Word excel powerpoint onenote onedrive outlook

Microsoft Office

From top-left: Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint, Teams, and Yammer
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	October 1, 1990; 32 years ago[1]
Final release(s) [±]
Office 365 2107 (Beta Channel) (16.0.13901.20462) / June 8, 2021; 22 months ago One-time purchase 2021 / October 5, 2021; 18 months ago[2]
Preview release(s) [±]
Written in	C++ (back-end)[3]
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, macOS
Successor	Microsoft 365
Standard(s)	Office Open XML (ISO/IEC 29500)
Available in	102 languages[4]
List of languages Full (43): English, Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay (Latin), Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin, Serbia), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Somali, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Partial (48): Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani (Latin), Bangla (Bangladesh), Bangla (Bengali India), Belarusian, Bosnian (Latin), Dari, Filipino, Georgian, Gujarati, Icelandic, Irish, Kannada, Khmer, Kiswahili, Konkani, Kyrgyz, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian (Cyrillic), Nepali, Norwegian Nynorsk, Odia, Persian (Farsi), Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Quechua, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Cyrillic, Bosnia & Herzegovina), Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia), Sindhi (Arabic), Sinhala, Tamil, Tatar (Cyrillic), Telugu, Turkmen (Latin), Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek (Latin), Valencian, Welsh, Proofing only (11): Hausa, Igbo, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Kinyarwanda, Pashto, Romansh, Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, Wolof, Yoruba
Type	Office suite
License	Trialware, volume licensing or SaaS
Website	office.com

Microsoft Office for Mobile

Microsoft Office for Mobile apps on Windows 10
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	April 19, 2000; 22 years ago
Stable release	17.0 / October 2021; 1 year ago
Operating system	Windows 10,[5][6][7][8] Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone, iOS, iPadOS, Android,[9] ChromeOS[10]
Platform	Smartphones and Tablet computers[9]
Type	Productivity software
License	Proprietary software:[9] Windows 10 Mobile and Windows Phone: Built-in Others: Freeware, with shareware features
Website	www.office.com

Microsoft Office for Mac

Microsoft Office 2021 for Mac apps from top left to bottom right: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	August 1, 1989; 33 years ago
Stable release	Microsoft Office 2021
Written in	C++ (back-end), Objective-C (API/UI)[3]
Operating system	macOS Classic Mac OS (discontinued)
Available in	16 languages[11]
List of languages English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish
Type	Office suite
License	Proprietary commercial software (retail, volume licensing, SaaS)
Website	www.office.com

Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is a discontinued family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing term for an office suite (bundled set of productivity 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, Object Linking and Embedding 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.

It contains a word processor (Word), a spreadsheet program (Excel) and a presentation program (PowerPoint), an email client (Outlook), a database management system (Access), and a desktop publishing app (Publisher).^[12]

Office is produced in several versions targeted towards different end-users and computing environments. The original, and most widely used version, is the desktop version, available for PCs running the Windows and macOS operating systems. Microsoft also maintains mobile apps for Android and iOS. 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 2017, revenue from Office 365 overtook conventional license sales. Microsoft also rebranded most of their standard Office 365 editions as «Microsoft 365» to reflect their inclusion of features and services beyond the core Microsoft Office suite.

In October 2022, Microsoft announced that it will phase out the Microsoft Office brand in favor of «Microsoft 365» by January 2023. The name will continue to be used for legacy product offerings.^[13][14]

Components

Core apps and services

• Microsoft Word is a word processor included in Microsoft Office and some editions of the now-discontinued Microsoft Works. The first version of Word, released in the autumn of 1983, was for the MS-DOS operating system and introduced the computer mouse to more users. 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. Initially, it implemented the proprietary .doc format as its primary format. Word 2007, however, deprecated this format in favor of Office Open XML, which was later standardized by Ecma International as an open format. Support for Portable Document Format (PDF) and OpenDocument (ODF) was first introduced in Word for Windows with Service Pack 2 for Word 2007.^[15]
• Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor that originally competed with the dominant Lotus 1-2-3 and eventually outsold it. 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) in November 1987.
• Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program 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.
• Microsoft OneNote is a notetaking program that gathers handwritten or typed notes, 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 Microsoft Office 2003 edition. 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. OneNote is also available as a web app on Office on the web, a freemium (and later freeware) Windows desktop app, a mobile app for Windows Phone, iOS, Android, and Symbian, and a Metro-style app for Windows 8 or later.
• Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express, Outlook.com or Outlook on the web) is a personal information manager that replaces 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.^[16]
• Microsoft OneDrive is a file hosting service that allows users to sync files and later access them from a web browser or mobile device.
• Microsoft Teams is a platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments.

Windows-only apps

• Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing app for Windows mostly used for designing brochures, labels, calendars, greeting cards, business cards, newsletters, web sites, and postcards.
• Microsoft Access is a database management system for Windows that combines the relational Access Database Engine (formerly Jet Database Engine) with a graphical user interface and software development tools. Microsoft Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Database Engine. It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.^[17]
• Microsoft Project is a project management app for Windows to keep track of events and to create network charts and Gantt charts, not bundled in any Office suite.
• Microsoft Visio is a diagram and flowcharting app for Windows not bundled in any Office suite.

Mobile-only apps

• Office Lens is an image scanner optimized for mobile devices. It captures the document (e.g. business card, paper, whiteboard) via the camera and then straightens the document portion of the image. The result can be exported to Word, OneNote, PowerPoint or Outlook, or saved in OneDrive, sent via Mail or placed in Photo Library.
• Office Mobile is a unified Office mobile app for Android and iOS, which combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app and introduces new capabilities as making quick notes, signing PDFs, scanning QR codes, and transferring files.^[18]
• Office Remote is an application that turns the mobile device into a remote control for desktop versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Server applications

• Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and usage varies substantially among organizations. SharePoint services include:
  • Excel Services is a spreadsheet editing server similar to Microsoft Excel.
  • InfoPath Forms Services is a form distribution server similar to Microsoft InfoPath.
  • Microsoft Project Server is a project management server similar to Microsoft Project.
  • Microsoft Search Server
• Skype for Business Server is a real-time communications server for instant messaging and video-conferencing.
• Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server.

Web services

• Microsoft Sway is a presentation web app released in October 2014. It also has a native app for iOS and Windows 10.
• Delve is a service that allows Office 365 users to search and manage their emails, meetings, contacts, social networks and documents stored on OneDrive or Sites in Office 365.
• Microsoft Forms is an online survey creator, available for Office 365 Education subscribers.
• Microsoft To Do is a task management service.
• Outlook.com is a free webmail with a user interface similar to Microsoft Outlook.
• Outlook on the web is a webmail client similar to Outlook.com but more comprehensive and available only through Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange Server offerings.
• Microsoft Planner is a planning application available on the Microsoft Office 365 platform.
• Microsoft Stream is a corporate video sharing service for enterprise users with an Office 365 Academic or Enterprise license.
• Microsoft Bookings is an appointment booking application on the Microsoft Office 365 platform.

Office on the web

Office on the web

Clockwise from top left: Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint in Office on the web as of September 2018
Type of site	Spreadsheet Presentation Notetaking Word processor Web mail File hosting service
Owner	Microsoft
Created by	Microsoft
URL	www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web
Commercial	Freemium
Registration	Mandatory for webmail and file sharing; optional for others
Launched	June 7, 2010; 12 years ago[19]

Office on the web is a free lightweight web version of Microsoft Office and primarily includes three web applications: Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The offering also includes Outlook.com, OneNote and OneDrive which are accessible through a unified app switcher. Users can install the on-premises version of this service, called Office Online Server, in private clouds in conjunction with SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Lync Server.^[20]

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on the web can all natively open, edit, and save Office Open XML files (docx, xlsx, pptx) as well as OpenDocument files (odt, ods, odp). They can also open the older Office file formats (doc, xls, ppt), but will be converted to the newer Open XML formats if the user wishes to edit them online. Other formats cannot be opened in the browser apps, such as CSV in Excel or HTML in Word, nor can Office files that are encrypted with a password be opened. Files with macros can be opened in the browser apps, but the macros cannot be accessed or executed.^[21][22][23] Starting in July 2013, Word can render PDF documents or convert them to Microsoft Word documents, although the formatting of the document may deviate from the original.^[24] Since November 2013, the apps have supported real-time co-authoring and autosaving files.^[26]

Office on the web lacks a number of the advanced features present in the full desktop versions of Office, including lacking the programs Access and Publisher entirely. However, users are able to select the command «Open in Desktop App» that brings up the document in the desktop version of Office on their computer or device to utilize the advanced features there.^[27][28]

Supported web browsers include Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, the latest versions of Firefox or Google Chrome, as well as Safari for OS X 10.8 or later.^[29]

The Personal edition of Office on the web is available to the general public free of charge with a Microsoft account through the Office.com website, which superseded SkyDrive (now OneDrive) and Office Live Workspace. Enterprise-managed versions are available through Office 365.^[30] In February 2013, the ability to view and edit files on SkyDrive without signing in was added.^[31] The service can also be installed privately in enterprise environments as a SharePoint app, or through Office Web Apps Server.^[20] Microsoft also offers other web apps in the Office suite, such as the Outlook Web App (formerly Outlook Web Access),^[32] Lync Web App (formerly Office Communicator Web Access),^[33] Project Web App (formerly Project Web Access).^[34] Additionally, Microsoft offers a service under the name of Online Doc Viewer to view Office documents on a website via Office on the web.^[35]

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. E.g.:-

• The toolbar, colored buttons and the gray-colored 3D look of Office 4.3 were added to Windows 95.
• The ribbon, introduced in Office 2007, has been incorporated into several programs bundled with Windows 7 and later.
• The flat, box-like design of Office 2013 (released in 2012) was replicated in Windows 8’s new UI revamp.

Users of Microsoft Office may access external data via connection-specifications saved in Office Data Connection (.odc) files.^[36]

Office, on all platforms, support editing both server files (in real time) and offline files (manually saved) in the recent years. The support for editing server files (in real time) was originally introduced (in its current form) after the introduction of OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). But, older versions of Office also have the ability to edit server files (notably Office 2007).

Both Windows and Office used service packs to update software. Office had non-cumulative service releases, which were discontinued after Office 2000 Service Release 1. Now, Windows and Office have shifted to predictable (monthly, semi-annual and annual) release schemes to update software.

Past versions of Office often contained Easter eggs. For example, Excel 97 contained a reasonably functional flight-simulator.

