Word

Quick Reference: Office 2007

1. Microsoft has announced that the next version of Office, Office 2007 will be released in late 2006.

2. This page gives links to information about the new version of Office.

Office 2007: Links to information about the next version of Microsoft Office

The next version of Microsoft Office, formerly code-named "Office 12", has been officially named as "Office 2007". It is due to be released in late 2006. Microsoft has already released information about the new version of Office, and will continue to do so up to the formal launch. This page lists links to information from Microsoft about the next version of Office.

How to send feedback to Microsoft about Office 2007

If something about Office 2007 is bothering you (eg if you miss the AutoComplete on AutoTexts, or you don't understand why you can't see what style your text is in), let Microsoft know: http://sas.office.microsoft.com/. (Hint: I suspect that polite messages are likely to get more traction than rude ones<g>.)

General information about Office 2007

• Visit the main "TechCentral" Preview site with information about the next version of Office or subscribe to the RSS feed.
• View a video of Bill Gates' presentation at the Bill Gates Keynote at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference on 13 September 2005 or read the transcript, The early part of the presentation is about "Office 12" and the next version of Windows, Windows Vista.
• Read the transcript of a presentation by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Office, on Office "12": The Platform for Information Worker Solutions, presented at the Professional Developers Conference 2005 on 14 September 2005.

Announcement of the new name

On 15 February2006, Microsoft announced that the next version of Office would be named "Office 2007". Read press materials, information on packaging of the 7 different 'bundles' of Office products,  or pricing information. Lots of the blogs listed below include mention on the announcement of the new name.

New file formats

On 1 June 2005, Microsoft announced that Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office "12" will have new file formats. The old .doc, .xls and .ppt file formats will be replaced with new formats based on XML and ZIP technologies.

• Brian Jones is the main person looking after the new file formats. Read his blog or see the demonstration he gave at PDC in September 2005 (video is 1h15m).
• Office "12" XML Schema Reference - PDC 2005 Preview From Microsoft: "This download contains DRAFT documentation on a selection of Microsoft Office "12" XML Schemas." Published 22 September 2005.
• Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Overview Published 13 September 2005
• Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Frequently Asked Questions
• For developers: Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Architecture Guide (Published 13 September 2005)
• For developers: Microsoft Office Open XML Formats Guide (has a link to a Word document that explains the new formats in some technical detail)
• Beta 2 version of the XML Schema Reference (published 20 June 2006)

New User Interface

Gone forever are the menu and toolbars we're used to. There is a whole new way to deal with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook (well, most of it) and Access.

• Jensen Harris is working on the new user interface and has a blog about the new user interface. This includes screen shots of old versions of Word, showing how the User Interface has got more and more complex over time.
• See a video of Julie Larson-Green demonstrating the new user interface at Channel 9 (from the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, 13 September 2005).
• The New Microsoft Office User Interface Overview (Published 13 September 2005). This does not really do the new UI justice; try the video with Julie Larson-Green if you really want to see how the new UI works.
• New Microsoft Office User Interface Frequently Asked Questions
• Julie Larson-Green is the Group Product Manager (read: "boss") of the Office User Experience Team at Microsoft. Read an interview with her about the new UI (13 September 2005).
• See a demonstration by Chris Caposella about the new user interface from the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference on 13 September 2005.
• Mister Shiney brings us a humorous look at the new user interface, which in some ways proves the point Microsoft is trying to make: the old UI had become just too complicated!

Save as PDF in "Office 12"

In some ways, this isn't a big surprise. Surely it was about time that Microsoft enabled us to save a Word document or Excel spreadsheet as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. But that's not to say it's easy to do.

Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft Senior Vice President, Office, announced that Microsoft 12 would enable users to save as a PDF from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote, Visio, and InfoPath at the MVP Summit on 1 October 2005, (yes, I was there!).

• Cyndy Wessling, works on the Save As PDF feature at Microsoft. She started blog about Saving to PDF in "Office 12" on 7 October 2005, but ended it on 25 October 2005.
• Jeff Bell, a program manager who looks after Publisher and the Save as PDF function, has taken over from Cydny Wessling and started a blog which he says will include info about the PDF functionality (24 October 2005).
• Brian Jones is the main person looking after the new file formats. His blog includes several posts and includes a specific category of posts specifically about the Save As PDF functionality.
• Read an interview with Steven Sinofsky (2 October 2005) about the support for PDF.
• Alex Dybenko is allegedly the first person to have made this news public in a blog, having taken the photo and written his blog post during Steven Sinofsky's announcement on 1 October 2005.
• The PDF specification was invented by Adobe. Adobe has made the spec openly available (which is why Microsoft can use it to enable us to create PDF files). Traditionally, the only way you could create a PDF file was using Adobe Acrobat. It is therefore interesting to read the thoughts of Adobe's program manager for fonts and core technologies, Mike Potter, on the PDF in "Office 12".

