Introducing the 2007 Microsoft Office System

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Today, the product I've been blogging about for the last six months as Office
"12"
officially became the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Along with the naming announcement, pricing and packaging information has
been
revealed, and you can

find all of the details on the Microsoft web site.

In particular, I'm jazzed about the very affordable Microsoft Office Home and
Student 2007 which, in addition to all the improvements I've been telling you
about in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, also includes the great new OneNote 2007. Of course there are
several different versions available to meet your needs, so you should

check them all out.

Now is also a great time to
sign up to receive a copy of
Beta 2 on the Office preview site. We're committed to shipping a great Beta 2
for you, and so I hope you'll
let us send it to you to try out
when it's available.

This 2007 release has really been a labor of love for so many
of us. It's been said many times that this is the most significant Office
release in over a decade--maybe ever. I believe that's true, but more
personally, I know it's a release that the team is really proud of and are working
so hard to get in your hands.

There are improvements and innovations in so many key areas: user interface, open
file formats, a new graphics engine, redesigned charting and diagramming,
workflow and business process integration, instant search, RSS, and time
management in Outlook, document themes support across the apps, a redesigned
Access, a new OneNote, SharePoint, and SharePoint Designer, Groove, Publisher,
Project... and this only scratches the surface. I'm leaving out
literally hundreds and hundreds of improvements, huge and small.

For those of us working on the new user interface for the 2007 Office
system, it's tweak tweak tweak as we work every day to improve the product based
on the feedback given by so many of you.

There's still a lot of work left to get the product ready, but 2006 will be the year productivity
software takes a huge leap forward.

It is an honor to have you along for the ride.