File formats and metadata

Microsoft Office prior to Office 2007 used proprietary file formats based on the OLE Compound File Binary Format.^[37] This forced users who share data to adopt the same software platform.^[38] 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.^[39][40] Previously, Microsoft had supplied such documentation freely but only on request.^[41]

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^[42] and has made available free downloadable converters for previous versions of Microsoft Office including Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000^[43] and Office 2004 for Mac OS X. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Windows platform (LibreOffice, all platforms), macOS platform (iWork ’08, NeoOffice, LibreOffice) and Linux (LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org 3.0). In addition, Office 2010, Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, and Office 2016 for Mac supports 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.^[44] 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.^[45] 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.^[46] Plugins and other tools can be downloaded by users.^[47] 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.^[48] Developers are able to share applications with all Office users.^[48]

The app travels with the document, and it is for the developer 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.^[48]
With Office’s cloud abilities, IT departments can create a set of apps for their business employees in order to increase their productivity.^[49] 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.^[48] Developers can use web technologies like HTML5, XML, CSS3, JavaScript, and APIs for building the apps.^[50]
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.^[50] 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)^[51]
• Office XP onwards (COM/OLE Automation add-ins)^[52]
• Office 2003 onwards (Managed code add-ins – VSTO solutions)^[53]

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.^[54] Passwords can also be used to restrict modification of the entire document, worksheet or presentation. Due to lack of document encryption, though, these passwords can be removed using a third-party cracking software.^[55]

Support policies

Approach

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-year period is divided into two five-year phases: The mainstream phase 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.^[56] Office 2019 only receives 5 years of mainstream and 2 years of extended support and Office 2021 only gets 5 years of mainstream support.^[57]

Timelines of support

Platforms

Microsoft supports Office for the Windows and macOS platforms, as well as mobile versions for Windows Phone, Android and iOS platforms. Beginning with Mac Office 4.2, the macOS 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,^[58] then reintroduced in Office for Mac 2011.^[59]

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.^[60]

Pricing model and editions

The Microsoft Office applications and suites are sold via retail channels, and volume licensing for larger organizations (also including the «Home Use Program». allowing users at participating organizations to buy low-cost licenses for use on their personal devices as part of their employer’s volume license agreement).^[61]

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 (competing in particular with Google Apps).^[62][63] Following the release of Office 2013, Microsoft began to offer Office 365 plans for the consumer market, with access to Microsoft Office software on multiple devices with free feature updates over the life of the subscription, as well as other services such as OneDrive storage.^[64][65]

Microsoft has since promoted Office 365 as the primary means of purchasing Microsoft Office. Although there are still «on-premises» releases roughly every three years, Microsoft marketing emphasizes that they do not receive new features or access to new cloud-based services as they are released unlike Office 365, as well as other benefits for consumer and business markets.^[66][67][68] Office 365 revenue overtook traditional license sales for Office in 2017.^[69]

Editions

Microsoft Office is available in several editions, which regroup a given number of applications for a specific price. Primarily, Microsoft sells Office as Microsoft 365. The editions are as follows:

• Microsoft 365 Personal
• Microsoft 365 Family
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• Microsoft 365 apps for business
• Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise
• Office 365 E1, E3, E5
• Office 365 A1, A3, A5 (for education)
• Office 365 G1, G3, G5 (for government)
• Microsoft 365 F1, F3, Office 365 F3 (for frontline)

Microsoft sells Office for a one-time purchase as Home & Student and Home & Business, however, these editions do not receive major updates.

Education pricing

Post-secondary students may obtain the university edition of Microsoft Office 365 subscription. It is limited to one user and two devices, plus the subscription price is valid for four years instead of just one. Apart from this, the university edition is identical in features to the Home Premium version. This marks the first time Microsoft does not offer physical or permanent software at academic pricing, in contrast to the university versions of Office 2010 and Office 2011. In addition, students eligible for DreamSpark program may receive select standalone Microsoft Office apps free of charge.

Discontinued applications and features

• Binder was an application that can incorporate several documents into one file and was originally designed as a container system for storing related documents in a single file. The complexity of use and learning curve led to little usage, and it was discontinued after Office XP.
• Bookshelf was a reference collection introduced in 1987 as part of Microsoft’s extensive work in promoting CD-ROM technology as a distribution medium for electronic publishing.
• Data Analyzer was a business intelligence program for graphical visualization of data and its analysis.
• Docs.com was a public document sharing service where Office users can upload and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Sway and PDF files for the whole world to discover and use.
• Entourage was an Outlook counterpart on macOS, Microsoft discontinued it in favor of extending the Outlook brand name.
• FrontPage was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and website administration tool for Windows. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003. FrontPage was discontinued in December 2006 and replaced by Microsoft SharePoint Designer and Microsoft Expression Web.
• InfoPath was a Windows application for designing and distributing rich XML-based forms. The last version was included in Office 2013.^[70]
• InterConnect was a business-relationship database available only in Japan.
• Internet Explorer was a graphical web browser and one of the main participants of the first browser war. It was included in Office until Office XP when it was removed.
• Mail was a mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Schedule Plus and subsequently Microsoft Outlook).
• Office Accounting (formerly Small Business Accounting) was an accounting software application from Microsoft targeted towards small businesses that had between 1 and 25 employees.
• Office Assistant (included since Office 97 on Windows and Office 98 on Mac as a part of Microsoft Agent technology) was a system that uses animated characters to offer context-sensitive suggestions to users and access to the help system. The Assistant is often dubbed «Clippy» or «Clippit», due to its default to a paper clip character, coded as CLIPPIT.ACS. The latest versions that include the Office Assistant were Office 2003 (Windows) and Office 2004 (Mac).
• Office Document Image Writer was a virtual printer that takes documents from Microsoft Office or any other application and prints them, or stores them in an image file as TIFF or Microsoft Document Imaging Format format. It was discontinued with Office 2010.^[71]
• Office Document Imaging was an application that supports editing scanned documents. Discontinued Office 2010.^[71]
• Office Document Scanning was a scanning and OCR application. Discontinued Office 2010.^[71]
• Office Picture Manager was a basic photo management software (similar to Google’s Picasa or Adobe’s Photoshop Elements), that replaced Microsoft Photo Editor.
• PhotoDraw was a graphics program that was first released as part of the Office 2000 Premium Edition. A later version for Windows XP compatibility was released, known as PhotoDraw 2000 Version 2. Microsoft discontinued the program in 2001.
• Photo Editor was photo-editing or raster-graphics software in older Office versions up to Office XP. It was supplemented by Microsoft PhotoDraw in Office 2000 Premium edition.
• Schedule Plus (also shown as Schedule+) was released with Office 95. It featured a planner, to-do list, and contact information. Its functions were incorporated into Microsoft Outlook.
• SharePoint Designer was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and website administration tool. Microsoft attempted to turn it into a specialized HTML editor for SharePoint sites, but failed on this project and wanted to discontinue it.
• SharePoint Workspace (formerly Groove) was a proprietary peer-to-peer document collaboration software designed for teams with members who are regularly offline or who do not share the same network security clearance.
• Skype for Business was an integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real-time; it is the only Microsoft Office desktop app that is neither useful without a proper network infrastructure nor has the «Microsoft» prefix in its name.
• Streets & Trips (known in other countries as Microsoft AutoRoute) is a discontinued mapping program developed and distributed by Microsoft.
• Unbind is a program that can extract the contents of a Binder file. Unbind can be installed from the Office XP CD-ROM.
• Virtual PC was included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2004 for Mac. Microsoft discontinued support for Virtual PC on the Mac in 2006 owing to new Macs possessing the same Intel architecture as Windows PCs.^[72] It emulated a standard PC and its hardware.
• Vizact was a program that «activated» documents using HTML, adding effects such as animation. It allows users to create dynamic documents for the Web. The development has ended due to unpopularity.

Discontinued server applications

• Microsoft Office Forms Server lets users use any browser to access and fill InfoPath forms. Office Forms Server is a standalone server installation of InfoPath Forms Services.
• Microsoft Office Groove Server was centrally managing all deployments of Microsoft Office Groove in the enterprise.
• Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server allows creation of a project portfolio, including workflows, which is hosted centrally.
• Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server allows customers to monitor, analyze, and plan their business.

Discontinued web services

• Office Live
  • Office Live Small Business had web hosting services and online collaboration tools for small businesses.
  • Office Live Workspace had online storage and collaboration service for documents, which was superseded by Office on the web.
• Office Live Meeting was a web conferencing service.

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 into adopting the same software platform.^[73] However, on February 15, 2008, Microsoft made the entire documentation for the binary Office formats freely available under the Open Specification Promise.^[74] 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 formats technology under the Open Specification Promise^[75] 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. Third-party implementations of Office Open XML exist on the Mac platform (iWork 08) and Linux (OpenOffice.org 2.3 – Novell Edition only).

Unicode and bi-directional texts

Another point of criticism Microsoft Office has faced was the lack of support in its Mac versions for Unicode and Bi-directional text languages, notably Arabic and Hebrew. This issue, which had existed since the first release in 1989, was addressed in the 2016 version.^[76][77]

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 which regulates data protection and privacy for all citizens in and outside the EU and EFTA region.^[78] 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 that most of the data that the 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.^[79] The Netherlands Ministry of Justice hired Privacy Company to probe and evaluate the use of Microsoft Office products in the public sector.^[80] «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.»^[81]

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.^[82]

As a result of this in-depth study and its conclusions, the Netherlands regulatory body concluded that Microsoft has violated GDPR «on many counts» including «lack of transparency and purpose limitation, and the lack of a legal ground for the processing.»^[83] 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.»^[84] 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.»^[80] The user privacy data issue affects ProPlus subscriptions of Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 365, including the online version of Microsoft Office 365.^[85]

History of releases

Windows

Office version	Version number	Minimum operating system version	Office support end date
Mainstream	Extended
2021	16.0[86]	Windows	10[87]	October 13, 2026[88]	N/A[88]
2019	October 10, 2023[89]	October 14, 2025[89]
2016	7 SP1[90]	October 13, 2020[91]	October 14, 2025[91]
2013	15.0	7[92]	April 10, 2018[93]	April 11, 2023[93]
2010	14.0	XP SP3[94]	October 13, 2015	October 13, 2020
2007	12.0	XP SP2[95]	October 9, 2012[96]	October 10, 2017[96]
2003	11.0	2000 SP3[97]	April 14, 2009	April 8, 2014
XP	10.0	98 or NT 4 SP6a[98][99]	July 11, 2006[100]	July 12, 2011[100]
2000	9.0	95 or NT 4 SP3[101]	June 30, 2004	July 14, 2009
97	8.0	NT 3.51 SP5 or 95	August 31, 2001[102]	February 28, 2002[102]
95	7.0	NT 3.51 or 95	December 31, 2001[103]	—[103]
4.x	6.0	3.1	November 1, 2000[104]	—[104]
3.x	Various	3.0[105]	September 30, 1998[106]	—[106]

Mac

Office version	Version number	Minimum operating system	Office support end date
2021	16.53+	macOS	10.15 – 11	October 13, 2026[88]
2019	16.17 – 16.52	10.12 – 11	October 10, 2023[107]
2016	15.0 – 16.16.x	10.10 – 10.13[108]	October 13, 2020[109]
2011 for Mac	14.0	10.5 (Intel) – 10.12[108]	October 10, 2017[110]
2008 for Mac	12.0	10.4 (PPC) – 10.12[108]	April 9, 2013[111]
2004 for Mac	11.0	10.2 – 10.6	January 10, 2012[112]
v. X	10.0	10.1 – 10.6	January 9, 2007[113]
2001	9.0	Classic Mac OS	8.1 (PPC)	December 31, 2005[114]
98 Macintosh Edition	8.0	7.5 (PPC)	June 30, 2003[115]
4.2	7.0	7.0 (68K)	December 31, 1996[104]
3.0	6.0	?	June 1, 2001[106]

iOS & Android

Office version	Version number	Minimum operating system
Android[5][6][7] for Word, Excel, PowerPoint	16.0	Android Nougat (7.0)
iOS[8][116][117] for Word, Excel, PowerPoint	2.60	iOS 14
iOS (Beta Channel) for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Office Mobile	2.61	iOS 14 with TestFlight installed.
OneNote for iOS	16.60	iOS 14
OneNote (Beta Channel) for iOS	16.61	iOS 14 with TestFlight installed.

