Office 12 Technical Beta released

The release of the Technical Beta version of its productivity suite, Office 12, has been announced by Microsoft. Ten thousand customers and partners will preview what the company calls “the most important release of Office in more than a decade”. The press release states :

Microsoft Office “12” is designed to help improve information workers’ productivity through a new results-oriented user interface, powerful graphics and diagramming engines, and advanced task and information management tools. In addition, through broader investments in enhancing business intelligence, collaboration and enterprise content management capabilities within Office “12,” there are new solutions to help customers control content, streamline business processes, collaborate across organizational boundaries and make more-informed decisions.

The new user interface (UI) is designed to guide users through the tangled undergrowth of legacy code and thousands of functions, many of which are unused by most customers. Each application in the suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) will have its own intuitive navigation system. In some cases the taskbar and familiar buttons have been replaced by a “Ribbon” system.

Some users have feared that a lengthy training program will be necessary to master the changes. Microsoft has reassured customers that the timescale is less than many have imagined.

[Source: Microsoft]

Update: The first Office 12 beta is closed and testers are covered by non-disclosure agreements. Hence, Microsoft is providing little public information about what to expect.

Company officials said they will offer Beta 1 versions of Word 12, Excel 12, PowerPoint 12, Outlook 12, Access 12, InfoPath 12, OneNote 12, Publisher 12, Project 12, Visio 12, and Groove Virtual Office 12.

A new charting/graphics engine, plus a new Outlook 12 “To Do” bar will be part of the Beta 1 release, as well, company officials said.

Microsoft also will make available to Beta 1 testers a new version (called 3.0, by some) of SharePoint Services, as well as versions of some indeterminate number of new Office 12 servers.

[Source: eWeek]