A BRIEF HISTORY OF MICROSOFT OFFICE

Microsoft’s office productivity suite was launched 25 years ago this month, and went on to reshape business and the software industry.

This month, Microsoft is celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the debut of its immensely popular office productivity suite, Microsoft Office. The core programs that made up the first version of Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) existed as separate applications as far back as the early 1980s. It wasn’t until 1989, however, that Microsoft bundled these programs together into the product called Microsoft Office 1.0 (for Macintosh, that is; the first Windows version would follow a year later).

The first version of Microsoft Office, created for Apple's Mac in 1989. Microsoft would eventually drop the article "the" from its product name, similar to how The Pink Floyd eventually became Pink Floyd.

When MS Office for Windows was released in 1990, its chief competitors were both industry giants: WordPerfect (for word processing), and Lotus 1-2-3 (for spreadsheets). Both of these products already had dominant market positions when Microsoft Office was launched.

Microsoft Office quickly gained on the competition, however — businesses liked the idea of having their primary workstation apps come from a single software company, which hinted at greater integration between critical applications. More to the point, many of these businesses were using PCs powered by Microsoft Windows (running over MS-DOS), giving Microsoft Office even more perceived integration sparkle.

It also helped that Office was friendlier to the growing number of mouse-centric PC users of the early 1990s. The clickability factor made it more appealing than other programs, such as WordPerfect, which were often heavily keyboard-driven.

Companies also liked the idea of dealing with a single software vendor, which provided simpler software licensing and support contracts. This convenient arrangement would generate billions of dollars in Office-related revenue for Microsoft over the next two decades, and would effectively bury Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and all other comers.

Microsoft Office expanded from the original “Big Three” apps as new versions of the suite were released. A basic e-mail client, Microsoft Mail, was added not long after the debut of Office 1.0. Microsoft Access, a simple but powerful database management system, made its debut in 1993 as part of Office Professional 3.0.

Other Office apps were developed and added to the Office bundle over the years, or were made available as add-ons:

• Outlook, a beefed up personal information manager and e-mail client
• OneNote, a virtual notebook system
• Publisher, a mid-level desktop publishing app
• Project, a project management program
• Visio, a flowchart and diagram creation app

Today, Microsoft Office is reported to have more than a billion users worldwide. Office is available through retail, traditional volume licensing for businesses, and as Software as a Service (SaaS) in the form of Office 365. Microsoft is still actively developing versions of Office for the Mac. And, in March 2014, a version of Office for Apple’s iPad was launched.

Microsoft Office Certification

Microsoft Office has been a part of Microsoft’s training and certification program for many years. The following sections describe the different certifications available for Microsoft Office applications.

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)

The first level of Office certification is the Microsoft Office Specialist. This designation can be earned by passing a single certification exam for any of the following Office programs (applicable product versions appear in parentheses):

• Word (2013; 2010; 2007)
• Excel (2013; 2010; 2007)
• PowerPoint (2013; 2010; 2007)
• Outlook (2013; 2010; 2007)
• Access (2013; 2010; 2007)
• SharePoint (2013; 2010)
• OneNote (2013; 2010)

There is also an MOS certification specifically for Office 365, Microsoft’s “Software as a Service” version of Office. MOS: Office 365 is covered by Exam 77-891.

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Expert

This advanced certification is only offered for Word and Excel. To earn MOS Expert certification on Word 2013 or Excel 2013, candidates must take and pass two certification exams. The other applicable versions (2010 and 2007) require passing only one exam.

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Master

The MOS Master is the most advanced level of Office certification. It is currently offered for the following Office applications (applicable product versions appear in parentheses):

• Word (2013; 2010; 2007)
• Excel (2013; 2010; 2007)
• PowerPoint (2013; 2010; 2007)
• Outlook (2013; 2010; 2007)
• Access (2013; 2010; 2007)
• SharePoint (2013; 2010)
• OneNote (2013)

To earn MOS Master certification on Word 2013 or Excel 2013, candidates must take and pass two certification exams. All other applications only require passing one exam to earn MOS Master certification.

Retired Microsoft Office Certifications

Although the Microsoft Learning website lists two other Office-related certifications, these two designations have officially been retired. These retired certifications are:

• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) for Office 365
• Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) for Office 365

Summary

There’s no question that the release of Microsoft Office 25 years ago changed the landscape of business productivity, and eventually gave millions of home users access to powerful software that innovated word processing and spreadsheet use. And, over the last two decades, MOS certification has provided knowledge workers with an industry-recognized accreditation that validates their skills, and gives them an advantage in a competitive job market.