Version history

Windows versions

Microsoft Office for Windows

Microsoft Office for Windows^[118] started in October 1990 as a bundle of three applications designed for Microsoft Windows 3.0: Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.0, and Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 2.0.^[119]

Microsoft Office for Windows 1.5 updated the suite with Microsoft Excel 3.0.^[120]

Version 1.6^[121] added Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 to the bundle.^[122]

Microsoft Office 3.0

Microsoft Office 3.0,^[123] also called Microsoft Office 92, was released on August 30, 1992, and^[124] contained Word 2.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail 3.0. It was the first version of Office also released on CD-ROM.^[125] In 1993, Microsoft Office Professional^[126] was released, which added Microsoft Access 1.1.^[127]

Microsoft Office 4.x

Microsoft Office 4.0 was released containing Word 6.0, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail in 1993.^[128] Word’s version number jumped from 2.0 to 6.0 so that it would have the same version number as the MS-DOS and Macintosh versions (Excel and PowerPoint were already numbered the same as the Macintosh versions).

Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows NT was released in 1994 for i386, Alpha,^[129] MIPS and PowerPC^[130] architectures, containing Word 6.0 and Excel 5.0 (both 32-bit,^[131] PowerPoint 4.0 (16-bit), and Microsoft Office Manager 4.2 (the precursor to the Office Shortcut Bar)).

Microsoft Office 95

Microsoft Office 95 was released on August 24, 1995. Software version numbers were altered again to create parity across the suite – every program was called version 7.0 meaning all but Word missed out versions. Office 95 included new components to the suite such as Schedule+ and Binder. Office for Windows 95 was designed as a fully 32-bit version to match Windows 95 although some apps not bundled as part of the suite at that time — Publisher for Windows 95 and Project 95 had some 16-bit components even though their main program executable was 32-bit.

Office 95 was available in two versions, Office 95 Standard and Office 95 Professional. The standard version consisted of Word 7.0, Excel 7.0, PowerPoint 7.0, and Schedule+ 7.0. The professional edition contained all of the items in the standard version plus Access 7.0. If the professional version was purchased in CD-ROM form, it also included Bookshelf.

The logo used in Office 95 returns in Office 97, 2000 and XP. Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition also uses a similar logo.

Microsoft Office 97

Microsoft Office 97 (Office 8.0) included hundreds of new features and improvements, such as introducing command bars, a paradigm in which menus and toolbars were made more similar in capability and visual design. Office 97 also featured Natural Language Systems and grammar checking. Office 97 featured new components to the suite including FrontPage 97, Expedia Streets 98 (in Small Business Edition), and Internet Explorer 3.0 & 4.0.

Office 97 was the first version of Office to include the Office Assistant. In Brazil, it was also the first version to introduce the Registration Wizard, a precursor to Microsoft Product Activation. With this release, the accompanying apps, Project 98 and Publisher 98 also transitioned to fully 32-bit versions. Exchange Server, a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft, is the server for Outlook after discontinuing Exchange Client.

Microsoft Office 2000

Microsoft Office 2000 (Office 9.0) introduced adaptive menus, where little-used options were hidden from the user. It also introduced a new security feature, built around digital signatures, to diminish the threat of macro viruses. The Microsoft Script Editor, an optional tool that can edit script code, was also introduced in Office 2000.^[132] Office 2000 automatically trusts macros (written in VBA 6) that were digitally signed from authors who have been previously designated as trusted. Office 2000 also introduces PhotoDraw, a raster and vector imaging program, as well as Web Components, Visio, and Vizact.

The Registration Wizard, a precursor to Microsoft Product Activation, remained in Brazil and was also extended to Australia and New Zealand, though not for volume-licensed editions. Academic software in the United States and Canada also featured the Registration Wizard.

Microsoft Office XP

Microsoft Office XP (Office 10.0 or Office 2002) was released in conjunction with Windows XP, and was a major upgrade with numerous enhancements and changes over Office 2000. 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. Smart tag is a technology introduced with Office XP in Word and Excel and discontinued in Office 2010.

Office XP also introduces new components including Document Imaging, Document Scanning, Clip Organizer, MapPoint, and Data Analyzer. Binder was replaced by Unbind, a program that can extract the contents of a Binder file. Unbind can be installed from the Office XP CD-ROM.

Office XP includes integrated voice command and text dictation capabilities, as well as handwriting recognition. It was the first version to require Microsoft Product Activation worldwide and in all editions as an anti-piracy measure, which attracted widespread controversy.^[133] Product Activation remained absent from Office for Mac releases until it was introduced in Office 2011 for Mac.

Microsoft Office 2003

Microsoft Office 2003 (Office 11.0) was released in 2003. It featured a new logo. Two new applications made their debut in Office 2003: Microsoft InfoPath and OneNote. It is the first version to use new, more colorful icons. Outlook 2003 provides improved functionality in many areas, including Kerberos authentication, RPC over HTTP, Cached Exchange Mode, and an improved junk mail filter.

Office 2003 introduces three new programs to the 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 Office Server, has integration and compatibility with Office 2003 and so on.^[134]

Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 (Office 12.0) was released in 2007. Office 2007’s new features include a new graphical user interface called the Fluent User Interface,^[135] replacing the menus and toolbars that have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception with a tabbed toolbar, known as the Ribbon; new XML-based file formats called Office Open XML; and the inclusion of Groove, a collaborative software application.^[136]

While Microsoft removed Data Analyzer, FrontPage, Vizact, and Schedule+ from Office 2007; they also added Communicator, Groove, SharePoint Designer, and Office Customization Tool (OCT) to the suite.

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 (Office 14.0, Microsoft skipped 13.0 due to fear of 13^[137]) was finalized on April 15, 2010, and made available to consumers on June 15, 2010.^[138][139] The main features of Office 2010 include the backstage file menu, new collaboration tools, a customizable ribbon, protected view and a navigation panel. Office Communicator, an instant messaging and videotelephony application, was renamed into Lync 2010.

This is the first version to ship in 32-bit and 64-bit variants. Microsoft Office 2010 featured a new logo, which resembled the 2007 logo, except in gold, and with a modification in shape.^[140] Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 on June 28, 2011^[141] and Service Pack 2 on July 16, 2013.^[142] Office Online was first released online along with SkyDrive, an online storing service.

Microsoft Office 2013

A technical preview of Microsoft Office 2013 (Build 15.0.3612.1010) was released on January 30, 2012, and a Customer Preview version was made available to consumers on July 16, 2012.^[143] It sports a revamped application interface; the interface is based on Metro, the interface of Windows Phone and Windows 8. Microsoft Outlook has received the most pronounced changes so far; for example, the Metro interface provides a new visualization for scheduled tasks. PowerPoint includes more templates and transition effects, and OneNote includes a new splash screen.^[144]

On May 16, 2011, new images of 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. In Word, the capability of inserting video and audio online as well as the broadcasting of documents on the Web were implemented.^[145] 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.^[146] This version can read and write ODF 1.2 (Windows only).^[147]

On October 24, 2012, Office 2013 Professional Plus was released to manufacturing and was made available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers for download.^[148] On November 15, 2012, the 60-day trial version was released for public download.^[149] Office 2013 was released to general availability on January 29, 2013.^[150] Service Pack 1 for Office 2013 was released on February 25, 2014.^[151] Some applications were completely removed from the entire suite including SharePoint Workspace, Clip Organizer, and Office Picture Manager.

Microsoft Office 2016

On January 22, 2015, the Microsoft Office blog announced that the next version of the suite for Windows desktop, Office 2016, was in development. On May 4, 2015, a public preview of Microsoft Office 2016 was released.^{[152][153][154]} Office 2016 was released for Mac OS X on July 9, 2015^[155] and for Windows on September 22, 2015.^[156]

Users who had the Professional Plus 2016 subscription have the new Skype for Business app. Microsoft Teams, a team collaboration program meant to rival Slack, was released as a separate product for business and enterprise users.

Microsoft Office 2019

On September 26, 2017, Microsoft announced that the next version of the suite for Windows desktop, Office 2019, was in development. On April 27, 2018, Microsoft released Office 2019 Commercial Preview for Windows 10.^[157] It was released to general availability for Windows 10 and for macOS on September 24, 2018.^[158]

Microsoft Office 2021

On February 18, 2021, Microsoft announced that the next version of the suite for Windows desktop, Office 2021, was in development.^[159] This new version will be supported for five years and was released on October 5, 2021.^[160]

Mac versions

Prior to packaging its various office-type Mac OS software applications into Office, Microsoft released Mac versions of Word 1.0 in 1984, the first year of the Macintosh computer; Excel 1.0 in 1985; and PowerPoint 1.0 in 1987.^[161] Microsoft does not include its Access database application in Office for Mac.

Microsoft has noted that some features are added to Office for Mac before they appear in Windows versions, such as Office for Mac 2001’s Office Project Gallery and PowerPoint Movie feature, which allows users to save presentations as QuickTime movies.^[162][163] However, Microsoft Office for Mac has been long criticized for its lack of support of Unicode and for its lack of support for right-to-left languages, notably Arabic, Hebrew and Persian.^[164][165]

Early Office for Mac releases (1989–1994)

Microsoft Office for Mac was introduced for Mac OS in 1989, before Office was released for Windows.^[166] It included Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, PowerPoint 2.01, and Mail 1.37.^[167] It was originally a limited-time promotion but later became a regular product. With the release of Office on CD-ROM later that year, Microsoft became the first major Mac publisher to put its applications on CD-ROM.^[168]

Microsoft Office 1.5 for Mac was released in 1991 and included the updated Excel 3.0, the first application to support Apple’s System 7 operating system.^[161]

Microsoft Office 3.0 for Mac was released in 1992 and included Word 5.0, Excel 4.0, PowerPoint 3.0 and Mail Client. Excel 4.0 was the first application to support new AppleScript.^[161]

Microsoft Office 4.2 for Mac was released in 1994. (Version 4.0 was skipped to synchronize version numbers with Office for Windows) Version 4.2 included Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0 and Mail 3.2.^[169] It was the first Office suite for Power Macintosh.^[161] Its user interface was identical to Office 4.2 for Windows^[170] leading many customers to comment that it wasn’t Mac-like enough.^[162] The final release for Mac 68K was Office 4.2.1, which updated Word to version 6.0.1, somewhat improving performance.

Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition

Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition was unveiled at MacWorld Expo/San Francisco in 1998. It introduced the Internet Explorer 4.0 web browser and Outlook Express, an Internet e-mail client and usenet newsgroup reader.^[171] Office 98 was re-engineered by Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit to satisfy customers’ desire for software they felt was more Mac-like.^[162] It included drag–and-drop installation, self-repairing applications and Quick Thesaurus, before such features were available in Office for Windows. It also was the first version to support QuickTime movies.^[162]

Microsoft Office 2001 and v. X

Microsoft Office 2001 was launched in 2000 as the last Office suite for the classic Mac OS. It required a PowerPC processor. This version introduced Entourage, an e-mail client that included information management tools such as a calendar, an address book, task lists and notes.^[163]
Microsoft Office v. X was released in 2001 and was the first version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS X.^[172] Support for Office v. X ended on January 9, 2007, after the release of the final update, 10.1.9^[173] Office v.X includes Word X, Excel X, PowerPoint X, Entourage X, MSN Messenger for Mac and Windows Media Player 9 for Mac; it was the last version of Office for Mac to include Internet Explorer for Mac.^[174]

Office 2004

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac was released on May 11, 2004.^[175] It includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage and Virtual PC. It is the final version of Office to be built exclusively for PowerPC and to officially support G3 processors, as its sequel lists a G4, G5, or Intel processor as a requirement. It was notable for supporting Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is unavailable in Office 2008. This led Microsoft to extend support for Office 2004 from October 13, 2009, to January 10, 2012. VBA functionality was reintroduced in Office 2011, which is only compatible with Intel processors.