Save as XPS (aka "Metro") in Office 12

Microsoft is at it again: announcing more and more features of Office 12. The latest is support to save a document from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Visio, OneNote and InfoPath as an .XPS file. To quote Jeff Bell, "XPS, or the XML Paper Specification, is Microsoft’s new electronic paper format for exchanging documents in their final forms".

• Jeff Bell's blog seems to have been the first place this was announced (27 October 2005).
• Brian Jones discusses it briefly.
• There is a movie at Channel 9 about the XPS, format, presented by Jerry Dunietz (23 August 2005). This is about the format, not specifically about Office.
• Developers will need the XPS for Application Developers site and specifically the Metro Specification and Reference Guide (13 September 2005). For more basic information see the introduction to XPS at the Windows Vista developer site (this page has the world's most confusing web page interface: not recommended if you've had too much shiraz!).

"Business intelligence" in Office 12

• Lewis Levin, corporate VP for Office Business Applications, announces new technologies involving Excel "12", Windows Sharepoint Server and the Office Business Scorecard Manager (23 October 2005).
• "Microsoft Builds Business Intelligence Into Office Software" press release, including screen shots (23 October 2005).

Programming in Office 12 applications

• Several slide decks from the 2005 Professional Developers' Conference (PDC) are available at the Comnet site. Search for "OFF", specifically:
• OFF201 ''Office 12'': Introduction to the Programmable Customization Model for the "Office 12" User Experience (Part 1)
• OFF302 ''Office 12'': Developing with the Programmable Customization Model for the "Office 12" User Experience (Part 2)
• OFF314 Developing Enterprise Document Solutions Using Office Client and Server Technologies
• OFF318 Developing Document Archiving, Records Management, and Policy Enforcement Extensions to the Microsoft Office System
   

Access

Links to resources specific to Access in "Office 12":

• Erik Rucker, Group Program Manager for Microsoft Access, has a blog about Access in "Office 12".
• Programming in Access: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF307 "Access 12": Developing Collaboration Solutions with "Access 12" and Windows SharePoint Services "v3"

Excel

Links to resources specific to Excel in "Office 12":

• David Gainer has a blog about new features in Excel in "Office 12".
• Programming in Excel: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF322 Building a Solution Using a Spreadsheet in Server-Based Scenarios
• Programming in Excel: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF323 Building Business Intelligence Solutions Using "Excel 12" and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services

FrontPage

Links to resources specific to FrontPage in "Office 12":

• Rob Mauceri, Group Program Manager for FrontPage, blogs about the new version of FrontPage.

InfoPath

Links to resources specific to InfoPath in "Office 12":

• Programming in InfoPath: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF306 "InfoPath 12": Creating Browser-Based Forms for Enabling Data and Application Integration

OneNote

Links to resources specific to OneNote in "Office 12":

• Chris Pratley, Group Program Manager for Authoring Tools (that is: Word, OneNote and Publisher) blogs, mostly about OneNote.
• Owen Braun, lead Program Manager for OneNote has a blog covering quite detailed information about new functionality in OneNote 12 (it's called OneNote 12, even though it's actually only the second version, in order to keep the version numbering the same as the other applications within Office)

Outlook

Links to resources specific to Outlook in "Office 12":

• Programming in Outlook: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF312 "Outlook 12": Developing Solutions Using the Consolidated Outlook Object Model

Publisher

Links to resources specific to Publisher in "Office 12":

• Jeff Bell, a program manager with Publisher has a blog which he says will include info about the PDF functionality and Publisher (24 October 2005).

Project

Links to resources specific to Project in "Office 12":

• Dieter Zirkler has a blog about project management and about "Project 12"
• Programming in Project: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF311 ''Project Server 12'': Developing Project Management Solutions

Visio

Links to resources specific to Visio in "Office 12":

• Programming in Visio: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF324 “Visio 12”: Building Data Visualization Solutions

Word

Links to resources specific to Word in "Office 12":

• Joe Friend, program manager for Word has started a blog.
• Programming in Word: Slide deck from PDC 2005 session OFF316 Word “12”: Integrating Business Data into Documents using XML-based Data/View Separation and Programmability