2007 Microsoft Office System Code Complete

News Release

2007 Microsoft Office System Code Complete

2007 Office system released to manufacturers; the company looks ahead to worldwide business availability.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — November 7, 2006 — Microsoft New Zealand today announced the completion of the 2007 Microsoft® Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM). This gold code milestone concludes the largest Microsoft Office beta program to date, with more than 10 thousand people downloading Beta 2 in New Zealand and 3.5 million globally. The unprecedented quantity of feedback from beta testers and customers helped the Office development team effectively validate product quality and optimise performance. Microsoft Office RTM also marks a critical step toward worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista™ operating system and Exchange Server 2007 on November 30, 2006.

“There has been immense anticipation for the launch of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and the RTM marks a major milestone in bringing this product to market,” says Anne Taylor, New Zealand Product Manager for Microsoft Office Systems. “The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade. It’s rewarding to be able to send this release off to our Kiwi customers and know the impact it will have upon their businesses.”

Today’s RTM begins the delivery of new tools and resources that will allow customers to learn about, try, and buy the next release of Microsoft Office:

Learn. Microsoft Office Online has been redesigned to help people learn about what’s new in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Through the new enhancements, information workers can easily determine which products are best for their needs and find related productivity resources —whether it is assistance from one of the nearly 50,000 new help articles, a how-to refresher through one of the 35 new demos, online training through any of the 24 new courses, downloading one of the more than 400 new templates, or accessing other product downloads and tools.

Try. New Zealanders will be able to trial the product online at http://www.runaware.com/microsoft/en-nz/2007office/td. Starting December 1 in the U.S. and Canada, Microsoft will make available free, downloadable product trials via Office Online. Expanding on the Online Test Drive already available today, the trials will allow people to try the new desktop programs before they decide to buy or upgrade to the 2007 release.

Buy. To support purchase and adoption, the 2007 release of Microsoft Office includes the largest investment in deployment and management tools in the product’s history. IT professionals can significantly reduce the cost and complexity of desktop deployments and upgrades by utilising resources such as the Office Migration Planning Manager, Open XML Formats Conversion Toolkit, the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Solution Accelerator, the Office Resource Kit, and more.

Beyond overall code quality for RTM, other notable updates include the following:

SMS link for Office Outlook® 2007. This new service allows Outlook 2007 users to connect with friends’, families’ and colleagues’ mobile phones by using SMS text messaging. It allows people to send and receive e-mail, contacts, appointments and tasks as text messages to mobile phones.

Localisation. Most desktop application products in the 2007 Office system will be comprehensively localised in 38 languages.

Multilanguage support. For the first time, 2007 Office system customers will be able to purchase individual, single language add-on packs that enable applications and suites to instantly become bilingual. The packs add a secondary localised user interface, help files, dictionary and thesaurus.

More information about the 2007 Microsoft Office system and trying the new SMS Link service can be found by visiting the new Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

ENDS

© Scoop Media