Office 2008

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac was released on January 15, 2008. It was the only Office for Mac suite to be compiled as a universal binary, being the first to feature native Intel support and the last to feature PowerPC support for G4 and G5 processors, although the suite is unofficially compatible with G3 processors. New features include native Office Open XML file format support, which debuted in Office 2007 for Windows,^[161] and stronger Microsoft Office password protection employing AES-128 and SHA-1. Benchmarks suggested that compared to its predecessor, Office 2008 ran at similar speeds on Intel machines and slower speeds on PowerPC machines.^[176] Office 2008 also lacked Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support, leaving it with only 15 months of additional mainstream support compared to its predecessor. Nevertheless, five months after it was released, Microsoft said that Office 2008 was «selling faster than any previous version of Office for Mac in the past 19 years» and affirmed «its commitment to future products for the Mac.»^[177]

Office 2011

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 was released on October 26, 2010,.^[59] It is the first version of Office for Mac to be compiled exclusively for Intel processors, dropping support for the PowerPC architecture. It features an OS X version of Outlook to replace the Entourage email client. This version of Outlook is intended to make the OS X version of Office work better with Microsoft’s Exchange server and with those using Office for Windows.^[178] Office 2011 includes a Mac-based Ribbon similar to Office for Windows.

OneNote and Outlook release (2014)

Microsoft OneNote for Mac was released on March 17, 2014. It marks the company’s first release of the note-taking software on the Mac. It is available as a free download to all users of the Mac App Store in OS X Mavericks.^[179]

Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Mac debuted on October 31, 2014. It requires a paid Office 365 subscription, meaning that traditional Office 2011 retail or volume licenses cannot activate this version of Outlook. On that day, Microsoft confirmed that it would release the next version of Office for Mac in late 2015.^[180]

Despite dropping support for older versions of OS X and only keeping support for 64-bit-only versions of OS X, these versions of OneNote and Outlook are 32-bit applications like their predecessors.

Office 2016

The first Preview version of Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac was released on March 5, 2015.^[181] On July 9, 2015, Microsoft released the final version of Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. It was immediately made available for Office 365 subscribers with either a Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3 or ProPlus subscription. A non–Office 365 edition of Office 2016 was made available as a one-time purchase option on September 22, 2015.^[156]

Office 2019

Mobile versions

Office Mobile for iPhone was released on June 14, 2013, in the United States.^[182] Support for 135 markets and 27 languages was rolled out over a few days.^[183] It requires iOS 8 or later.^[184] Although the app also works on iPad devices, excluding the first generation, it is designed for a small screen.^[182] Office Mobile was released for Android phones on July 31, 2013, in the United States. Support for 117 markets and 33 languages was added gradually over several weeks.^[185] It is supported on Android 4.0 and later.^[186]

Office Mobile is or was also available, though no longer supported, on Windows Mobile, Windows Phone and Symbian. Windows RT devices (such as Microsoft Surface) were bundled with «Office RT», a port of the PC version of Office 2013 to ARM architecture. The applications contain most of the functionality available in their versions for Intel-compatible PCs, but some features have been removed.^{[187][188][189]}

Early Office Mobile releases

Originally called Office Mobile which was shipped initially as «Pocket Office», was released by Microsoft with the Windows CE 1.0 operating system in 1996. This release was specifically for the Handheld PC hardware platform, as Windows Mobile Smartphone and Pocket PC hardware specifications had not yet been released. It consisted of Pocket Word and Pocket Excel; PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook were added later. With steady updates throughout subsequent releases of Windows Mobile, Office Mobile was rebranded as its current name after the release of the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. This release of Office Mobile also included PowerPoint Mobile for the first time.^[190] Accompanying the release of Microsoft OneNote 2007, a new optional addition to the Office Mobile line of programs was released as OneNote Mobile.^[191] With the release of Windows Mobile 6 Standard, Office Mobile became available for the Smartphone hardware platform, but unlike Office Mobile for the Professional and Classic versions of Windows Mobile, creation of new documents is not an added feature.^[192] A popular workaround is to create a new blank document in a desktop version of Office, synchronize it to the device, and then edit and save on the Windows Mobile device.

In June 2007, Microsoft announced a new version of the office suite, Office Mobile 2007. It became available as «Office Mobile 6.1» on September 26, 2007, as a free upgrade download to current Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6 users. However, «Office Mobile 6.1 Upgrade» is not compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 powered devices running builds earlier than 14847. It is a pre-installed feature in subsequent releases of Windows Mobile 6 devices.^[193] Office Mobile 6.1 is compatible with the Office Open XML specification like its desktop counterpart.^[193]

On August 12, 2009, it was announced that Office Mobile would also be released for the Symbian platform as a joint agreement between Microsoft and Nokia.^[194][195] It was the first time Microsoft would develop Office mobile applications for another smartphone platform.^[196] The first application to appear on Nokia Eseries smartphones was Microsoft Office Communicator. In February 2012, Microsoft released OneNote, Lync 2010, Document Connection and PowerPoint Broadcast for Symbian.^[197] In April, Word Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile and Excel Mobile joined the Office Suite.^[198]

On October 21, 2010, Microsoft debuted Office Mobile 2010 with the release of Windows Phone 7. In Windows Phone, users can access and edit documents directly off of their SkyDrive or Office 365 accounts in a dedicated Office hub. The Office Hub, which is preinstalled into the operating system, contains Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The operating system also includes OneNote, although not as a part of the Office Hub. Lync is not included, but can be downloaded as standalone app from the Windows Phone Store free of charge.

In October 2012, Microsoft released a new version of Microsoft Office Mobile for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.8.

Office for Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile

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. Photos are then attached to an Office document. 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.^[199]

On March 27, 2014, Microsoft launched Office for iPad, the first dedicated version of Office for tablet computers. In addition, Microsoft made the Android and iOS versions of Office Mobile free for ‘home use’ on phones, although the company still requires an Office 365 subscription for using Office Mobile for business use.^{[200][201][202][203][204]} On November 6, 2014, Office was subsequently made free for personal use on the iPad in addition to phones. As part of this announcement, Microsoft also split up its single «Office suite» app on iPhones into separate, standalone apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, released a revamped version of Office Mobile for iPhone, added direct integration with Dropbox, and previewed future versions of Office for other platforms.^[205][206]

Office for Android tablets was released on January 29, 2015,^[207] following a successful two-month preview period.^[208] These apps allow users to edit and create documents for free on devices with screen sizes of 10.1 inches or less, though as with the iPad versions, an Office 365 subscription is required to unlock premium features and for commercial use of the apps. Tablets with screen sizes larger than 10.1 inches are also supported, but, as was originally the case with the iPad version, are restricted to viewing documents only unless a valid Office 365 subscription is used to enable editing and document creation.

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. Optimized for smartphones and tablets, they are universal apps that can run on both Windows and Windows for phones, and share similar underlying code. A simplified version of Outlook was also added to the suite. They will be bundled with Windows 10 mobile devices, and available from the Windows Store for the PC version of Windows 10.^[153][152] Although the preview versions were free for most editing, the release versions will require an Office 365 subscription on larger tablets (screen size larger than 10.1 inches) and desktops for editing, as with large Android tablets. Smaller tablets and phones will have most editing features for free.^[209]

On June 24, 2015, Microsoft released Word, Excel and PowerPoint as standalone apps on Google Play for Android phones, following a one-month preview.^[210] These apps have also been bundled with Android devices from major OEMs, as a result of Microsoft tying distribution of them and Skype to patent-licensing agreements related to the Android platform.^{[211][212][213]} The Android version is also supported on certain ChromeOS machines.^[214]

On February 19, 2020, Microsoft announced a new unified Office mobile app for Android and iOS. This app combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app and introduces new capabilities as making quick notes, signing PDFs, scanning QR codes, and transferring files.^[18]

Online versions

Office Web Apps was first revealed in October 2008 at PDC 2008 in Los Angeles.^[215] Chris Capossela, senior vice president of Microsoft business division, introduced Office Web Apps as lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that allow people to create, edit and collaborate on Office documents through a web browser. According to Capossela, Office Web Apps was to become available as a part of Office Live Workspace.^[216] Office Web Apps was announced to be powered by AJAX as well as Silverlight; however, the latter is optional and its availability will only «enhance the user experience, resulting in sharper images and improved rendering.»^[217] Microsoft’s Business Division President Stephen Elop stated during PDC 2008 that «a technology preview of Office Web Apps would become available later in 2008».^[218] However, the Technical Preview of Office Web Apps was not released until 2009.

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.^[219] 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. Office 2010 beta testers were not given access to Office Web Apps at this date, and it was announced that it would be available for testers during August 2009.^[220] 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.^[221]

Microsoft officially released the Technical Preview of Office Web Apps on September 17, 2009.^[222] Office Web Apps was made available to selected testers via its OneDrive (at the time Skydrive) service. The final version of Office Web Apps was made available to the public via Windows Live Office on June 7, 2010.^[19]

On October 22, 2012, Microsoft announced the release of new features including co-authoring, performance improvements and touch support.^[223]

On November 6, 2013, Microsoft announced further new features including real-time co-authoring and an Auto-Save feature in Word (replacing the save button).^{[224][25][26]}

In February 2014, Office Web Apps were re-branded Office Online and incorporated into other Microsoft web services, including Calendar, OneDrive, Outlook.com, and People.^[225] Microsoft had previously attempted to unify its online services suite (including Microsoft Passport, Hotmail, MSN Messenger, and later SkyDrive) 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 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. Critics had criticized the Windows Live brand for having no clear vision, as it was being applied to an increasingly broad array of unrelated services.^[226][227] At the same time, Windows Live Hotmail was re-launched as Outlook.com (sharing its name with the Microsoft Outlook personal information manager).^[228]

In July 2019, Microsoft announced that they were retiring the «Online» branding for Office Online. The product is now Office, and may be referred to as «Office for the web» or «Office in a browser».^[229]

See also

• Microsoft Azure
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Microsoft Power Platform
• List of Microsoft software
• Google workspace
• LibreOffice

References

External links

• Official website
• Microsoft Office at Curlie

Microsoft Office для Windows 10

Текущий пакет офисных программ поступил в продажу в сентябре 2018-го года. Новый «Офис» стал продолжением Office 2016, и кардинальных изменений в нем не было. Разработчики также признали, что в новых программах появились все те функции, которые постепенно добавлялись на протяжении последних нескольких лет в онлайновый продукт — Office 365.

Впервые о создании нового офисного пакета разработчики сообщили в сентябре 2017-го года на мероприятии Microsoft Ignite, там же были показаны некоторые новые функции. На том же мероприятии в Microsoft сообщили, что новый офис будет доступен только для операционной системы Windows 10.

