A new build of Office 2010 purported to be beta 1 has leaked to the net, showcasing some major branding improvements such as a new Office logo along with new Office 2010 application icons. The interface themes have been refreshed with a lighter color scheme. Check out the following screenshots:

The most notable changes to the icons are their color schemes, featuring a lighter palette, along with letters from the alphabet for most icons from the Office family, example: A for Access, X for Excel, P for PowerPoint. Its quite different but more self explainable I guess.

The new logo features a universal bright yellow/orange instead of the classic 4 colors Red, Blue, Yellow and Green with accented outer edges. The center of the logo is more stylish removing the four squares found in the previous Office logo.

The Office Template gallery features unique branding with more detailed icons and Office OneNote 2010 features a new welcome screen.

Office 2010 definitely focuses on the user experience, but improved functionality has also been added, the beta adds modifications to backstage preview technology and a new Office Upload feature possibly for integration with Office Web Apps. For corporate deployments of Office 2010, volume license customers can expect to see Microsoft Key Management Service added for activating installations of Office 2010. I personally am hoping to see more integration with Jump List and interactive thumbnail previews. There is so much potential for synergies between Office 2010 and Windows 7.

Resources

A look at the new Office 2010
Office 2010 Technical Preview Screenshots
Office 2010 Team Blog now up

It was only a matter of time! Microsoft Office 2010 32 and 64 bit Technical Preview have found its way on the Internet and its already downloaded and installed by some persons who are showing off some of the new UI goodness the suite has embraced. What's particularly interesting is the strong use of the Windows Aero visuals in Office 2010 applications. Programs such as Word, Excel and Outlook feature a stronger degree of semi-transparency in the Tab menu region. The Office Galleries feature a thinner gradient similar to Windows applications that have embraced the Ribbon (Paint and WordPad).

Microsoft Word 2010 interface

Microsoft Office options

More applications in the Office family have embraced Office Fluent, program such as Visio, Publisher, Project, InfoPath now use the ribbon. I noticed in a screen of the Office 2010 programs group at Arstechnica, InfoPath has two family of applications (Designer and Editor) which Groove has dropped its name to SharePoint Workspace to reflect its tighter integration with the Team Site server software. There is also heavy use of branding color with File menus and application options featuring their respective colors. There seems to be some heavy changes to the Options area of the applications though which likely focuses on better accessibility and maintenance of the suite. Office 2010 overall does not look like a drastic departure at this stage, but its still early days and a lot can change between now and RTM. Considering that Office 12 alpha (which eventually became Office 2007) used a totally different UI compared to what showed up at beta 2. Microsoft has promised that Office 2010 will support Windows XP x86 (SP3) and x64, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Resources

Office 2010 Technical Preview Screenshots
Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Registration
Office 2010 Team Blog now up

Related

New User Experience Improvements coming in Office 2010
Screenshot of Microsoft Office Outlook 2010
Office ‘14’ branded Office 2010, Exchange 2010 BETA expected Wednesday
Its official – Office ‘14’ will be available in both 32 and 64 bit
Microsoft Office ‘14’ to include native 64-bit support?
Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?
Confirmed: Office 14 will support Windows XP
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Just a Note: A small change I noticed in Microsoft Word 14

If you want to get notified immediately about the Office 2010 preview program which will give you early access to beta (test) versions of the next release of Office, here is your chance:

The Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview is a limited, invitation only program which will provide you with the opportunity to experience early, pre-release versions of Office 2010 which will include the following applications:  Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Communicator 2010, Access 2010, InfoPath 2010 and Publisher 2010.

By registering you are signing up to be considered for the Technical Preview Program, you will be waitlisted for consideration to be invited into the Technical Preview Program. We will notify invitees in early to mid July.

Sign up HERE

Resources:

Office 2010 Team Blog now up

No content is up yet on the site, but its a sign that the Office Team is getting ready to share more details about the next version of the worlds most popular productivity suite:

This blog is being created by the Office team to help our IT professionals and enthusiasts get a better idea of what we are building with Office 2010 and discuss the key issues that matter to you.  We are all incredibly excited to start talking about the new version of Office and hope you will participate here.

Check out the Office 2010 Team Blog here

Ok, so maybe I was wrong about Zack Whittaker's sources concerning visual changes coming in Office 2010. Zack recently wrote an article displaying early screenshots of user experience aspects to Office 2010 such as Microsoft Word 2010 splash screen. Zack strengthens this with further screenshots of the new Outlook, About UI interface and possibly a new Office 2010 logo.

