NOTE: The trial version for Microsoft Office 2007 is no longer available. You can download a free trial of Microsoft Office 2010 instead.
Microsoft Office is the most popular and widely spread productivity suite, both in home and professional environments. The utilities included in it depend on the exact edition you use (Microsoft Office Professional, Standard, Small Business or Home and Student) but they generally cover all major areas in your daily computer-related tasks.
Microsoft Office 2007 features a completely redesigned interface that features the so-called "Ribbon", a quick access bar that includes buttons to the most frequently used functions. While this new design is aimed at making workflow quicker and smoother, it also takes a while to get used to (especially after spending so many years with the same design).
No matter what edition you use, the main four applications in Microsoft Office are Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, which in some cases remain as industry standards for document creation and management: Word helps you deal with all sorts of tasks related to written documents, from simple text editing to complex documents including macros, tables, images and forms; Excel is the quintessential app to deal with figures, calculations and mathematical formulae, all in 2D spreadsheets or 3D colorful diagrams; PowerPoint helps you create attractive presentations with sound effects and transitions to accompany your talks and lectures, combining ease of use with professional results; and finally Outlook is the standard e-mail solution in many corporate environments thanks to its seamless integration with Exchange servers, support for digital signatures and powerful extra tools (Tasks, Calendars, and more). Microsoft Office is a complete productivity suite.
Whether you like Microsoft as a brand or not, Microsoft Office 2007 is undoubtedly an industry standard in productivity suites.
