Microsoft Office is a suite of applications developed by Microsoft that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook. It was first introduced in 1988 and has grown substantially over time. Office is now used by over a billion people worldwide and is the most common software suite used. It provides integrated features across applications like a shared spell checker and the ability to integrate data between programs. Each program serves a different purpose, with Word for documents, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations, Access for databases, and Outlook for email.