Microsoft Office

Software Overview

Microsoft Office, also known as Microsoft 365, is an industry-standard suite of office productivity applications. The suite is available as a subscription (365) or as a one-time purchase (Home & Student 2019) for PCs and Macs, Android and iOS mobile devices, and online as a web application.

The Office suite consists of the following applications:

• Microsoft Word - A word processing application used to create documents for business and personal purposes
• Microsoft Excel - A spreadsheet application used to organize, manipulate, and visualize data
• Microsoft PowerPoint - A presentation application used to create slide shows
• Microsoft Outlook - An email client used to compose and receiving messages, and organize personal information
• Microsoft OneNote - A notebook application used to create free-form pages of notes

The suite may also include Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Access, and access to OneDrive and Teams. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint all utilize the Open XML format (.DOCX, .PPTX, and .XLSX) for saving files, but also support their legacy formats (.DOC, .XLS, and .PPT). Office applications also support add-ins, or plugins, that you can download to extend the capabilities of the programs.

Whether it is used for business, educational, or personal use, Microsoft Office is the leading office productivity suite. You can purchase Office with a one-time payment or as a subscription. Free suites, such as Apache OpenOffice, can be used as a substitution in some cases, but since Microsoft Office is standardized within the business and educational community, the price of Office is still worth the purchase.

Primary File Type

.DOCXMicrosoft Word Document

Supported File Types

Additional Related File Types