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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.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Jensen,

    I agree. The availabilty of Office Home looks great! It's good to have PowerPoint, Word and Excel (and OneNote) in a single, affordable package for use at home.

    Why 2007 though? Won't it ship this year? If so, the title could be a bit confusing but I guess there's a bit of future proofing going on ...

    Max
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Will Beta 2 be available for download for MSDN Subscribers / MS Partners?
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Where is the FrontPage12?
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Hmmm. Looks like being a great product, but a lousy name. "Microsoft Office 2007" would have been better, if boring. But "2007 Microsoft Office"?? It just doesn't sound right. I guess we'll all be calling it "Microsoft Office 2007". Can we look forward to similarly named products in the future, such as "2008 Visual Studio"?
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    v-henlee:

    FrontPage has been discontinued, but its code base lives on in two different products: Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and Expression Web Designer.
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Derek,

    I didn't have anything to do with the naming, but you have my personal permission to call it Office 2007. :)
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    Sam,

    I don't know if that's been decided or announced yet.  The safest bet would be to sign up to receive Beta 2 on the Office preview site.
  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    PingBack from WordPress
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Yeuch! The "System" moniker lives on! :-(
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Wait --- frontpage has been discontinued? huh?
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Hmmm... "2007 Microsoft Office System" sounds oddly...

    And where is the Visio? It is not a part of Office System from now?
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Maybe it should have been called 2007: Microsoft Odyessy.  That would make much more sense.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    All that effort and they end up using the same naming system as cars:

    1) Model year (And use release year + 1, so the product seems fresher)
    2) Manufacturer.
    3) Model.
    4) Option package.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    No including Outlook in the Student/home package effectively removes me from the potential buyer list.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Jensenn, can we get a OneNote discount option if we buy any version of Office?  Its ridiculous I have buy the at full retail price when upgrading, and that its only available in Home&Student.  At the very least, why not make it an option for 2007 Office Pro?
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Jensen, I didn't think it would ever happen, but following your blog for the last few months has actually got me excited about seeing this new version of Office.  I signed up to get notified when Beta 2 is out, because I really can't wait to get my hands (mouse?) on the new UI.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    I couldn't find licensing details for the Home and Student version. I'm assuming the name means it's no longer restricted to students. However, are there any other restrictions? Could I buy it and legally use it for freelance editorial work, for example?
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    I find it odd that "Home" is missing Outlook. I would much rather have Outlook then Onenote.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Ale,

    Visio continues to be part of the Microsoft Office System.  It is sold as a separate product from the Microsoft Office "suites" that bundle several apps together.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    I suspect that Marketing figures most home users don't have sophisticated enough e-mail to require Outlook. Probably they only use webmail, or Outlook Express at best.
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    My understanding of the Home & Student Edition is that it is not restricted (i.e. anyone can buy it.)  This is unlike the current Student & Teacher edition.

    If you're looking for a bundle with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook instead, Microsoft Office Basic 2007 includes these apps (and includes upgrade pricing.)

    And FYI, I don't know anything more about this than what I'm reading in the documents on the web sites linked above. :)
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    man, no outlook in home/students edition and no onenote in other editions than home/students and the full blown enterprise edition, what the heck?
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Is it "2007 Microsoft Office" or "Microsoft Office 2007"? Most websites mention the second one... Which is the OFFICIAL one?
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Paul: My guess is Ray Ozzie.  It's a company Microsoft acquired.
  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    Derek (et. al.)
    > a great product, but a lousy name. "Microsoft Office 2007" would have been better, if boring. But "2007 Microsoft Office"?? It just doesn't sound right.

    I agree, it doesn't sound right.
    However, "2007 Microsoft Office" will appear at the TOP of most sorted lists (because numbers sort before letters).  I expect some 'marketing weasel' within MSFT got a promotion for coming up with that fact.

    (A side effect is that ALL OF THE NEW VERSIONs will be in one convenient place next to each other in the list)

    But I expect most retailers who don't stock it will go to the "Microsoft..." part of the list without noticing this fact and won't be able to find it.  :-)  

    Just my $0.02,
      -Chris C.
  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
  1. It looks like the new Home/Student version will only be installable on 1 PC.  The current Student & Teacher edition allows 3 installs.  What a great way to jack up the price.

    2. I wish someone in Microsoft's Marketing dept would publish a blog like Jensen does to give us a view as to why their product names have to be changing constantly and there seems to be absolutely no consistency from one version to the next.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    pli:

    1) I think Home & Student still has a 3 PC license.

    2) I'd like to read that too!

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    >>1) I think Home & Student still has a 3 PC license.

    Seems right.

    Although according to News.com

    "the home version of Office can be used on up to three PCs in a home, but cannot be upgraded to a future version of Office. "

    http://tinyurl.com/b54xb

    Is that the case?

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    Also, John, I read that same article and I think when they say:

    "it cannot be upgraded to a future version of Office"

    what they really mean is:

    "it is not eligible for upgrade pricing to a future version of Office"

    Not that there will be a technical limitation.

  • Anonymous
    March 01, 2006
    No Outlook in the home edition???  That is ridiculous, IMO, especially at that price.  I feel strongly that any software targeting students and home users over $100 is a huge mistake.

    Great blog, fascinating reading, and exciting possibilities for Office.  I'm sure you guys realize how much of an impact you have over the direction of UI design throughout the industry, so it makes sense how much thought you put into the new UI.

    But I wish the marketing team was as progressive as the development team.

  • Anonymous
    March 07, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2007
    PingBack from http://www.brianshih.com/2006/03/01/microsoft-fills-office-2007-with-eye-candy/

  • Anonymous
    October 27, 2008
    PingBack from http://mstechnews.info/2008/10/the-office-2007-ui-bible/