Office Outlook 2010 with Aero Glass (click to enlarge)

Office Fluent applications now feature a tabbed File button instead of the pearl button Office 2007 users are familiar with. The interface features more transparency along the title bar region when installed on Windows 7/Vista with Aero enabled. Office 2010 applications also feature a professional theme that's silver/grayish with a more vibrant colour scheme that's respective to the application branding. Outlook for instance uses a gold icon, users will see a gold File Menu along with appropriate application branding throughout the user interface. Office users can also take advantage of Windows features such as the ability to change your Product Key. An early Office 2010 alpha build that leaked back in January showed some improvements to managing Office 2010 such as, Anytime Upgrade and the ability to carry Office on your thumb drive with you.

Office 2010 application ‘About UI’ – new Office logo? (click to enlarge)

Zack notes changes to the Office logo itself, which last saw an update with the release of Office 2003. Prior to that Office used an interlocked puzzle to represent the Office brand. The new gold Office logo is still a work in progress, but the fact that it is similar in colour to the Outlook branding probably means, if you had Word 2010 from that same build of Office 2010 opened you would see a blue Office logo or a green one from Excel.

Why do I care so much about this? Well, its not overall important to the applications functionality and features that much. Outlook 2010 which supports a lot of integration with Exchange 2010 such as threaded conversations, Mail Tips, Ignore Conversation, Text previews of voicemails, tracking messages shows that Office 2010 is not about another pretty UI, but that is the first thing a lot of people see. We also always want to see something a little different from the last version. Windows 7 is a great example of this, we expected something radical and that’s what we got, the improved Taskbar, improved Search technology, simplified networking, in addition to under the hood improvements. I don’t know about Office 2010 yet, but based on the early screenshots, the Office Team seems to be further simplifying the user interface while adding a strong set of integrated features that can harness the power of Microsoft Office server products as evidenced by Outlook 2010 and Exchange 2010.

Related:

Microsoft Office ‘14’ now Office 2010 – I don’t think so, not yet

Previously:
Screenshot of Microsoft Office Outlook 2010
Office ‘14’ branded Office 2010, Exchange 2010 BETA expected Wednesday
Its official – Office ‘14’ will be available in both 32 and 64 bit
Microsoft Office ‘14’ to include native 64-bit support?
Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?
Confirmed: Office 14 will support Windows XP
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Just a Note: A small change I noticed in Microsoft Word 14

Just caught this over at Using Windows blog, a screenshot of Outlook 2010 showing the new threaded message view:

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010

As you can see Outlook 2010 supports the new Office Fluent UI, along with new features that will take advantage of Exchange Server 2010 such as the following:

• Built-in e-mail archive
• View Emails in Conversation thread
• Ignore Conversation, which allows users to mute an e-mail thread they are not interested in.
• MailTips-  warns users before they send an e-mail if a particular recipient is out of the office and unavailable or warns users if the email is to be sent to a distribution group that is very large or includes recipients external to the company or warns if they are going to send an attachment outside their company’s firewall. MailTips will not be available on Windows Phones
• Text previews of voicemails in Outlook
• Tracks whether messages arrived with recipients

For more information about the new features included in Exchange 2010 have a read here at the Technet site of Microsoft.

I have published a lot of Office related news today! PCWorld provides some official statements from Microsoft on the strategy behind the release of these future products:

“Microsoft will release a beta of Exchange Server 2010 on Wednesday, the first product that enterprise customers will see from the next version of Office.

Microsoft is also going public with the official branding of its next productivity suite -- Office 2010. Until now Microsoft had been referring to it as Office 14, but the new name had been widely expected.

Exchange Server should be in full release by the end of the year, but the rest of the products in the suite won't be out until early 2010, said Julia White, director of the Exchange product management team.

Microsoft will release technical previews of other products in the suite, including Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010, in the third calendar quarter. A technical preview is tested by hundreds of thousands of users, while millions of people will have access to the Exchange 2010 beta, White said.”

Read the entire article here

I am looking forward to try the Exchange Server 2010 beta, I have been playing with Exchange 2007, which a great improvement in deployment over pass versions. The new improvements around making Exchange more service oriented in addition to providing its traditional on premises functionality should open up new avenues to how businesses embrace software as a service.

On the heels of news of about Office 14 being a full 64 bit release, CNET’s Ina Fried also confirms that Technical testing for the next release of Office will begin sometime this coming fall. Ina also confirms that Office 14 will be called Office 2010.

“Microsoft offered only limited details on the testing. In an interview, Office executive Rajesh Jha, who leads the Exchange team, said technology previews are more limited than public betas and typically go to hundreds of thousands more technical users as opposed to public betas, which go to millions of people and are something that "much more closely resembles a final release."

