Microsoft Office XP is an office suite created and distributed by Microsoft for Windows operating system. Released to manufacturing (RTM) on March 5, 2001 and launched on May 31, 2001, it is the successor to Office 2000 and the predecessor to Office 2003, and was known as Office 10 in the early stages of its development cycle. Despite the "XP" branding, Office XP does not require Windows XP. "XP" was a marketing term for its era.