Microsoft Office files

Microsoft Office Files include files produced by Word (DOC), Excel, and Power Point. Office products are available for Windows and MacOS X. Free downloads are available from http://office.microsoft.com to view (but not edit) these files (search for viewers). Converters are also available to convert the latest file format changes to earlier file formats. Windows Mobile PDAs and Windows CE Palmtops often include readers that support Microsoft office files.

An Office Open initiative at Microsoft has been used to define XML variants for the office file formats. Microsoft has an article on this format change.

Word

Word is a word processor from Microsoft (often called MS Word) and natively supports DOC files format. It also supports RTF (Rich Text Format) and TXT. Word 2007 and later natively supports the Office XML (Office Open) format. This format has a .DOCX extension.

Word and Word files have undergone many changes in functions and file formats. The most important are:

• Word for DOS 1.0 - released 1983
• Word for MacOS - released 1985
• Word for DOS can MacOS 3.01 released in 1987. First to include RTF support.
• Word for Windows 1.0 - released 1989 for Windows 3.0
• Word for MacOS 5.1 - released 1992 (some consider this the best release for Mac)
• Word for DOS 5.5 - released 1991 with a Windows like user interface.
• Word 6.0 1993 synchronized version number for all platforms, DOS, Windows, Mac.
• Word for Windows NT - first 32 bit version based on Word 6.
• Word 95 - released (version 7.0) specifically for Windows 95. First time Office was released as a package.
• Word 97 - This is the common format (version 8.0) for exchange of Windows DOC files. All later tools have an option to save in this format although some file features may be lost.
• Word 2000 - This is the oldest version (version 9.0) that will work with Book Designer. It is also the oldest version that can generate LIT file content and it is the oldest version that will support conversion to DOCX format.
• Word 2002 - Also known as Word XP. This is the oldest version (version 10.0) supported by security updates.
• Word 2003 - The last version (version 11.0) to use DOC as its native format. Can save in Office XML and DOCX with an update.
• Word 2007 - This version (version 12.0) uses Office DOCX as the native save format. The file is zip compressed and used in the compressed form. It will typically have a .DOCX file extension. Tools will also save in DOC format.
• Word 2008 includes MacOS X support.
• Word 2010 - version 14.0 (13 was skipped)
• Word 2013 - version 15.0 - can now import PDF files.
• Office 365 - A subscription version with monthly or yearly charges.
• Office 2016 - version 16.0 full office apps for home or student.
• Office on the web 2021
  • Free web versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
  • Free 5 GB of secure online storage for files and photos
  • Easily share and co-author documents with others

Help for Word

• Word MVPS - lots of good help in using Word.
• Word docs can be batch converted to TXT, RTF, or Filtered HTML and in Word 2007 and later you can 'export' to PDF. - link is to the MobileRead forum.
• word to swf converter can help you to convert word document files to standalone SWF flip ebook/flipbook, or flip magazine that keep original layout, text, images.
• Word Viewer for those who don't have word.
• Most competitor word processing tools can support word documents and all can read RTF which Word can produce.

Excel XLS

Excel is a spread sheet program with some charting display capabilities. This can be pulled into Word as a table but it may be supported in an eBook reader as a table. Charts are usually supported as graphics files. Excel files generally have a .xls extension. MS "Office Open" files will have a .xlsx extension. Excel can import and export CSV files.

Spread sheet programs are often used as part of Personal Library management to keep track of books you own or wish to own.

PPT

PowerPoint is a graphic oriented presentation tool. PowerPoint files usually have a .ppt extension. The power point data format has changed in the latest release to a .pptx extension or pptm extension (with VBA support). This file format is part of the Microsoft Office Open initiative and is related to the DOCX format. See PPT for more information.

Others

Other office product tools include Microsoft One Note, Outlook, Access database, and Publisher although these are not usually file formats that are exchanged. Outlook, of course, accepts standard email protocol (eml).

For more information

https://www.office.com/?omkt=en-US Microsoft Office Home.