Важно отметить, что установить Microsoft Office 2019 можно на Windows 7 и 8 с помощью использования специальных патчей.

Основные нововведения

Как и в предыдущих версиях, здесь основной упор сделан на интеграцию с онлайновыми сервисами и улучшенную работу с сенсорными экранами. Например, в Office 2019 все программы стали понимать силу нажатия по сенсорному крану, а также угол наклона стилуса.

Улучшилась работа с рукописным вводом. Все основные программы теперь поддерживают графику SVG и 3D-объекты. Программа OneNote более не включена в пакет, теперь она поставляется с Windows 10.

Другие ключевые нововведения

• Новая черная тема;
• Инструменты обучения;
• Функция озвучки текста;
• Новые типы диаграмм;
• Улучшенный предварительный просмотр.

Программы (состав пакета)

Интерфейс всех программ немного изменился, став еще проще, также появились новые иконки. Главное изменение в новом интерфейсе — это возможность настраивать ленту команд и вкладок. Как и в предыдущем пакете, интерфейс каждой отдельной программы оформлен в своем индивидуальном цвете.

Появилась новая тема оформления для всех программ — черная. Как утверждают в Microsoft, новая тема отлично подходит для работы ночью, но многие пользователи не оценили ее, жалуясь на то, что от нее быстро устают глаза.

Новая тема — это светлый шрифт на темном фоне не только на панелях с инструментами, но и в рабочей области программ.

Word 2019

Теперь в документы можно вставлять векторные изображения в формате SVG. Также появилась поддержка вращающихся трехмерных объектов. Еще одно важное новшество — это чтение текста вслух. Работать с переводчиком стало намного удобнее — нужно лишь выделить требуемый фрагмент текста, вызвать контекстное меню и выбрать соответствующий пункт. Как и в предыдущей версии, переводчик работает только с подключенным Интернетом. Еще одно важное нововведение — это поддержка синтаксиса LaTeX, который можно найти во встроенном редакторе уравнений.

К другим важным нововведениям следует отнести улучшения в Accessibility Checker (инструмент проверки общего качества документа), голосовой ввод, инструменты обучения, существенно переработанную поддержку ink. Изменения появились в режиме чтения, где теперь есть новые фоны для комфортного чтения и возможность настраивать ширину столбцов. Пользователи устройств с сенсорным экраном получили в Word 2019 дополнительную вкладку «Рисование», где можно писать и рисовать, используя цифровое перо.

Excel 2019

В новом Excel появились некоторые улучшения из Word, среди которых улучшенный переводчик и появление вкладки «Рисование» для устройств с сенсорным экраном. Теперь непосредственно из редактора свои документы можно публиковать в службе аналитики Power BI компании Microsoft. Новая полезная функция — отмена выбора ячеек. Люди, которые постоянно работают с этим редактором таблиц, знают, насколько это неудобно, когда были выбраны случайно ненужные ячейки. С новой функцией выбирать заново ничего не нужно, ведь последние выборы можно отменить сочетанием клавиши Ctrl + кликом по ненужным ячейкам.

Появились в новом Excel и новые диаграммы. Первый тип — это картографические карты, где можно выставлять значения для разных территорий. Второй тип диаграмм — воронкообразные, с их помощью можно отображать те или иные значения на нескольких этапах процесса. Также в редакторе появились новые формулы, улучшенная защита данных, есть функция автоматического определения отношений, интеллектуальное переименование ячеек. Как и в Word, теперь в документы можно вставлять векторные изображения в формате SVG и трехмерные объекты.

PowerPoint 2019

Главное нововведение в новом PowerPoint — это поддержка видео в высоком разрешении 4К. В Microsoft говорят, что с поддержкой 4К появилась возможность создавать презентации уровня художественных фильмов. Добавился новый переход между слайдами Morph, который обеспечивает плавную анимацию. Также появился ряд художественных фильтров, среди которых акварель и размытие. Существенно пополнилась коллекция готовых клипартов, стикеров и иконок.

К другим полезным нововведениям можно отнести интерактивные заголовки, облегающие навигацию по слайдам, маркер выделения текста, с помощью которого можно быстро настроить шрифт, упрощенное удаление заднего фона, где программа на автомате определят, что точно нужно удалить. Новый PowrPoint тоже поддерживает векторную графику и 3D объекты.

Другие программы

В новом Outlook появилась функция диктовки и озвучивания писем, всплывающие напоминания, функция загрузки всех вложений в «облако» OneDrive в автоматическом режиме, поддержка Office 365. В Access появились новые диаграммы и поддержка больших чисел, также вернулся формат импорта dBASE. Visio 2019 теперь импортирует проекты AutoCAD без искажений.

Преимущества и недостатки

Одно из главных преимуществ этого офисного пакета заключается в том, что он еще долгое время будет оставаться актуальным и получать обновления. Другие преимущества Office 2019:

Преимущества

• Существенно упростилась работа благодаря голосовому вводу;
• Поддержка векторной графики и 3D-объектов;
• Поддержка видео в высоком разрешении 4К;
• Улучшенная совместная работа над документами;
• Возможность настраивать панель инструментов;
• Упрощенный дизайн.

Для многих пользователей недостатком стало то, что новый офисный пакет стал почти в два раза требовательнее к ресурсам. К другим недостаткам Office 2019 также можно отнести:

Недостатки

• Подорожание лицензии;
• Только для Windows 10.

Скачать бесплатно

Скачать Microsoft Office 2019

Microsoft Office 2019 версии 16.0.13328 доступна для скачивания с помощью MultiSetup или официального сайта. Программа распространяется бесплатно, поддерживает Windows 10, 8.1 и имеет интерфейс на русском языке.

Windows	10, 8.1
Версия	16.0.13328
Размер	688 Мб
Файл	exe

When Microsoft started with Office products, there were only a handful of them— Word, Excel, PowerPoint. While most of the consumers still use the same set, Microsoft  Portfolio has expanded to over 20+ apps under Microsoft 365 branding. In this post, we are looking at the list of apps Microsoft 365 include.

What is Microsoft Office 365?

In simple words, it is the full version of Office which offers all the products and can be installed on a computer. It can also be deployed on an Enterprise computer using the Microsoft Endpoint Configuration. It is a combination of applications and services.

While the core Microsoft 365 apps and services include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Teams, there are many additional apps and services.

• Apps:  Word, Excel, PowerPoint OneNote, Publisher(PC only), Access(PC only).
• Email and Calendar: Outlook, Exchange, and Bookings.
• Meetings and Voice: Microsoft Teams with audio and phone system support
• Social and intranet: Sharepoint and Yammer
• Files and Content: OneDrive, Lists, Forms, Stream, and Sway
• Work Management: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents for Team, Planner, and To-Do.

Apart from these apps, there are services and add-ons, such as My Analytics, Power BO Pro, Admin Center, InTune, Endpoint Configuration Manager, Identity access management, threat protection, and so on. You can check the full list in the comparison plan.

Word

Word is one of the most popular word processing and text-editing programs today. It is used by students, businesses, and the government. It is also the program of choice for many authors in the world today. It is available in tablet versions, plus online versions. Word is often used to create pages in books and other documents. It is also used to create resumes.

Excel

Excel is one of the most powerful Microsoft Office applications and one of the most commonly used globally. Excel is beneficial to individuals and businesses that must manage figures on a large scale, thanks to crunch numbers in various ways.  It’s also good for manipulating and analyzing data, and you can create professional-looking graphs and charts without much effort. The program allows you to work with several different kinds of spreadsheets simultaneously, creating a wide range of charts, graphs, and models that can be used to help you better understand your data.

PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation design program. It allows you to create slide presentations that run with sound, video, and animation. You can also create slide shows and movies. It has the ability to make beautiful presentations and is an essential tool for creating presentations and a useful tool for businesses.

OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is much more than just a note-taking app. It’s an organizational tool that lets you collect and share all the information, ideas, and to-dos that matter to you. OneNote is a full application in itself—available for Mac, PC, Windows tablets, and phones— and you can use it to outline, brainstorm, organize, share, and collaborate on projects, meetings, and other activities.

Publisher (PC only)

Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing software that allows you to make various things such as posters, flyers, and greeting cards.  It is part of Microsoft Office and is used to create professional-quality documents, including newsletters, brochures, posters, flyers, greeting cards, and more. You can even use it to create interactive PDFs and e-mail newsletters. Publisher’s intuitive design and layout tools help you tell your story in a way that’s easy to share and print.

Access (PC only)

Microsoft Access is a database application that is part of the Microsoft Office suite of software products. It is a comprehensive and powerful tool that allows users to build custom databases for keeping track of all manner of information, whether it be financial information, customer records, a personal address book, or a list of favorite TV shows. It doesn’t require any server for its operation. Some of its features are import and export, filter, auto-update, export, print, etc.

Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an email and scheduling program that organizes and stores users’ e-mails, appointments, contacts, and other personal information. One can also use it to manage tasks and meetings and streamline communication between colleagues. It’s a powerful email, calendar, and task management system,

Exchange Server

Microsoft Exchange is a service used by many companies to exchange and store emails, appointments, and other important documents. This web-based email service can help your company or group of friends be more organized and make sure everyone is up to date on what is happening. Microsoft Exchange offers services such as email, calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, and many more. It has two versions which are Office 365 exchange online and Microsoft exchange server. The online version is the one that works in the cloud and offers all the features that are available in the server version.

Bookings

Microsoft Bookings is an online booking application that allows you to manage your schedule and keep track of your appointments. Bookings is a way for you to communicate with your employees and gives you the ability to collaborate with outside companies. It is also a way to manage payments, as the service is integrated with online payment processors. This is a great tool for business owners who have their own small business, as it can help your employees manage their schedules, allows you to have more transparency, and improve your business as a whole.

SharePoint

The SharePoint Server is a tool used to store, organize, and share documents and information. It can help you work more efficiently by streamlining your tasks and making it easy to share reports and presentations with others in your organization. But with so many features and capabilities, it’s not the easiest product to learn—especially if you have little or no experience with it.

Yammer

Yammer is a cloud-based enterprise social networking application. It allows employees to create groups around a topic or project and communicate with each other. Users can also access the application’s data via APIs and integrate it into their own systems.

OneDrive

Designed with consumers and students in mind, Microsoft’s OneDrive is a cloud storage solution that lets you store, sync, and share files between your devices. OneDrive comes with 15GB of free storage (which is enough to store a few hundred photos, a handful of documents, and some videos), and you can earn up to five additional free gigabytes by referring friends to the service. While that may not seem like a ton of storage space, OneDrive is ideal for small businesses on a budget that doesn’t want to spend extra money on costly cloud storage subscriptions as it offers 1 TB storage.

Lists

Microsoft Lists is similar to to-do lists. It is a quick and easy way to record, prioritize, and share what you need to remember. Available for Enterprise and Business segment, it allows them to build custom templates, integrate with power app, add automation, and so on.

Forms

Microsoft Forms is an online survey tool integrated into the Microsoft Office 365 Suite. It offers a wide range of options for creating surveys. Once built, you can share surveys through email or social media, and users can be invited to respond with their Microsoft accounts.

Stream

Microsoft Stream is a cloud-based enterprise video service designed to increase communications and collaboration between teams. Similar to Slack, Microsoft Stream combines video conferencing, real-time messaging, and file sharing in one place.

