About MS Office

Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Along with core office applications, it includes associated servers and web-based services. Recent versions of Office are referred as "Office system".

The current versions are Office 2007 for Windows, launched on January 30, 2007, and Office 2008 for Mac OS X, released January 15, 2008. Office 2007/Office 2008 features a distinct user interface and a new XML-based primary file format. There is no current version for Mac OS Classic.

Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 on Mac OS, with a version for Windows in 1990. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Additionally, a "Pro" version of Office included Microsoft Access and Schedule Plus. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications (OBA) brand.

A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write add-ins that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features. 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)
* Office XP onwards (COM/OLE Automation add-ins)
* Office 2003 onwards (Managed code add-ins)