The Microsoft Office suites come in several versions, each with its specific features and capabilities. As Office versions differ, their target audiences and the needs they answer are different from one another. This article will describe the Standard and the Professional Plus versions of Microsoft Office, their specific features, and give guidelines to help you determine which version suits your needs the best.
Microsoft Office Standard
The Standard version of Microsoft Office offers productivity tools capable of answering most IT needs for small and medium-sized businesses. It includes several productivity applications, such as Word, or Excel, which are recognized for their effectiveness and ease of use. It also provides several cross-application features that are important to mention.
Microsoft Office Standard Applications
MS Office standard includes all the basic Office productivity applications which are the following:
- MS Word: Create and edit documents
- MS Excel: Spreadsheets, data analysis, and basic reporting
- MS PowerPoint: Create and edit presentations/slideshow
- MS Outlook: Email and calendar management
- MS Publisher: Create marketing materials like brochures, flyers, and newsletters
- MS OneNote: Take notes and organize information
The applications found within the Standard version of Office offer a wide range of possibilities, whether it is for text formatting or slideshow creation. All applications within Office Standard come complete with all integrated features.
Microsoft Office Standard Key Features
In addition to productivity applications, Microsoft Office Standard provides key cross-application features that ease productivity for businesses and reinforce interconnectedness within the Office applications.
First, MS Office Standard supports integration with OneDrive for cloud storage, enabling file sharing and collaboration across devices. Microsoft being a cloud service provider, OneDrive allows for secured and trustful file storage and sharing.
Next feature is the real-time co-authoring feature that can be found across all Office applications. As its name suggests, this feature allows for seamless co-authoring in real time within documents, displaying changes in real time, allowing for simultaneous collaborative work.
Last feature that is appreciated by Office users, is the user-friendly interface across all Office applications. While Microsoft releases new versions of Office every few years, the user interface stays consistent across all versions of the Office suites, allowing easy transition from one version, or applications, to another for end users. Overall, the user interface across Office applications allows for users to be and stay familiar with the Office environment.
Microsoft Office Professional Plus
While MS Office Standard is designed to answer all business productivity needs, Microsoft Office Professional Plus is designed to answer more complex IT needs. Compared to its Standard counterpart, the Professional Plus version of MS Office offers additional applications, as well as enterprise-level cross-application features essential for larger organizations or organizations with heavy IT needs.
Microsoft Office Professional Plus Applications
MS Office Pro Plus offers all the applications that can be found in its Standard counterpart. In addition to the above-mentioned Office applications, the Professional Plus version of Office brings in two additional productivity applications that are essential for larger organizations.
- Base Applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote
- MS Access: A powerful database management tool for creating and managing databases.
- MS Teams: Collaboration application, offers communication features, file storage or third-party applications integration. Replaces Skype for Business which was retired in July 2021.
Microsoft Office Professional Plus Key Features
As its Standard counterpart, Office Professional Plus includes several key features, mostly cross-applications. Most of these features are advanced and serve more technically intensive business needs. It can be seen through compliance matters, security matters, or data management matters.
First feature endemic to the Professional Plus version of MS Office is advanced email management including archiving and retention policies for Outlook. This feature allows to manage large volumes of email while allowing for compliance with legal or organizational policies.
Second key feature of Office Pro Plus, is the addition of data analysis tools such as Power Query or Power Pivot to Excel, which allows to process, analyse, and visualize complex data. This feature is especially useful for data-driven organizations, providing the tools to make the most out of any data.
As mentioned within the applications section, Office Professional Plus offers the database management application Microsoft Access. This application allows for custom database creation and edition, for inventory management, or customer information management, to cite a couple of examples. Microsoft Access is especially useful within companies or departments that require careful legal compliance. For example, it can be seen through accounting, for which very strict legal requirements apply, and for which there is large amounts of data to be processed and managed.
Next feature is the Information Rights Management (IRM) which allows sensitive data and documents to be protected by restricting accesses and editing permissions. In addition to IRM, more legal compliance tools are available in Office Professional Plus in order to meet regulatory requirements linked to larger businesses or IT intensive organizations.
Finally, Office Professional Plus adds more collaborative features to the Office environment. This is mostly seen through the integration of Microsoft Teams to the Office Suite, replacing Skype for Business since July 2021. Microsoft Teams offers a wide range of communication options as well as adaptation and integration capabilities for businesses to be able to tailor their users’ experience within MS Teams.
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Office Standard vs. Professional Plus : Which version to choose?
Both versions of Microsoft Office offer great productivity tools for businesses of all sizes. Depending on your specific IT needs, or scaling needs, it is important to choose the right Office suite for your business. To guide you in your choice, this section will present a comparative table, as well as more information about which version to choose to answer business needs.
As mentioned in the table above, both versions of Microsoft Office target different audiences.
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Choosing Microsoft Office Standard
First, Office Standard is mostly targeted at small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with basic IT, security, or data management needs. With the base Office applications, reliable OneDrive cloud integration, and collaborative features such as real-time co-authoring, Microsoft Office Standard is a very capable solution to answer business productivity needs. Also, Office Standard is more accessible than its Professional Plus counterpart price-wise.
Choose MS Office Standard if:
- You are a small/medium-sized business
- You have basic IT, security, or database management needs
- You are looking for a lower price-point
Choosing Microsoft Office Professional Plus
Regarding Office Professional Plus, larger or more complex organizations with needs requiring advanced management are the main target. This can be seen through the addition of advanced tools and additional management applications such as Microsoft Access for database management. It also targets smaller organizations with heavy IT, security, or compliance requirements. This can be seen in the finance industry for example, in which data is sensitive and regulatory compliance is key. In addition, smaller businesses with heavy collaboration needs, such as in the HR industry for example, for which the integrated use of Microsoft Teams is common, are targeted as well.
Choose MS Office Professional Plus if:
- You are a larger business
- You have more advanced IT, security, or database management needs
- You have advanced collaborative needs
Want to know more about the different Microsoft Office versions? Read about the different versions of Office 2024.
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