Sway

There are several ways to create a beautiful, professional-looking report, presentation, or other documents, but Microsoft Sway is the easiest, best, and most efficient way to do so. Sway is an integrated work environment that makes it easy to create and present a collection of images, documents, and other content on a single web page, which is perfect for presentations. You don’t need to learn anything new to use Sway. It’s fast and simple, and it works with your Microsoft Office files.

Power Apps

Microsoft Power Apps is a service that provides users with a way to create custom solutions for modern business. It gives users the power to use Office 365, SharePoint, OneDrive, and other business services directly in one application. It is a great way to make any app or document accessible to anyone in the company. Power Apps is designed to make it easy to get information into a form that users can easily use in their everyday life.

Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is Microsoft’s latest in the set of automation tools. With automation tools, the user can manage, execute, and control other programs by using scripts. Microsoft Power Automate is a software program that helps you automate and run different Microsoft applications tasks, including Microsoft Office. It is easy to install and use, and you can create a task from scratch without any programming experience. This software program is highly rated and has many positive reviews.

Power Virtual Agents for Team

Power Virtual Agents for Team is a new tool for Microsoft Office 365 that helps small businesses better manage their customer service. The new tool allows you to create automated agents, which can be customized to respond just like a human would. These agents can be assigned to respond to emails, phone calls, and chat messages from customers, making it easy to initiate communications without taking time out of your day.  For instance, with Power Virtual Agents for Team, you can create an automated customer support agent that can answer customer questions, schedule appointments, or provide order information.

Planner

Microsoft Planner is the Office companion app for managing schedules and tasks. It is a web-based planner with a clean and intuitive UI. Planner makes it easy for users to create tasks, due dates, priorities, and attachments. You can share your tasks with co-workers and invite them to collaborate with you. The app lets you create multiple plans for different project teams.

All these can be color-coded to differentiate the tasks on the web interface. You can assign a task to a specific person and also add due dates, reminders, and comments to a task. The planner also gives the option to sync your Google Calendar accounts so that you can sync tasks in your Google Calendar and Microsoft Planner accounts.

To-Do

Microsoft To-Do is a new task management app from Microsoft. It has a clean, attractive, and easy-to-use interface, and it works across your Windows devices, Android devices, and the web. It has similar capabilities to other popular task management apps such as Trello, but with a more familiar Microsoft interface.

Microsoft 365 Plans

Microsoft 365 comes in various plans as all products will not appeal to will come in use for general consumers. There are four plans—

1. Home,
2. Busines,
3. Educations, and
4. Enterprise.

1] Home

Microsoft 365 Home is a software package, services, and devices that start with an Office 365 subscription and add extra security for families and devices. If you’re a family of five, you can get Office 365 Home, which provides Office applications on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five smartphones. Microsoft 365 Home also includes security features for families, such as parental controls, a web filtering service, and device backup and recovery. The apps include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, Outlook, OneNote, and Skype.

2] Business

If you are one of the many business professionals who use Microsoft Office and Outlook daily, then you might have heard of Microsoft 365 Business. This Office 365 Business software suite Microsoft Home + Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Intune, and Azure Information Protection

3] Education

Microsoft 365 Education is Microsoft’s new cloud-based suite that helps teachers and students collaborate and unleash their potential. Teachers can use Office 365 Education to create and share lesson plans, assignments, and tests and manage students and monitor classroom behavior. Students have Word, Excel, and PowerPoint at their fingertips and note-taking and collaboration tools that help them learn, research, and create.

4] Enterprise

Microsoft 365 Enterprise combines Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It has everything and meant for an organization that completely depend on the

I hope the post was informative enough to give you a clear idea of the list of apps Microsoft 365 includes, and how each of them can be useful when you need it.

Microsoft Office was a collection of office-related applications. Each application serves a unique purpose and offers a specific service to its users. For example, Microsoft Word is used to create documents. Microsoft PowerPoint is used to create presentations. Microsoft Outlook is used to manage email and calendars. Microsoft has since switched to the Microsoft 365 app, which replaced the separate suite of programs.

What Is Microsoft 365?

The last version of Microsoft Office was Microsoft Office 2019, although the web-based Microsoft 365 is the version that Microsoft would prefer users to adopt. Various versions of the suite have been around since 1988, including but not limited to Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Office Home and Student, and various collections of Microsoft Office 2016. Most people still refer to any version of the suite as Microsoft Office, though, which makes distinguishing among editions difficult.

What makes Microsoft 365 stand out from older editions of MS Office is that it integrates all aspects of the apps with the cloud. It’s a subscription service, too, which means users pay a monthly or yearly fee to use it, and upgrades to newer versions are included in this price. Previous versions of Microsoft Office, including Office 2016, didn’t offer all the cloud features that Microsoft 365 does and were not subscription-based. Office 2016 was a one-time purchase, just as other editions were, and as Office 2019 is.

Packages Available

Microsoft 365 has several different versions: The 365 app is a monthly service, but standalone Office apps are still available. Every version has the same general features (that is, all of the same apps are available), and they both work on Mac, PC, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and other tablets. You’ll see some differences regarding price, storage, and the number of users, however.

Microsoft 365 Home Plans

The following table shows your options for Microsoft 365 family and personal plans.

Microsoft 365 Business Plans

365 also has options for businesses, large and small, but it gets a little more granular.

Microsoft Office Plans

Microsoft is still offering limited-function Office plans for both home and business use. These options only require a single purchase, but they are desktop-only and don’t have the cloud integration of Microsoft 365 (although they do work with Microsoft Teams).

Who Uses MS Office and Why?

Users who purchase a Microsoft Office suite typically do so when they discover that the apps included with their operating system aren’t robust enough to meet their needs. For example, it would be nearly impossible to write a book using only Microsoft WordPad, the word processing app that is included free with all editions of Windows. But it would certainly be feasible to write a book with Microsoft Word, which offers many more features.

Businesses also use Microsoft Office. It’s the de facto standard among large corporations. The apps included in the business suites include those that can be used to manage large databases of users, perform advanced spreadsheet calculations, and create powerful and exciting presentations, complete with music and video.

Microsoft claims that over a billion people use their Office products. The Office suite is used all over the world. 

Which Apps Are Included in Microsoft Office?

The apps included in a specific Microsoft Office suite depend on the Microsoft Office package you select (as does the price). Here’s a short description of the apps and their purpose:

• Word – to create documents, flyers, publications.
• PowerPoint – to organize and manipulate data including formulas, graphing tools, and more.
• Excel – to store, organize, and manipulate data.
• OneDrive – to store data online.
• OneNote – to organize data you collect including handwritten notes, drawings, screen captures, audio clips, and more.
• Publisher – to create extensive publications, posters, flyers, menus.
• Outlook — to manage email and calendars, to-do lists, and contacts.
• Access – to compile and organize large amounts of data.

Microsoft has designed the applications in the suites to work together seamlessly. If you take a look at the list above you can imagine how many combinations of apps can be used together. For instance, you can write a document in Word and save it to the cloud using OneDrive. You can write an email in Outlook and attach a presentation you’ve created with PowerPoint. You can import contacts from Outlook to Excel to create a spreadsheet of the people you know, their names, addresses, and so on.

Mac Version

All Mac versions of Microsoft 365 include Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

Android Version

Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint as a unified app; Outlook and OneNote are separate apps. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can also be downloaded separately.

iOS Version

Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint as separate apps or a unified Office app, Outlook, and OneNote are separate apps only.

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Стандартные офисные приложения для продуктивной работы: Word, Excel и PowerPoint, используются в большинстве коммерческих организаций и учебных заведений. Как же сделать правильный выбор между привычным пакетом офисных приложений и подпиской на Microsoft 365? Чем же первый отличается от второго, и что из них экономически целесообразнее?

Что отличает их друг от друга?

Каждый пользователь знаком с привычным для него способом работы с пакетом программных продуктов Microsoft Office. Сначала приобретается диск с приложениями Word, Excel, PowerPoint и другим программным обеспечением этого бренда, проводится его установка на компьютер и начинается офисная работа. Через несколько лет работы требуется уже более современная версия приложений, и покупается новый диск. Дальше все повторяется.

Однако традиционная версия набора офисных программ встречается уже куда реже, в отличие от того, что было раньше. В настоящее время многие пользователи используют Excel, Word и другие программы в рамках подписки на Microsoft 365 или в виде бесплатной браузерной версии пакета, который представляет собой урезанную редакцию офиса.

В отличие от обычного офисного пакета, который требует единовременной оплаты и работает только на одном компьютере, Microsoft 365 предлагается по ежемесячной подписке, работает на всех ваших ПК и телефонах, а также включает дополнительные возможности и преимущества для совместной работы. Модель подписки позволяет Microsoft предоставлять постоянные обновления и техническую поддержку для своего программного обеспечения, с целью повышения производительности. Также предложено облачное хранилище и отличные функции для совместной работы.

Для тех, кто не хочет платить ежемесячную плату или использовать бесплатные, урезанные инструменты онлайн-офиса, корпорация Майкрософт все еще продает свой традиционный пакет Microsoft Office. Но является ли он действительно настолько выгодным с экономической точки зрения? Даже если вы сможете сэкономить немного денег, отказавшись от Microsoft 365, то стоит ли упускать уникальные возможности услуг на основе подписки?

Плюс и минусы традиционного Microsoft Office

Обычный пакет офисных приложений (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) почты на половину дешевле, чем расширенный пакет, включающий инструменты электронной почты и календаря, в дополнение к стандартным приложениям. Обе версии могут работать только на одном компьютере и получают поддержку в течении нескольких лет.

Несмотря на то, что отсутствие в Office функций совместной работы и облачных технологий может показаться несколько ограниченным, этот комплект программного обеспечения все же полезен для отдельных пользователей и компаний, которые нуждаются в стабильном и неизменном наборе инструментов для продуктивной работы. Это отличный вариант для автономных устройств, не имеющих подключения к Интернету. Также может стать более экономически выгодным, чем оформление подписки.

Одноразовая покупка и владение навсегда

Программное обеспечение Microsoft Office имеет один существенный плюс — купив его один раз, пользователь становится его владельцем навсегда. Разумеется, в будущем используемая версия продукта устареет и лишится всех новых функций, но всегда останется возможность ее замены в любое удобное время. Более того, в компании достаточно хорошо продумана совместимость файлов, так что если кто-нибудь пришлет вам документ Word, созданный в последней версии, он по-прежнему сможет быть открыт на вашем устройстве.

Для обычных пользователей, учителей и владельцев небольших фирм покупка пакета стандартных офисных продуктов может оказаться более выгодной, чем подписка на Microsoft 365.

Отличия Microsoft Office и веб-версии офиса

Зачем платить деньги, если есть бесплатный пакет веб-версии офисных приложений, работающий в вашем браузере? Незачем, если он подходит вам, как обычному пользователю, которому достаточно создать, может отредактировать электронную таблицу или текстовый документ. Только стоит понимать, что он работает при подключении к Интернету. Это не очень удобно для тех, кто работает в автономном режиме или имеющих медленное подключение.

В нем также отсутствуют некоторые важные возможности, такие как оглавления или библиография в текстовом процессоре, расширенные инструменты формул или диаграмм в табличном редакторе, сложное форматирование презентаций. Онлайн версия поддерживает редактирование в режиме реального времени с другим пользователем, в то время как настольная версия позволяет редактировать документ только одному человеку. Некоторым отлично подходит использование двух версий, дополняющих функционал друг друга.

