Backup and then reformat and upgrade OS -- will I lose my Applications?

So I am currently running Tiger. My system has been slowing down recently, so I wanted to backup all my data to an external harddrive and reformat my MBP. I also thought I might as well take this opportunity to upgrade my OS to Snow Leopard.
Question: If I backup my computer to an external and reformat and upgrade to Snow Leopard, will I still be able to restore things from my Tiger backup? How would I do this?
SPECIFICALLY: what about my Microsoft Office. How can I get that from the backup (which was a Tiger OS) to the new system that has Snow Leopard installed on it? Is it something as simple as copying the folder over? The issue is that I can't find my original Office installation discs.
Is there software out there that will help me do the backup and make the restore a bit easier? I was thinking of just copying my entire drive to the external, but if there is an easier way I would prefer that.
Thanks SO Much for whatever help anyone can offer!

Hi Lawrence Lee, and a warm welcome to the forums!
The secret is to make a Bootable Clone first off...
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Have a look at Synchronize! Pro X 6.0.5
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6897/synchronize!-pro-x
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
Make sure you can boot from the Clone and that all is well.
Then if you Erase your internal drive & install SL, on first boot it will invoke Migration Assistant and allow you to import/transer all your Apps, Users, Settings, etc.
Best case scenario everything works, worst case scenario you have everything as it was before and you can boot from the External.

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