Microsoft has made Office one of the leading software platforms in the world. With frequent releases, the programs Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook have become symbiotic with work and are used by individuals and companies across the globe. Here is a look at the last four releases by Microsoft Office.

Office 2003 was released on October 21st 2003, hence the name. This release featured a serious uplift to Outlook and a new and improved Office Logo. However, the major suite programs like Word and Excel only had minor facelifts. This software was not designed to, predating it by several years, work with Windows 7 or Widows 8.

Office 2007 was released to the general public on January 30th 2007, and was primarily designed to work with Windows XP. This release featured the introduction of the Fluent User Interface that users have come to either hate or love. Office 2007 can be used, with the proper upgrades on Windows 7.

Office 2010 is the current staple of the office world. Released on June 15th, 2010 it was a major addition and made significant improvements to the software. Also Microsoft updated its mobile productivity by adding this software release to phones running Windows 6.5 and Windows 7. Office 2010 is a far more “role based”, meaning a higher level of interaction with the end user.

Office 2013 is the upcoming version of office that has been released in a Consumer Preview Version, on July 16th 2012. Office 2013 is designed to be more cloud server based with features that are designed for today’s audio video savvy world. Deigned to work only with the latest versions of Windows, Office 2013 looks to be the ideal software suite for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

One of the most interesting things to note about Office 2013, is that Microsoft is offering a free upgrade for people who buy a product between now and April 2013 – which should be the release date for MS Office 2013.