Кроме того, если требуется просто подготовить несколько документов, веб-версия офиса выполнит эту работу бесплатно. Но чтобы работать в автономном режиме или использовать расширенные функции, вам придется приобрести Microsoft Office. Или же, например, оформить подписку на Microsoft 365.

Плюсы и минусы использования Microsoft 365

В комплект по подписке входят: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote и 1 ТБ облачного хранилища OneDrive. Если вы захотите поделиться этими приложениями со всей семьей, это обойдется немного дороже. Семейный тариф охватывает до 6 пользователей, каждый из которых имеет свой 1 ТБ облачного хранилища. Также прилагается доступ к приложениям одновременно на 5 устройствах. И куда же без родительского контроля?

Несмотря на то, что для некоторых ежемесячная абонентская плата может оказаться не совсем подходящей, услуга работает на любом устройстве и поставляется с непрекращающимся выпуском обновлений и технической поддержкой. Это оптимальный сервис для пользователей, которым всегда нужны самые последние новинки или требуется совместная работа с другими пользователями.

Работа из любого места

В условиях, где пользователи вынуждены переходить с компьютера на телефон или планшет, поддержка кроссплатформенности в Microsoft 365 является очень важной особенностью. Доступ к этому программному обеспечению можно получить на любом устройстве, просто авторизовавшись под своей учетной записью Майкрософт. А предоставленное вместе с учетной записью дисковое пространство OneDrive объемом 1 ТБ, поможет вам получить доступ к документам из любого места, не используя при этом накопитель.

Совместная работа

С Microsoft 365 пересылка документов по электронной почте осталась в прошлом. Теперь вы можете привлекать других пользователей к работе над документом или его изменению, с помощью простой ссылки, в режиме реального времени. Благодаря совместному использованию облачного хранилища, вы и ваши партнеры всегда будете иметь самую актуальную версию документа и сможете просматривать изменения, внесенные другими, без необходимости сравнения старых и новых файлов друг с другом.

Процесс совместной работы становится еще более простым, если вы используете Microsoft Teams — инструмент мгновенных сообщений, интегрированный в продукт. С его помощью очень легко делиться документами и работать над ними, а для чатов и видеоконференций создается единая среда.

Передовые функции и техническая поддержка

Те пользователи, которые оформили подписку на Microsoft 365, являются первыми, кто получает новые функции и исправления ошибок. Они также получают бесплатную техническую поддержку для всех продуктов по телефону или в чате.

Безусловно, большинство обновлений приложений Майкрософт направлены на улучшение качества работы, например, использование темного режима. Но возрастающий интерес корпорации к искусственному интеллекту может произвести революцию в автоматизации электронных таблиц, подготовке документов и других трудоемких задач в Word, Excel и PowerPoint. Чтобы первыми получить эти новые возможности, придется заплатить.

Бонусы по подписке

Подписку на Microsoft 365 стоит приобрести, даже если вы не пользуетесь приложениями, только ради бонусов. Самый главный бонус — это, разумеется, 1 ТБ облачного хранилища OneDrive.

Это довольно выгодное предложение, особенно если учесть, что тарифные планы других облачных хранилищ, в которые не входит программное обеспечение для повышения производительности, обойдутся намного дороже.

Но это далеко не все, в комплекте с Microsoft 365 также поставляются улучшенные версии Word, Excel, PowerPoint и OneNote, которые включают дополнительные шаблоны, стоковые фотографии, шрифты и иконки, а также эксклюзивные функции искусственного интеллекта. А чтобы помочь вам писать профессиональные электронные письма, в состав пакета входит инструмент, который предлагает орфографические и грамматические исправления для улучшения вашего письма.

Вопрос цены

Какой же пакет обходится дороже? Для пользователей, которые просто хотят иметь доступ к Word, Excel и PowerPoint, но не интересуются средствами совместной работы или облачным хранилищем, выбор между Microsoft Office и Microsoft 365 зависит в основном от цены. Конечно же, первый стоит дороже, а второй поставляется с ежемесячной платой. Выбор более экономичного варианта зависит от того, как вы планируете использовать программное обеспечение или как часто вы планируете его обновлять.

Можно утверждать, что многофункциональный пакет Microsoft 365 действительно выгоднее. В комплект его входит больше дополнительных компонентов, например, доступ к Outlook, 1 ТБ облачного хранилища OneDrive, актуальные обновления и исправления ошибок, функции совместной работы в режиме реального времени и, конечно же, возможность работать на любом устройстве в любое время. Но опять же, все зависит от ваших приоритетов и финансовой составляющей. Спасибо за внимание!

Версия «Microsoft 365 персональный» стоимостью в семьдесят долларов в год предлагает офисный пакет приложений «Microsoft Office» для дальнейшего применения в собственность только одному пользователю. В свою очередь подписка на план «Microsoft 365 для семьи» предназначена для общего использования несколькими людьми, обеспечивая за сто долларов в год совместное оплаченное задействование востребованных приложений пакета программ для шести человек. Пользователи получат в свое распоряжение полный офисный набор приложений для полноценного применения на персональных компьютерах с установленной операционной системой «Windows 10», вычислительных комплексах «Mac», «iPad» и других задействуемых устройствах.

Любой из покупателей, кто оплатит годовую подписку на «Microsoft 365 для семьи» (ранее известный как «Office 365 для дома»), может поделиться ею с пятью другими учетными записями «Microsoft». Данный вариант очень удобен: управление общим доступом осуществляется через соответствующую страницу, ответственную за общий доступ, на официальном веб-сайте корпорации в личном кабинете профиля пользователя «Microsoft». Основной владелец учетной записи может добавить пять других учетных записей «Microsoft», и каждая из них получит собственную персональную ссылку-приглашение.

После присоединения к группе, каждый приглашенный пользователь сможет войти в систему со своими регистрационными данными профиля «Microsoft», чтобы загрузить приложения «Office», как если бы он самостоятельно оплатил за свою подписку. У каждой учетной записи будет отдельное выделенное хранилище в облачном сервисе «OneDrive» объемом в «1 ТБ».

«Microsoft» объясняет, что подписка предназначена в первую очередь для того, чтобы делиться ею с родными людьми из домашнего окружения. Таким образом, если знакомый или близкий родственник подключен на данный вид годовой подписки, то он может позволить присоединиться к оплаченному плану «Microsoft Office», предоставив в пользование востребованный пакет приложений абсолютно бесплатно.

Домашний план «Microsoft 365 для семьи» — определенно лучшее предложение, если пользователи планируют приобретать «Microsoft Office». Ведь даже при общей покупке, подписка в сто долларов в год на шесть человек позволит существенно сэкономить, так как в итоге каждый пользователь заплатит менее семнадцати долларов за год пользования сборным пакетом приложений.

Также, «Microsoft» сотрудничает с некоторыми работодателями, которые по результатам взаимодействия с корпорацией предлагают своим сотрудникам существенную скидку на приобретение пакета программ «Microsoft Office», позволяющую сэкономить до тридцати процентов от начальной стоимости.

Бесплатные альтернативные решения пакету приложений «Microsoft Office» от сторонних разработчиков

Если перечисленные варианты бесплатного использования «Microsoft Office» по каким-либо причинам пользователям не подходят, то можно рассмотреть возможность выбора другого офисного приложения, обладающего схожими функциональными возможностями с исходным образцом. Существуют совершенно бесплатные офисные программные решения сторонних разработчиков, которые демонстрируют хорошую совместимость с тестовыми документами, электронными таблицами и файлами презентаций приложений, входящих в пакет «Microsoft Office». К ним можно отнести следующие альтернативные программы:

«LibreOffice» — это бесплатное офисное приложение с открытым исходным кодом для операционных систем «Windows», «Mac», «Linux» и других программных инструментов управления. Он аналогичен классическим, устанавливаемым стационарно, версиям «Microsoft Office», поддерживает работу с документами «Office» и даже способен создавать новые экземпляры в общих стандартах расширений, таких как «DOCX» для текстовых документов, «XLSX» для электронных таблиц и конечном формате «PPTX» для презентаций. «LibreOffice» был основан на базе приложения «OpenOffice». И несмотря на то, что первоисточник в лице «OpenOffice» все еще существует и доступен для непосредственного использования, в реализации функциональных способностей «LibreOffice» задействуются возможности большего числа разработчиков, позволивших проекту, в конечном итоге, приобрести большую востребованность и популярность.

«Apple iWork» — это бесплатная коллекция офисных приложений для пользователей «Mac», «iPhone» и «iPad». Данный продукт создан в качестве конкурентного приложения от корпорации «Apple» на замену «Microsoft Office», однако раньше подписка на него была платной. Пользователи персональных компьютеров под управлением операционной системы «Windows» также могут получить доступ к веб-версии «iWork» через веб-сайт «iCloud».

«Google Docs» — это мощная коллекция офисного программного обеспечения в сети «Интернет». Данный инструмент хранит пользовательские файлы в «Google Drive», удаленном сетевом сервисе «Google» для дистанционного расположения файлов. И в отличие от веб-приложений «Microsoft Office», в веб-браузере «Google Chrome» пользователи даже могут в автономном режиме получать доступ к востребованным «Документам», «Таблицам» и «Презентациям».

На сегодняшний день существует, помимо представленных, множество других альтернатив, но данный перечень включает одни из лучших.

Заключение

Использование современных персональных компьютерных устройств значительно упрощает пользователям ведение своей регулярной деятельности, позволяя быстро и без особых усилий решать разные высоко затратные задачи и исполнять многие трудоемкие операции. Огромную помощь, особенно для создания, обработки и последующего распространения востребованных офисных разно форматных документов, оказывает кроссплатформенное приложение «Microsoft Office», являющееся наиболее востребованным видом соответствующего программного обеспечения, файловые расширения которого стали использоваться даже в качестве отраслевых стандартов.

Однако, одним из сдерживающих факторов, негативно влияющим на популяризацию «Microsoft Office», является его высокая стоимость, вынуждающая конечных потребителей искать способы получить приложения из офисного набора бесплатно.

Ознакомившись с данным руководством, пользователи смогут выбрать, индивидуально приемлемый для каждого, вариант, позволяющий использовать востребованные офисные приложения абсолютно без какой-либо оплаты. А также, при желании получить полный функционал пакета «Microsoft Office» могут приобрести годовую подписку совокупно для шестерых участников, что значительно уменьшит конечную стоимость продукта. Или, при отсутствии подходящих решений, обратить свое внимание на, представленные в качестве альтернативы, офисные приложения сторонних разработчиков, позволяющие практически полностью заменить набор продуктов «Microsoft Office».

Полную версию статьи со всеми дополнительными видео уроками читайте в нашем блоге…

Microsoft Office began life all the way back in 1990, predating widespread availability of the internet. It’s undergone a variety of changes in that time, but maintained the same name until 2022.

That’s when Microsoft announced that it would be rebranding standalone versions of Office apps to ‘Microsoft 365’, matching what we saw with the company’s productivity-focused subscription service in 2020.

At its most basic, paying regularly gets you access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Publisher, plus Teams for communication and Outlook for email. You also get cloud storage via OneDrive and regular updates, but even more software is available on professional and business plans.

While this article is designed to help you decide between them, it’s far from your only option. As has always been the case, Microsoft continues to release standalone versions of Office apps every few years. The latest version was released in 2021, but aside from software patches, you won’t get any updates.

