Microsoft Office 4.x

Last updated
Microsoft Office 4.x
Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial release17 January 1994;30 years ago (1994-01-17)
August 1994;30 years ago (August 1994) [1] (Macintosh)
Operating system Windows
Windows NT
Mac OS
Platform IA-32, Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC, Motorola 68000
Predecessor Microsoft Office 3.0 (1992)
Successor Microsoft Office 95 (1995)
Type Office suite
License Proprietary commercial software

Microsoft Office 4.0 is a major release of the Microsoft Office software suite, released by Microsoft on January 17, 1994. [2] Coming after Microsoft Office 3.0, it was the third major release for the Microsoft Windows operating system and the fourth on the Macintosh as version 4.2, as well as the first for Windows NT as 4.2.

Contents

Features

Its main components include Word 6.0, Excel 4.0a, PowerPoint 3.0, and Mail. Microsoft announced the product on October 17, 1993; [3] version 5.0 of Excel and version 4.0 of PowerPoint were not completed in time for inclusion in Office 4.0. As a result, Microsoft offered a coupon with every purchase of Office 4.0 to customers to freely upgrade to the newer versions of Excel and PowerPoint, [4] which were eventually released in April 1994. Microsoft's rival Lotus Software took advantage of this mishap and mocked Microsoft in advertisements of its Lotus SmartSuite. [5] Microsoft Access is included in the Professional edition of Office 4.0, which sold for US$99 extra over the standard suite. [6]

Microsoft Office 4.0 increased cohesion and consistent design between the different applications in the suite. [6] [7] The Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 2.0 ability links content between different documents. IntelliSense is another new feature for predictive automation. [8]

Microsoft Office 4.3 Professional floppy disk set MS Office 4.3 (de) (2) JD.jpg
Microsoft Office 4.3 Professional floppy disk set

Microsoft Office 4.3 was released on June 2, 1994 as a Professional edition, containing the updated versions of Excel and PowerPoint within the suite as well as the new version 2.0 of Access. [2] The Standard edition was released as Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows 3.1. [9] Microsoft Office for NT was released on July 3, 1994 and was the first 32-bit version of Microsoft Office and hence native for Windows NT 3.1 (i386, Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC platforms). However, the PowerPoint component remained in 16-bit. [10] The suite was superseded by Microsoft Office for Windows 95.

In September 1994, Microsoft Office 4.2 for the Macintosh (M68k and Power Macintosh platforms) was released. [11] The Macintosh version is also cohesive and now shares an identical interface with the Windows version of Office 4.x. [12] The Standard Version 4.2.1 was a maintenance release in 1995. In 1997 another updated release came with essential business tools and Microsoft Bookshelf CD-ROM reference library. [13]

System requirements

Microsoft Office 4.2 for Macintosh

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References

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  2. 1 2 Rene Millman (2015-11-19). "Microsoft Office is 25 today!". ITPro. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  3. Lohr, Steve (October 15, 1993). "COMPANY NEWS; Microsoft Seeks to Pad Wide Lead in PC Suites". The New York Times .
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  5. "Microsoft Office - Suite Success - Commoncog Case Library".
  6. 1 2 Lewis, Peter H. (October 24, 1993). "The Executive Computer; An Ensemble From Microsoft Is Greater Than Its Parts". The New York Times . Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  7. "Microsoft Binds Office Software More Tightly to Internet". The New York Times . June 7, 1999. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
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  9. "Microsoft Office 4.2". WinWorld. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  10. "PC World". PC World . No. July 1994. 1994. p. 85.
  11. "Microsoft Announces Microsoft Word 6.0 for Macintosh and Power Macintosh". www.tech-insider.org. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  12. "Mac Office matches Windows - almost". InfoWorld . November 1994.
  13. "Chronology of Apple Computer Personal Computers (1996-1997)". kpolsson.com. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
  14. Microsoft hits Power Mac users with hefty resource demand COMPUTER WORLD, AUGUST 22, 1994