Microsoft gives Gulf users a preview of new Office

The new test version, which is available for download now, will give customers the chance to evaluate and experience the new features of the 2007 Microsoft Office system and to provide feedback to Microsoft ahead of the full launch.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system is a complete set of desktop and server software designed to help streamline the way organizations and their people do business. This latest release offers significant new capabilities to help increase personal productivity, simplify how people work together, make processes and content management more efficient, and improve the quality of business intelligence across an organization.

'The launch of the second beta for the 2007 Microsoft Office system marks an important milestone in the development of Microsoft's productivity solutions. We are introducing many new functions to the next version of Office system, and have revamped many of the existing features, and giving a preview of these to our user community, to get their feedback, is an essential part of the development process,' explained Sabah Corm, Information Worker Group Manager, Microsoft Gulf.

The beta 2 version contains many of the features that will be included in the final version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and is intended to allow business users and enthusiasts to gain experience of the system and how it can be used in their organization. Business users that test the beta will have access to online newsgroups where they can share experiences and suggestions, which will help the Office development team to deliver the final product.

One major feature of Office is the re-designed user interface. Microsoft has been carrying out research on the way that people use its applications, and this research has guided the creation of a powerful new interface that will make Office easier to use, and quicker to get results from. The new interface, which makes use of advances in hardware and software features a central menu system, called the Ribbon, that uses menus that are related to tasks and contexts, to streamline operations and reduce clutter on the PC desktop.

The new Office System has also been designed to provide enhanced integration with other Microsoft solutions, including the forthcoming Windows Vista, Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, to enable a more people-centric approach to communication and collaboration, business intelligence, and content management. These enhancements increase the impact that people have on business success by simplifying how people work together, helping people manage content and keep it more secure, improving business processes, and helping to enable people to find and gain insight from information.

'With the next generation of the Office system, Microsoft aims to redefine the desktop experience to help people get better results, faster. The 2007 Microsoft Office System will provide the tools that empower people to drive business forward and achieve their goals,' Corm said.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system is scheduled to launch for enterprise customers in October, with availability for retail customers in January 2007.