For some people, it’s also possible to access Microsoft Office free or at a discounted rate. Here’s everything you need to know.

How to get Microsoft Office on your laptop or PC

In years gone by, the best (and only) way to get Office was to buy a CD-ROM for a one-off price and install it onto your PC or laptop. These days that would be a bit of a faff, with many laptops not even having disc drives anymore, but it was one way to ensure you had a physical backup.

Nowadays, Office is available as a download, but you can either buy it outright with a one time purchase, or as a monthly subscription. There are advantages to either options.

Any Microsoft product under the ‘365’ umbrella is subscription-based, referring to the number of days in a year. Any Microsoft product without ‘365’ in its name is likely to be a one-time purchase – good if you only want to pay once, but you won’t be able to upgrade the software with online updates like you can with 365 subscriptions. 

There are also several different versions of Office available, and you should choose the best one for you depending on your needs. It’s worth noting that while this buying guide covers every platform, Mac users might want to take a look at the specific Office for Mac buying guide on our sister site Macworld.

First, we’ll break down Office options if you are buying for personal home or student use, and then go on to the options if you are buying it for work or use within a small business.

Which version of Microsoft Office do you have?

If you’re looking to upgrade, it’s easy to check which version of Microsoft Office you have installed. Provided you’ve downloaded all the apps at the same time, they should all be running the same version. 

For the purpose of this article, we’re using Microsoft Word. The process may vary slightly depending on your device and app, but it should still be easy to find:

1. Open the Office app of your choice. You should be presented with a home screen similar to the one below
2. From the bottom-left corner, click ‘Account’
   
3. Under the ‘Product Information’ section, look for ‘About Word’. Here, you should see ‘Version’ followed by a four-digit number
   
4. To find out when this version was released, a quick web search will tell you

However, the process differs on older Office apps. In Word 2010, you need to choose ‘File’, then ‘Help’. The information will then be displayed on the right side of the screen, as you can see below.

It’s different again in Word 2007. Click on the round Microsoft Office icon in the top left and then ‘Word Options’ at the bottom of the menu. Next, choose ‘Resources’ – the last option on the left-side panel. You should see an ‘About’ button at the bottom of the list which will provide you additional details about the version that you own.

In the 2003 version, go to the ‘Help’ option in the top menu bar, and then the ‘About Microsoft Office Word’. In the pop-up, you will see the MS Office World version along with the suite it belong to, like the Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003.

Does Windows 11 come with Microsoft Office?

No, it doesn’t. Windows 11 was released in 2021 and is a free upgrade for most Windows 10 users, but Microsoft Office apps aren’t included. All your existing files and apps will make the move, though, so if you already have a standalone version (such as Office 2019 or Office 2021) it’ll still be available.

But everyone else will need to pay for access. Learn more in our separate guide: Does Windows 11 come with Microsoft Office?

Do I need Microsoft 365 to use Outlook?

If Outlook is your email client of choice, you might be wondering if you need to sign up for Microsoft 365 to access it.

The answer is no. Outlook is pre-installed on all Windows 11 and Windows 10 devices, meaning you can start using it straight away.

It used to only be available to Microsoft 365 subscribers on a Mac, but Microsoft has removed this restriction. You can download Outlook from the Mac App Store now, while it’s always been free on iOS and Android.

But if you’re a heavy Outlook user, there are some benefits to a Microsoft 365 subscription. These are:

• 50GB of email storage rather than 15GB
• No ads
• Email encryption
• Extra email security tools for detecting phishing and malware

You can also currently create a personalised email address, but this option is being removed on 30 November 2023.

Will Microsoft 365 be getting new AI features?

Yes. In March 2023, Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Copilot, a brand-new AI assistant designed to help you be more productive.

It’ll be integrated into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and other apps, and be used to create entirely new documents, summarise existing ones and help you with specific features.

The functionality here is based on GPT-4, an updated text-based AI model from OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT. Microsoft’s introduction video gives you an idea of what to expect:

Microsoft 365 Copilot is in testing with “select commercial customers” at the time of writing, but it’s not clear when the feature will be rolled out to consumers.

It’s likely to be exclusive to Microsoft 365 subscribers, although that’s yet to be confirmed.

The news arrived shortly after Microsoft’s reveal of a new version of its Edge browser and Bing search engine with an integrated AI chatbot based on ChatGPT.

Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365)

Microsoft’s productivity-focused subscription service was known as Office 365 from its initial launch in 2011 until 2020. Since April 2020 it’s been known simply as ‘Microsoft 365’, but the rebrand didn’t affect functionality aside from a few new features.

First up are the options designed for the individual consumer (i.e. probably you). If you’re subscribing, there are two main options to choose from: Personal (for just one user) or Family (for up to six users). For both, you have the option to pay monthly or annually:

• Microsoft 365 Personal – $6.99/£5.99 per month or $69.99/£59.99 per year – one person, 1TB of cloud storage
• Microsoft 365 Family – $9.99/£7.99 per month or $99.99/£79.99 per year – up to six people, 1TB of cloud storage each, extra Family Safety features

• See all the Microsoft 365 for home options in the US
• See all the Microsoft 365 for home options in the UK

There’s also a special free version for students and university staff which we’ll get to later.

The main benefit to opting for Microsoft 365 is that you’ll get regular updates for as long as you’re a subscriber, with no need to jump from one version to the next every few years, and no headaches about file compatibility.

You can also save your work to the cloud, similar to Google Docs. Microsoft also throws in a few extra benefits such as 1TB of cloud storage and full access to Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft 365 – Family vs Personal

If you’re subscribing, there currently two main options to choose from: Personal (for just one user) or Family (for up to six users). For both, you have the option to pay monthly or annually:

• Microsoft 365 Personal – $6.99/£5.99 per month or $69.99/£59.99 per year – one person, 1TB of cloud storage
• Microsoft 365 Family – $9.99/£7.99 per month or $99.99/£79.99 per year – up to six people, 1TB of cloud storage each, extra Family Safety features

The extra £20/$30 per year or £2/$3 per month for the Family subscription is a great deal if you choose to share the subscription costs among friends. The yearly subscriptions save you on two months of payment as well.

There’s also no device limit on Microsoft 365 installations, meaning both Family or Personal subscribers can install the software on as many devices as needed. You are limited to working on five devices simultaneously, though.

However, on 11 January 2023, Microsoft announced that a new third tier would be added on 30 January. Known as Microsoft 365 Basic, it’ll replace the existing OneDrive 100GB storage plan but retain the same price – $1.99/£1.99 per month or $19.99/£19.99 per year. More details on what it offers below.

Microsoft 365 Family

• For 6 users at at time across unlimited PCs/Macs, tablets and phones
• 1TB cloud storage per user for 6 users (6TB total)
• Ongoing access to updates
• Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC Only), Access (PC Only), OneDrive, Microsoft Teams

US: $99.99 per year or $9.99 per month

UK:  £79.99 per year or £7.99 per month

Microsoft 365 Personal

• For 1 PC/Mac across unlimited PCs/Macs, tablets and phones
• 1TB cloud storage for one user
• Ongoing access to updates
• Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher (PC Only), Access (PC Only), OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Family Safety

US: $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month

UK: £59.99 per year or £5.99 per month

Microsoft 365 Basic

• For 1 PC/Mac across unlimited PCs/Macs, tablets and phones
• 100GB cloud storage for one user
• Web and mobile versions of apps only
• More features to be added

US: $19.99 per year or $1.99 per month

UK: £19.99 per year or £1.99 per month

Office 365 Education – Free options for students

Office 365 Education is (as the name suggests) a special version of Microsoft 365 for students and university faculty or staff. Students and teachers can sign up for free web access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Microsoft Teams under the Office 365 A1 plan.

Unsurprisingly, you’ll need a university email address or other proof of your status to claim it. See our full article on how to get Microsoft Word for free.

There’s also the 
Office 365 A3 plan if you want desktop access to the apps, which costs £2.20/US$2.50 per month for each student and £2.85/$3.25 for each teachers or other member of staff. The top-tier Office 365 A5 plan, which costs £5.30/$6 per month for students and £7.05/$8 per month for teachers, offers desktop and web access along with added security features.

• 
  Get Office 365 Education for UK schools 
• Get Office 365 Education for US schools

If you want to look for other great student tech deals, check out
Tech Advisor’s back to school hub. 

Office Home and Student 2021

If you would prefer to pay a one-off price, Office Home and Student 2021 is the right package for you. You lose the automatic software updates of Microsoft 365, but that means you can use the software for years without being tied into a subscription. It works with one device running Windows 11, Windows 10 or any recent version of macOS.

• Office Home & Student in the US – $149.99
• Office Home & Student in the UK – £119.99

However, you don’t get full access to the mobile and tablet apps here (anyone can still use them to view documents for free, just not edit or create them), there’s no cloud storage included, and you don’t get access to the full suite of Office programs included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

Office 2021 includes new features such as a black theme in Word, new learning tools, new charts and timelines, new transitions in PowerPoint and lots more. But unlike a Microsoft 365 subscription, it won’t continue getting new features over time.

It’s also worth noting that Microsoft Office will soon be known as Microsoft 365 following a rebrand, but it’ll still perform in exactly the same way.

Microsoft 365 Business

Microsoft also offers business-minded versions of its software. We’re focusing on the options for small businesses here, but Microsoft also offers
Enterprise plans for larger companies. Once again, there’s a split between the 365 subscription packages and the one-off purchase version of Office 2021.

There are three main versions of Microsoft 365 Business available, each offering very different software packages, so make sure you pick the right one. Be especially mindful about Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $6/£4.50 per user per month), which doesn’t actually include desktop versions of the core Office software like Word and Excel – just Microsoft’s online and cloud tools.

Also note the Microsoft 365 Apps for business plan ($8.25/£7.90 per user per month) includes both desktop and mobile version of the apps but without the other productivity tools such as email, calendar and Teams conference call features.

Here’s a summary of all four main business-focused plans we’d recommend:

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

• One licence for 5 PCs/Macs plus 5 tablets and 5 phones per user
• 1TB cloud storage per user
• Allows up to 300 users
• Ongoing access to updates
• Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access, OneDrive
• Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint

US: $12.50 per user per month

UK: £9.40 per user per month

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

• For 5 PCs/Macs plus 5 tablets and 5 phones per user
• 1TB cloud storage per user
• Allows up to 300 users
• Email hosting with 50GB mailbox and custom domain address
• Ongoing access to updates
• Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
• Access to OneDrive, Exchange, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Yammer
• Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook

US:  $22 per user per month

UK: £16.60 per user per month

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

• 1TB cloud storage per user
• Email hosting with 50GB mailbox and custom domain address
• Allows up to 300 users
• Ongoing access to updates
• Video conferencing with up to 250 people
• OneDrive, Exchange, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Yammer
• Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote

US:  $5 per user per month (annual plan)

UK: £4.50 per user per month (annual plan)

Microsoft 365 Apps for business

• For 5 PCs/Macs plus 5 tablets and 5 phones per user
• 1TB cloud storage per user
• Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive
• Ongoing access to updates
• Allows up to 300 users

UK:  £7.90 per user per month (annual plan)
US:  $8.25 per user per month (annual plan)

UK: £7.90 per user per month (annual plan)

Related articles

• Do students get Office 365 for free?
• How to get Microsoft Word for free
• How to get Microsoft Excel for free
• How to get Microsoft PowerPoint for free