What is Microsoft Office?

What it is

Word is for documents, Excel for spreadsheets and calculations, PowerPoint for presentations, and Outlook for email and calendars. Each one comes as a desktop app, a web app that runs in a browser, and a mobile app for a phone or tablet.

Office means the apps. Microsoft 365 is the subscription, which can include the apps plus business email, cloud file storage, Teams, and on some plans security features and device management. Office can still be bought once, as a version such as Office 2024, but that copy gets security fixes only and no new features, and it comes without the email and storage.

Why it matters to a business

• Files stay with the company: files and mail live in your company tenant, so the business keeps them when an employee moves on.
• Licenses follow people: an administrator assigns or removes a license, and access to the apps and files follows.
• Version history and backup: documents saved in OneDrive or SharePoint keep version history. That helps with mistakes but is not a backup, so keep a separate one.
• Cost per user: a subscription is charged per user, so cost follows headcount. A one-time purchase is paid up front and covers one computer.

How KawaConnect works with Microsoft Office

KawaConnect is an official Microsoft reseller. We sell and manage Microsoft 365 licenses through our Microsoft reseller service, and we administer Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Entra ID and Intune under our Microsoft 365 service.

We also migrate mail and files into Microsoft 365 and set up the apps on company devices. Our guide to Microsoft 365 and Azure covers the rest of the subscription. For the main alternative, see Google Workspace.

Learn more

• Microsoft Office on WikipediaA neutral history and overview of the Office apps, useful for anyone sorting out the product names.
• Microsoft 365 websiteMicrosoft's own description of the apps and subscriptions, useful when comparing what you need.
• Microsoft SupportOfficial how-to articles for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, useful for staff learning the apps.