Microsoft Office 97

Microsoft Office 97

Microsoft Office 97 running on Windows NT 3.51 Workstation with the Office Assistant present
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	November 19, 1996
Last release	Service Release 2 (SR-2)
Development status	Discontinued
Operating system	Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Platform	IA-32 DEC Alpha (partial)
Type	Office suite
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	support.microsoft.com/gp/ofw97

Microsoft Office 97 is a major milestone release of Microsoft Office, which includes hundreds of new features and improvements over its predecessor. It introduced "Command Bars," a paradigm in which menus and toolbars were made more similar in capability and visual design. It also featured natural language systems and sophisticated grammar checking. It was published on CD-ROM as well as on a set of 44 3½-inch floppy disks. Released on November 19, 1996,^[1] it was the last version to support Windows NT 3.51 on i386 and DEC Alpha computers. (Only Word and Excel were available for the Alpha.) Two service releases (SR-1 and SR-2) were released for Office 97. SR-2 solved the year 2000 problem in Office 97.^[2]

Microsoft Office 97 is the first version of Office to feature the Office Assistant, a feature designed to assist users by the way of an interactive animated character, which interfaced with the Office help content. The default assistant was "Clippit", nicknamed "Clippy", a paperclip. The office assistant feature would continue to be available in Office versions up until and including Microsoft Office 2003. In Office XP, the feature was hidden by default and not installed by default in Office 2003.

Office 97 is also the first Microsoft product to include product activation. The Brazilian versions of Office 97 Small Business Edition and Publisher 98 required it.^[3]

Assisted support options and security updates for Office 97 ended on January 16, 2004. Mainstream hotfix support for Office 97 ended on August 31, 2001. Extended hotfix support ended on February 28, 2002.^[4]

Two Office 97 applications featured easter eggs: Microsoft Word 97 contained a hidden pinball game and Microsoft Excel contained a hidden flight simulator.^[5][6]

Editions

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

Office 97 was released in five editions. They are as follows:

Office programs	Standard Edition	Professional Edition	Small Business Edition	Small Business Edition 2.0[7]	Developer Edition
Word 97	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Excel 97	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Outlook 97	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 1]	Yes
PowerPoint 97	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Access 97	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Developer Tools and SDK	No	No	No	No	Yes
Publisher 97	No	No	Yes	No	No
Publisher 98	No	No	No	Yes	No
Small Business Financial Manager 97	No	No	Yes	No	No
Small Business Financial Manager 98	No	No	No	Yes	No
Direct Mail Manager	No	No	No	Yes	No
Automap Streets Plus 1997	No	No	Yes	No	No
Expedia Streets 98	No	No	No	Yes	No
Bookshelf Basics	No	Yes	No	No	Yes

Notes

1. Can be upgraded to Outlook 98 via coupon or download

References

1. "Microsoft Office 97 Released to Manufacturing". News Center (Press release). Las Vegas: Microsoft. November 19, 1996. Archived from the original on November 25, 2014.
2. "MS Office 97 Service Release 2b (SR-2b)". TechNet (Press release). Microsoft. October 1999. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
3. "Microsoft Extends Anti-Piracy Features in Office 2000". News Center. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. December 9, 1998.
4. "Microsoft Office Family Product Support Lifecycle FAQ". Support. Microsoft. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
5. "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 97 Flight to Credits". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
6. "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 97 Flight Simulator - for Later Versions of Microsoft Excel". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
7. "Office 97 Small Business Edition v2 - Features". microsoft.com. Microsoft. February 1, 2000. Archived from the original on February 26, 2000. Retrieved April 28, 2011.