Report Format Ratings

Microsoft has many report template formats, and not all will receive the same level of future Microsoft development. The chart here lists Microsoft’s major report template formats and Directions on Microsoft’s forecast of future Microsoft investment in each format, with some of the factors that support the rating. Microsoft does not endorse this report and its plans could change at any time.

In our estimation, top-rated formats will receive major improvement, including new report styles, and will be implemented in new versions of Microsoft services and software. Formats with increasing or flat ratings will receive some improvement with no substantial change in the report styles they enable, or the software and services they are compatible with. Formats with declining ratings will become increasingly less viable, as newer software and services appear that do not work with them, and replacement formats take over their roles. Lowest-rated formats have already been retired, formally deprecated (retirement plans announced), or removed from new versions of software and services that used to implement them.