Okay, so Word is a Word Processor. It let's you type things like reports, novels, and pretty much anything else you can think of. PowerPoint (Presentation) let's you create slideshows about every topic imaginable. You can type info. in separate slides, then go back and make the letters do fancy stuff and add backgrounds. Excel is spreadsheets and charts to keep track of things. The others I'm not too sure about since I've only got Home & Student, but you can go to office.microsoft.com to find out about them.