About MS Office

Microsoft Office began with the release of Word 1.0 in September 1983. In August 1995, the first suite of Office applications became available in two versions, Standard and Professional, offering Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Scheduler+, and Access. Since that time, MS Office has grown to offer eight suite versions, standalone desktop productivity and server applications and Web Services. In addition, numerous add-on products and third-party providers add to and increase the efficiency of MS Office products.



1.Common Features
While Microsoft designs each software application to perform specific tasks, certain program features are common to all MS Office products. Providing these common features not helps make software development easier for Microsoft, but it also helps you use the software more efficiently. Common features include general features such as keyboard shortcuts, toolbars, spell-check and grammar assistance, document formatting, and a central Office Help system. In addition, a common Clip Art folder, WordArt, and Drawing options are common features that provide visual interest in MS Office documents.

2. Server Applications
Microsoft provides Office Server applications to provide additional communication and integration options for software products. Server applications provide an infrastructure that allows for increased efficiency in a network environment. Available Server applications include SharePoint Server, Communications Server, Groove Server, Project Server, PerformancePoint Server, and Project Portfolio Server. Each server application services specific MS Office applications or tasks. For example, the Communications Server provides support for audio, video and web conferencing, group chats, instant messaging and mobile communications, while the Groove Server provides management and collaboration integration support specifically for the Groove collaboration software application.

3. Software Suites
Software suites contain differing applications that depend on the target audience. Current suites include Office Standard, Home and Student, Office Mobile, Small Business, Professional, Professional Plus, Enterprise and Ultimate. Of these, six suite versions are available for retail sale, and the Professional Plus and Enterprise editions are available for distribution through the Microsoft volume-licensing program. Volume licensing allows businesses to save money by purchasing one product and multiple user licenses, rather than purchasing software for each individual workstation. Volume licensing starts with five desktop licenses.

4. Desktop Applications
The popularity of MS Office suites make it easy to think of Office desktop application software only in terms of suite applications such as Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook. In reality, there are eight additional applications and an enhancement for MS Outlook that comprises the desktop software line. Additional desktop application software includes Outlook with Business Contact Manager, Office Communicator, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, Project, Publisher, SharePoint Designer, and Visio. One additional MS Office product, MS Accounting, is no longer in production, but because it still shipped with early versions of Office 2007 and Microsoft still provides support for this software, they include it in the desktop application list of offerings.

5. Web Services
MS Office Web Services remove the boundaries of time and space and provide for increased access to MS Office documents. Two of the more popular MS Web Services include the Office Live Workspace and Live Meeting. Office Live Workspace is a free service that allows you to access documents from any computer that has an Internet connection, and it provides five gigabytes of online storage and file sharing options that allow for group access to MS Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Windows Live Meeting works with the Communications Server to provide an online meeting space where you can deliver PowerPoint presentations, edit document files and collaborate using a whiteboard feature.

source: eHow.com