Microsoft Office

Office is Microsoft's collection of applications and services that are designed to help you accomplish office related tasks. These tasks include managing:

  • spreadsheets
  • presentations
  • documents
  • email

Microsoft Office 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.

You can access Office on a variety of devices, even a smartphone. Although viewing documents, spreadsheets and presentations on a smartphone is possible, you would need a bigger device to edit them easily.

Core Apps And Services

  • Microsoft Word - a word processor. File extension .docx. Supports Portable Document Format (PDF) and OpenDocument (ODF).
  • Microsoft Excel - a spreadsheet editor. File extension .xlsx.
  • Microsoft PowerPoint - a presentation program. File extension .pptx.
  • Microsoft Outlook - a personal information manager, though most people see Outlook as an email program.
  • Microsoft OneNote - a notetaking program that gathers handwritten or typed notes, drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries.
  • Microsoft OneDrive - a file hosting service.
  • Skype for Business - an integrated communications client for conferences and meetings in real-time.
  • Microsoft Teams - an application that combines meetings, workplace chat, notes, and attachments. Microsoft announced that Teams would eventually replace Skype for Business.

Microsoft Office Tutorials