Microsoft reinvents Office Live Small Business

Microsoft has made a new update to its Office Live Small Business. From now on, users will have to choose from three features: Basics, Essentials and Premium. One can start from the same level fro free and then add whatever they might need at extra cost. The update supports Forefox browsers and adds marketing options and e-commerce.

Photo: Microsoft reinvents Office Live Small Business

The new version includes registration of domain, a WYSIWYG site builder, about one hundred e-mail accounts and five business application users. It also has Team workspace and Document Manager. One can add more than 20 online business applications to access functions like company assets, competition tracker, employee directory, expenses, training, etc.

Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Along with core office applications, it includes associated servers and web-based services. Recent versions of Office are referred as "Office system".

The current versions are Office 2007 for Windows, launched on January 30, 2007, and Office 2008 for Mac OS X, released January 15, 2008. Office 2007/Office 2008 features a distinct user interface and a new XML-based primary file format. There is no current version for Mac OS Classic.

Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 on Mac OS, with a version for Windows in 1990. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Additionally, a "Pro" version of Office included Microsoft Access and Schedule Plus. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications (OBA) brand.

A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write add-ins that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features.