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Microsoft Office 97

1997 software package

Microsoft Office 97
Summary

1997 software package

FieldValue
logoOffice 95 and 97 logo.svg
screenshotOffice 97 on Windows NT 4.0.png
captionMicrosoft Office 97 applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) running with the Office Assistant present
developerMicrosoft
released
discontinuedyes
latest release versionService Release 2B (8.0.5903)
latest release date
operating systemWindows NT 3.51 SP5 or later
platformIA-32, DEC Alpha (partial)
genreOffice suite
licenseProprietary commercial software
replacesMicrosoft Office 95 (1995)
replaced_byMicrosoft Office 2000 (1999)

Microsoft Office 97 (version 8.0) is the fifth major release for Windows of Microsoft Office, released by Microsoft on November 19, 1996. A Mac OS equivalent, Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition, was released on January 6, 1998. Microsoft Office 97 became a major milestone release for introducing new features and improvements over its predecessor Microsoft Office 95.

The suite is officially compatible with Windows NT 3.51 SP5 through Windows Me. It is the last version of Microsoft Office to support Windows NT 3.51 SP5 and Windows NT 4.0 RTM–SP2. Two Service Releases (SR-1 and SR-2) have been released for Office 97; SR-2 solves the year 2000 problem in Office 97. Hotfix support for Office 97 ended on February 28, 2002, while assisted support options and security updates ended on January 16, 2004.

Features

Office 97 introduced "Command Bars", a paradigm in which menus and toolbars are made more similar in capability and visual design. It also featured natural language systems and sophisticated grammar checking.

Office 97 introduced the Office Assistant, an interactive animated character designed to assist users via Office help content. The default assistant is "Clippit", nicknamed "Clippy", a paperclip.

Office 97 is the first Microsoft product to include product activation, albeit limited to the Brazilian editions of Office 97 Small Business Edition and Publisher.

An option to upgrade to Internet Explorer 3.02 came with the Office Professional version, though the icon would not appear if the browser was already installed.

Three Office 97 applications feature easter eggs: a hidden pinball game in Microsoft Word, a hidden flight simulator in Microsoft Excel and a secret developer credits screen in Microsoft Word. The latter went undiscovered for 29 years.

Office 97 supported UTF-16.

Editions

The vivid cover art emphasized the fifth "puzzle piece", [[Microsoft Access]].

Office 97 has been released in five editions: Standard Edition, Professional Edition, Small Business Edition, Small Business Edition 2.0, and Developer Edition. Each has its own selection of included applications.

Office programsStandard EditionProfessional EditionSmall Business EditionSmall Business Edition 2.0Developer EditionWordExcelOutlookPowerPointAccessBookshelf BasicsDeveloper Tools and SDKPublisher 97Small Business Financial Manager 97Automap Streets Plus 5.0Publisher 98Small Business Financial Manager 98Direct Mail ManagerExpedia StreetsInternet Explorer 3Internet Explorer 4Schedule+BinderFrontPageProjectTeam Manager

Notes

References

References

  1. Thurrott, Paul. (October 7, 1999). "Microsoft Quietly Issues New Version of Office 97 SR2".
  2. (14 June 2017). "Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit". [[Microsoft]] <!--.
  3. (November 19, 1996). "Microsoft Office 97 Released to Manufacturing". [[Microsoft]].
  4. (October 1999). "MS Office 97 Service Release 2B (SR-2B)". [[Microsoft]].
  5. "Microsoft Office Family Product Support Lifecycle FAQ". [[Microsoft]].
  6. (December 9, 1998). "Microsoft Extends Anti-Piracy Features in Office 2000". [[Microsoft]].
  7. "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 97 Flight to Credits".
  8. "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 97 Flight Simulator - for Later Versions of Microsoft Excel".
  9. (January 13, 2026). "Someone found an Office 97 Easter egg that nobody spotted for 29 years".
  10. https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000509.shtml
  11. (February 1, 2000). "Office 97 Small Business Edition v2 - Features". [[Microsoft]].
  12. (June 11, 1997). "Microsoft Automap Streets Plus Preferred 2-to-1 in New Study".
  13. (August 26, 1997). "Microsoft Launches New Version of Preferred Street-Finding Software".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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