Office 97

Microsoft Office 97
	Version of Microsoft Office
	Microsoft Word
Version	8.0
Codename
Latest build
Released	1996-11-19
Support end	2001-08-31 (Mainstream); 2002-02-28 (Extended); 2004-01-16 (Assisted)
Replaces
	Microsoft Office for Windows 95
Replaced by
	Microsoft Office 2000

Microsoft Office 97 is a version of Microsoft Office, released in 19 November 1996. The internal version number is 8.0. This version introduced Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) into the suite and massively expanded upon the feature set of applications, adding support for the new Internet world. Office 97 was the last to be offered on floppy disks.

Officially, Office 97 is not supported on Windows XP and later versions.

Office 97 is the last version of Microsoft Office to support Windows NT 3.51 SP5 and Windows NT 4.0 RTM—SP2.

System requirements[edit | edit source]

The computer needs to have either Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 SP5 or later installed. However, some features require at least Windows NT 4.0 SP2, making usage on NT 3.51 partly limited.

Service Releases[edit | edit source]

Microsoft released two Service Releases for Office 97, one in 1997 and the other in 1998, with the last one receiving two minor updates until 1999. Service Releases are similar to Service Packs for Windows and were used until Office 2000, as Office XP switched to Service Packs.

Office Assistant[edit | edit source]

This is the first version of Office to include animated Office Assistant characters based on guides from Microsoft Bob. These are optional and can be deselected during Setup. These assistants became very unpopular, especially in businesses. Thus, many of these stayed on Office 95. The assistants were not disabled by default until the release of Office XP, not removed from the typical installation until Office 2003 and not permanently removed until the release of Office 2007.