Microsoft Office XP

Microsoft Office XP

Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 (10.0[1]) / March 20, 2004; 7 years ago (2004-03-20) [2]
Operating system	Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and later
Platform	Microsoft Windows
Type	Office suite
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	Microsoft Office Online Home Page

Microsoft Office XP is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on March 5, 2001, it is the successor to Office 2000 and the predecessor to Office 2003, and was known as Office 10 in the early stages of its development cycle. Despite the "XP" branding, Office XP does not require Windows XP or higher; rather, "XP" was a marketing term for its era.

The Office Assistant, included in Microsoft Office 97 and subsequent versions until Office 2007, is disabled by default in Office XP. A key element of Microsoft's advertising campaign for Office XP was the removal of Clippit (Clippy) and other Office assistants.

Overview

Office XP was released to manufacturing (RTM) on March 5, 2001.^[3] It has received three service packs during its lifetime. Mainstream support for Office XP ended on July 11, 2006 and extended support ended on July 12, 2011.^[4]

Naming conventions

Microsoft Office XP was released in conjunction with Windows XP, although the latter was not launched until October of the same year. Despite their naming similarities, Office XP is compatible not only with Windows XP, but also with Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 6a), Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It is not compatible with Windows 95 as Office 2000 is the last supported version.

It is also the last version with support for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, and Windows NT 4.0.

The individual components within Office XP are assigned the "2002" suffix rather than "XP," e.g., Word 2002 and Excel 2002.

Features

Microsoft Office XP, released in 2001, is a major upgrade with numerous enhancements and changes.

• Safe Mode: This feature allows applications such as Outlook to start when they might otherwise fail. Safe Mode enables Office to detect and either repair or bypass the source of the problem, such as a corrupted registry or a misbehaving add-in.
• Smart tag: New technology delivered with Office XP. Some smart tags operate based on user activity, such as helping with typing errors. These smart tags are supplied with the products, and are not programmable. For developers, though, there is the ability to create custom smart tags. In Office XP, custom smart tags could work only in Word and Excel.
• Product Activation: Office XP incorporates product activation technology to prevent software piracy. This feature is also implemented in Windows XP (and later versions of Windows and Office).
• Speech and handwriting recognition are features new to Office XP, shared among all Office applications as well as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. The speech recognition feature encompasses two different functions, Dictation and Voice Command. Dictation provides users the ability to dictate words that will be transcribed into typed text in an Office program, while Voice Command is used to invoke menu options and commands via voice. Handwriting recognition allows users to enter text by writing instead of typing.
• Text Services Framework support: Office XP, specifically, Word 2002 supports the Text Services Framework making it possible for services implemented using TSF to be used in Word. Office's speech recognition, handwriting recognition and tablet PC ink support and ink correction are such services.
• Clipboard functionality has been greatly improved. The clipboard now stores up to 24 items and is located in the task pane. The Clipboard task pane also displays a thumbnail view of a copied item, whether it consists of text, numbers, or a graphic.
• A major change to the Office XP application environment is the introduction of task panes. A task pane is a multi-purpose windowpane that appears on the right side of the window of an Office application. A task pane is basically used to house a number of features that were formerly controlled using dialog boxes, such as opening a new file or inserting clip art into an application document.
• Office XP sports a streamlined, flatter look compared to previous versions of Microsoft Office. It was designed to be used in combination with Windows Whistler's Watercolor theme, which was abandoned in favor of Luna when Windows XP was released.

Components

• Word 2002
• Excel 2002
• Outlook 2002
• PowerPoint 2002
• Publisher 2002
• Access 2002
• Front Page 2002
• Project 2002
• Visio 2002

Editions

The component products were packaged together in various suites. Some of these editions were available as retail packages in either full or upgrade versions, others as full OEM versions for inclusion with new PCs, and still others as volume license versions that required no activation. All editions provided the core components of Word, Excel, and Outlook, and all editions except the Small Business edition provided PowerPoint.^[5]

Table of Editions

Programs and Features	Standard	Small Business	Professional	Professional Special (upgrade only)	Professional with Publisher	Professional with FrontPage	Developer
Licensing	Retail, Volume and Academic	OEM	Retail and Volume	Retail	OEM	Volume	Retail
Word	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Excel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Outlook	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PowerPoint	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Access	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Publisher	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
FrontPage	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Developer tools	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Visio	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Project	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

See also

• Comparison of office suites
• List of office suites
• List of Microsoft Office programs
• History of Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Office 2000, the previous version of Microsoft Office for Windows
• Microsoft Office 2003, the next version of Microsoft Office for Windows

References

1. ^ Office XP version number
2. ^ Service Pack 3 latest release date
3. ^ Microsoft press release March 2001
4. ^ Office XP support ends
5. ^ Microsoft press release 4 April 2001

External links

• Office XP Solution Center
• Downloads for Office XP - Downloads - Microsoft Office Online