is Office 2007 for Windows®, which was launched on January 30, 2007 and Microsoft® Office 2008 for Mac OS X, released on January 15, 2008. For the convenience of the million of the users of Microsoft Word, it has introduced free add-on called as Microsoft® Office Compatibility Pack. This pack allows Microsoft® Office 2000-2003 for Windows® and Microsoft® Office 2004 for Mac® editions to open, edit, and save documents created under the new formats for Microsoft® Office 2007. As already told, Microsoft Office or MS office is a combination of interrelated desktop applications. These Microsoft® Office applications are as follows:

1.   Microsoft® Word

• It is a word processor
• Considered to be the main program in the Microsoft® Office
• Has proprietary DOC format , which is considered a de facto standard
• However, Microsoft® Word 2007 can also use a new XML-based, Microsoft® Office-optimized format called .DOCX
• Also available in some editions of Microsoft® Works

The ".doc" extension has been used in many different versions of Microsoft® Word, it actually encompasses four distinct file formats:

• Word for DOS
• Word for Windows 1 and 2; Word 4 and 5 for Mac
• Word 6 and Word 95 for Windows; Word 6 for Mac
• Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 for Windows; Word 98, 2001, X, and 2004 for Mac

2.   Excel®

• A spreadsheet program
• It was originally a competitor to the dominant Lotus 1-2-3, but it eventually outsold it.
• Available for the Windows® and Mac® platforms.
• The current Mac® version (Microsoft® Office 2008) has removed Visual Basic® functionality so macros cannot be used and those generated in previous iterations of Office no longer work
• Microsoft® announced in May 2008, that Visual Basic® would be returning to Excel in future versions

3.   Outlook®/Entourage

Microsoft Outlook

• Microsoft® Outlook® is a personal information manager and e-mail communication software
• Replacement for Windows Messaging, Microsoft® Mail and Schedule+ (Plus)
• Started in Microsoft® Office 97
• Includes an e-mail client, calendar, task manager and address book

Microsoft® Entourage

• An e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft® for Mac OS® 8.5 and higher
• Entourage provides email, a calendar, address book, task list, note list, and project manage
• Supports some Mac OS® technologies, like the Spotlight® search engine and AppleScript®
  

4.   PowerPoint®

• A popular presentation program for Windows® and Mac®
• Used to create slideshows, composed of text, graphics, movies and other objects, which can be displayed on-screen and navigated through by the presenter or printed out on transparencies or slides Convenient for school or work presentation
• Office Mobile for Windows® Mobile 5.0 and later features a version of PowerPoint® called PowerPoint® Mobile
• Movies, videos, sounds and music, as well as Wordart and Autoshapes can be added to slideshows
  

5.   Publisher

• Desktop publishing application from Microsoft®
• An entry-level application, differing from Microsoft® Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing
• Mostly used for designing brochures, labels, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletter, and postcards.

6.   Other desktop applications (Windows version only)

Those who run Microsoft® Windows® (any version) on their computer system can upload any of the following Microsoft® Office Applications:

• Microsoft® Access® – Database manager
• Microsoft® Publisher – software for creating newsletters, business cards, flyers, greeting cards or postcard
• Microsoft® InfoPath® – an application to design rich XML-based forms
• Microsoft® OneNote® – Note-taking software for use with tablet PCs or regular PCs
• Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Designer – a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web design program for customizing SharePoint® applications, it replaces Microsoft® Office FrontPage (it is not bundled in any Office 2007 suite)
• Microsoft® Project – Project management software to keep track of events and to create network charts and Gantt charts (it is not bundled in any Office 2007 suite)
• Microsoft® Office Accounting – a tool for managing business finances (it is not bundled in any Microsoft® Office 2007 suite, except for the an Express® edition)
• Microsoft® Office Communicator – Integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real time (it is bundled with Office 2007 Professional Plus and Enterprise 2007.
• Microsoft® Office Document Imaging – an application that supports editing scanned documents.
• Microsoft® Office Document Scanning – a scanning and OCR application.
• Microsoft® Office Groove® – a proprietary peer-to-peer collaboration software leveled at businesses
• Microsoft® Office InterConnect – Business-relationship database available only in Japan
• Microsoft® Office Picture Manager – Basic photo management software (similar to Google's Picasa™ or Adobe® Photoshop® Elements)

iYogi's Microsoft® Application Support

Sometimes users face hell lot of problems in uploading proper Microsoft® Application suite, which is required for their systems. For such consumers, we iYogi consumers offer excellent support. All your problems related with the Microsoft® Application Suite, whether be it installation, troubleshooting or regular upgradation of the installed suite, are resolved properly by us. We at iYogi have a team of Certified professionals who are well aware with the changing technology and assist you with utmost passion.

If you are looking for help with issues related to any Microsoft® products, including any version of Windows® Operating System or Microsoft® Office then click hereand solve the problem on your own.