The newest productivity suite from Microsoft is due for release early next year and will be named Microsoft Office 2007. The name is not surprising since Microsoft has been following the same naming policy for long. More surprising is the fact that it took four years to build an upgrade to Office 2003. Many believe that Office products are Microsoft’s biggest cash cow.
Apparently the new version is going to introduce some real changes to how it is used. Most noticeable is the switch from long branching pull down menus to new user results oriented interface. Practically it brings tabs in each of applications that display task related commands. With Open Office 2.0 being released and push to web based applications like Writely starting to make inroads, MS has put more innovative thought into this version then in previous releases.
Most people with older versions of Office do not upgrade until they buy new computer. MS is hoping that introduction of new techniques can speed up the upgrade push.
Screenshots and full review of Office 2007 can be found here.
Dautovic 