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Microsoft Office 12 Soon to Come

Office 2003 was a great improvement to Microsoft Office, with a nicer user interface (UI) and great new options. But as usual Microsoft is not satisfied with better, it is looking to be the best. The Beta release of Office 12 showed that being the best was in fact very plausible. The limited technical preview of the next-generation business software suite was released in late December to around 10,000 customers and partners, as well as to attendees of Microsoft`s Professional Developers Conference. It`s nearly twice the size of Office 2003, according to Microsoft, and its focus has gone from personal productivity to an integrated set of applications, servers and services.

The beta release, which Microsoft emphasized was not finished or necessarily stable, shows off a new user interface that`s designed to expose formerly hidden functionality within applications. Instead of pull-down menus, the new UI employs a ribbon metaphor organized around scenarios, such as Write and Insert. Tools in the ribbon change depending on what the user is doing. For example, inserting a table causes tools to change its position or color to automatically appear. For the visually oriented, galleries provide a visual way of finding tools by showing the results of commands. Live previews show how a gallery item would look before it`s selected. Old-schoolers can add commands to a Quick Access Toolbar.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint now share a graphics and charting engine, so that graphics can be created from within any application. Templates and predefined formats make it quick to produce charts. Word 12 documents can be converted to Adobe`s PDF format from within Word. There are many other advantages that come with using the new Microsoft Office. A second beta release of Office 12 is scheduled for this spring, with the final product slated for release in the second half of 2006. In a note accompanying the beta DVD, Microsoft said that it hasn`t yet finalized the system requirements for running Office 12. The beta release supports upgrading from Office 2003 and Office XP.