Office 14 will have a public beta!

From Neowin

Info/screen shots

"Essentially a free-for-all, the Public Beta drives pre-launch excitement by putting the product into the hands of ~5,000,000 individuals. A unique addition to the Office beta this year will be Office Online".

 

Not a surprise for me, Office 07 had one.

 

Why is it office 14?
Isn't office 7 the most recent?

 

yeh why is it called office 14?

 

Office 2007 is Office 12 [Office 2003 is 11, Office XP is 10, etc.]. 13 is not a very lucky number, so it skipped.

 

Office 2007 is actually Office 12, by version number. I imagine that they're skipping version 13 for "luck."

EDIT: Beat me by a few seconds scythie.

 

It follows Office 12 which is 2007. I doubt Office 2008 is Office 13 .

 

People!!! I wanted to say that

 

I am still using office 03 which I thought was version 3
I hardly use office anyways so I never upgrade.

 

I'll be interested to see what new changes will be in this version.

 

Mind control. You think it and it happens

 

Let's hope so, this would make my work a whole lot easier.

 

Heh. Actually, the true Office 3.0 was the first version of Office for Windows...Windows 3.x that is. The prior versions were all DOS. Back then though it wasn't really essential to buy "Office", and the individual applications could be purchased on their own. It was pretty common just to buy Word or Excel. The concept of a Suite was something pretty new.

An aside, it was around this time that Microsoft really took over this category. Before that, WordPerfect really ruled the Word Processing arena. It was WP's slowness to really develop a Windows version that propelled Word to the front.

History lesson over.

 

Lol, thanks for the laugh

 

I thought Office 2008 (for the Mac Operating System) was Office 13, hence why we are on Office 14.

 

That is 100% correct, you beat me to it.

 

Actually, it isn't. Office 2008 for the Mac is also version 12. There is no version 13.

 

Is Office 2008 included in the counting? It's a Mac-only MS Office suite... What about Office 2004 for Mac?

 

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_2008_for_Mac

 

Of course. It's just the Office 2007 equivalent for the Mac. Thanks.

So I guess it's Office 12M [M for Mac ]. But really who cares. lol

 

Office 14 is something I really don't care about because Office 12 is currently so awesome.

With Vista to Windows 7 I can understand since Vista has such a bad rep. Office 12 on the other hand?

 

I doubt I'd actually buy this - I could be perfectly happy still using Office 2000, although 2007 is a bit nicer for mathematics. But glad to see it's a public beta nonetheless, since I forgot to bring my Office 2007 CD and thus would otherwise be office-less on Windows 7. So I'll probably try it, but considering the slow pace of evolution, I don't see any compelling reason to buy newer Office versions unless you're pretty far out-of-date.

 

Works Suite 2001 here. What's number is that?

 

I have Office 07...this one is going to be interesting to take a further look at.

However, I'm pretty happy with what I have right now.


Cin

 

Another one so soon?

 

Don't they always come out around the same time as the OS?

 

It was odd when Microsoft first released Office 2000, then 2002, and then 2003. That was a flurry of new releases that didn't bring much new functionality to the table until 2007 showed up on the scene.

Glad it's coming out as a beta for me to play with. Now I have two new awesome apps to play with: Windows 7 and Office 14!

 

The problem is that Office 12 introduced some major changes that there were absolutely no problems with. So Office 14 is unlikely to contain anything revolutionary, and there are no problems that we are looking to Office 14 to fix.

This is in stark contrast to Windows Vista to Windows 7, where everyone is looking forward to Windows Vista done properly.

It's too soon for another Office version. We don't need it and no-one's crying out for it, unlike Windows 7.

 

I have absolutely no actual knowledge of what the next version of Office might contain. I'm just talking out of butt here. But with that in mind I'm guessing that the next version of Office will be built to take better advantage of and interface with this whole "cloud computing" push. Whether it's just Office Live and associated web apps or this whole Azure thing that no one really understands, I don't know. But I'm guessing that Office 14 (or Office System 2009) will seek to provide a better bridge between Office on the desktop and Office in the cloud.

Now, if you don't know what I mean, well that makes two of us. I don't really know what I'm trying to say either. But I still think I'm right.

 

I'm still rockin' Office 2003.

I plan on updating to 2007 soon though. My University is almost exclusively moving to .docx, .xlsx, etc... so... yeah.

I know there's a compatibility pack, but, might as well get the "extra" from Office 2007 if I gotta use the new file format.

 

I never save din docx and I used this since it came out. I set it by default to save in compatibility mode...

 

If this is true, then it's news to me. I didn't know that's what they did.

 

Seems like W7 and Office 14 dual launch not likely


Seems like W7 and Office 14 dual launch not likely 2

 

Thanks for the links, Jay.

I'm actually okay with this. I'm still playing around and learning new things about Office 2007 every day, and I honestly would be kind of upset if a new version came out this year. Let me enjoy one more year before you give me something new. Heck, most of the computer labs on campus just upgraded to 2007 about a year ago.

 

Office 2007 has been out since....2006 . This is not really a rapid change to Office 14. I've been using it since it came out because Outlook 2007 has so many small things from Outlook 2000. It is the best Outlook version I've ever used. If Outlook on Office 14 is better, I'll be the first to change . So I am kind of bored with Office 2007 except with Outlook. I am looking forward to a new version .

 

Screenshots I think I like Office 07 ribbon better.

 

Same crap. O7 design for the ribbon. I hate that ribbon . I recall my first weeks with it. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. Being an Office power user, it did not help . Even now I have probs finding my style refs in Office 2007. Office 2003 had them so clear .

 

More screenshots

 

Thanks for the screens.

 

I like the ribbon. Though I have to admit that I'm far from an Office power user, and I can see why such a drastic change would be annoying for someone who was proficient with the old interface.

But if someone had never seen either, I think the ribbon would be easier to deal with, since it does a better job of displaying all of the options in context. It's one of the most unique design changes I've seen from Microsoft since Windows 3.1 --> Windows 95.

But like I said, I'm no power user and rarely get beyond the most basic elements in Word or Excel.

 

Guilty as charged. New users adore the Ribbon and they love how its all shiny and everything smacks in you in the face. If I want to modify my template, do some fancy auto H1, h2, h3, h4 follow ups...I look at that stupid ribbon and think...If I were a dumbass like the guys from Microsoft, where would I put that option???

 

I think you've hit on the holy grail of working with an MS product, although perhaps with one tweak, so it reads:

If I were a dumbass like the guys from Microsoft, where would I be imagining that the average user would expect to find this option, which is where I'll put it.

 

I'll be here all week .


Meanwhile, back the ranch , I hope Office 14 will follow Office 2007.Especially in the Word department. 2000, XP, 2003 suffered from a major bug, Microsoft never corrected . Section breaks would not recognise style refs with different heading 1s . When I saw this problem gone in Word 2007 I said, thank god. I've done some nice docs with it but how hard is it to put a freaking drawing toolbar on the bottom????