Microsoft Corp. has announced the completion of the 2007 Microsoft Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM). The company says this gold code milestone concludes the largest Microsoft Office beta program to date, with more than 3.5 million people downloading the second beta of the office suite. Microsoft comments on the unprecedented quantity of feedback from beta testers and customers helping the Office development team validating product quality and optimizing performance. Also confirmed is 30 November 2006 as the worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista operating system and Exchange Server 2007. It is expected on that day Microsoft executives will participate in events around the globe, including an event with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in New York. General availability of the products will follow in early 2007, but can be as early as 7 December for Technet and MSDN subscribers.
The Microsoft Office Online tool has been redesigned to let people learn about what’s new in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. People can easily determine which products are best for their needs and find related productivity resources — whether it is assistance from one of the nearly 50,000 new help articles, a how-to refresher through one of the 35 new demos, online training through any of the 24 new courses, downloading one of the more than 400 new templates, or accessing other product downloads and tools. Starting 1st December 2006 in the U.S. and Canada, and coming soon after to an additional 13 international markets, Microsoft will make available free, downloadable product trials via Office Online.
Included in this release is also the SMS Link for Office Outlook 2007, a new service that allows Outlook 2007 users to connect with friends’, families’ and colleagues’ mobile phones by using SMS text messaging. It allows people to send and receive e-mail, contacts, appointments and tasks as text messages to mobile phones.
Most desktop application products in the 2007 Office system will be comprehensively localized in 38 languages, and customers will be able to purchase individual, single-language add-on packs enabling applications and suites to instantly become bilingual. The packs add a secondary localized user interface, help files, dictionary and thesaurus.
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