Jha said that the technology preview will include both the traditional desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote as well as the browser-based "Office Web Apps" that Microsoft is building. The browser-based versions will be somewhat more limited than their desktop counterparts, but will include basic editing abilities, Microsoft has said.”

Read the entire article here

The rollout for this release in some ways feels subdued.

Previously

Its official – Office ‘14’ will be available in both 32 and 64 bit
Microsoft Office ‘14’ now Office 2010 – I don’t think so, not yet
Microsoft Office ‘14’ to include native 64-bit support?
Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?
Confirmed: Office 14 will support Windows XP
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Just a Note: A small change I noticed in Microsoft Word 14

From Arstechnica

The folks over at Arstechnica today received official news from Microsoft that the next version of Microsoft Office, currently code named ‘Office 14’ will indeed be available in both 32 and 64 bit platforms.

“In an e-mail exchange with Ars today, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that Office 2010 will be available in both flavors: "Yes, Office will have two separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Office 2010 will be the first to do this."

That's right, 64-bit versions of Windows will no longer have to emulate a 32-bit environment in order to run Office 2010, provided that the user has the 64-bit version installed. With 64-bit OS usage rapidly growing (thanks to Vista, if you're asking Microsoft), it's good to see that the next version of Office, expected to arrive sometime next year, will come in both versions.”

Read the article here

Last month, Ed Bott of ZDNET ‘Microsoft Report’, blogged about his finding’s in one of the leaked  Windows 7 builds, 7057 which revealed migration schema built into Windows Easy Transfer utility for older versions of Office to Office 14. Microsoft has confirmed that Office 14 will also support Windows XP. Leaked builds have revealed that more applications in the Office family such as OneNote, Visio and Publisher will also receive the Office Fluent UI ‘Ribbon’, first introduced in Office 2007. Leaked builds have also hinted of radical changes to the About UI along with possible improvements to areas such as upgrading to higher SKU’s and portability. Microsoft will also be introducing its first web based version of Office during the Office 14 timeframe, allowing users to work with simplified ad based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote in a web browser.

Previously

Microsoft Office ‘14’ now Office 2010 – I don’t think so, not yet
Microsoft Office ‘14’ to include native 64-bit support?
Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?
Confirmed: Office 14 will support Windows XP
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Just a Note: A small change I noticed in Microsoft Word 14

Zack Whittaker of ZDNET iGeneration reveals that Microsoft has branded internal builds of Microsoft Office 14 to Microsoft Office 2010. I am a bit suspect about this, especially considering that Office 14 is not even at a stage for official beta yet. Especially with the recently leaked alpha screens which shows some interesting changes expected, Zacks source does not portray a believable case of Microsoft making any final decisions about branding for the next version of Microsoft’s Office suite yet.

“The codename, “Office 14″, which my colleague Mary-Jo Foley has covered extensively, skipped the “13″ because Microsoft were supposedly suspicious and equally superstitious around the connotations associated with the number.

Although it’s not much to go on, and no build numbers were included with the email, the following splash screen was attached of a “recent build”, according to the Microsoft source.”

Read the entire article here

Office 14 – Office 2010 application splash screen?

As someone who has tested pre-release versions of Office since Office XP (code name Office 10), the nomenclature is usually not finalized until around BETA 2. Although its easy to guess a year. Microsoft used Office 10 until beta 2 when it was renamed Office XP. Prior to that, names such as Office 2001 and Office 2002 were being considered.

Office 11 didn't get its final name Office 2003 until beta 2. Splash screens prior to beta 2, displayed Word 11, Excel 11 etc. Office 2003 was finalized in August of 2003.

Microsoft Office Word 2007

The same applied to Office 12 which was renamed Office 2007 at beta 2 which was finalized in November of 2006.

Other ways to prove this is fake, I am not aware Microsoft using “Technical preview” in the branding anywhere on alpha versions of Office software in the past. Also, the splash screen in this post displays a "Starting" indicator - pointless. I have been using Word since version 6, and no time in history has Office applications needed any progress indicators. Word only uses about 8 MBs of RAM idle!

Next, what's up with the Minimize and Close buttons on a splash screen? Even if you say its the About dialog, leaked Alpha Office 14 screenshots prove very different with a very radical About UI update.

Last but not least. When it comes to branding, Microsoft brands its Office apps:

Microsoft Office [application name] version ie. Microsoft Office Word 2010.

Rumours hint that Microsoft is expected to release the first beta of Office 14 sometime this summer with a final release expected sometime in early 2010.

Previously

Microsoft Office ‘14’ to include native 64-bit support?
Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?
Confirmed: Office 14 will support Windows XP
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Just a Note: A small change I noticed in Microsoft Word 14

Ed Bott of ZDNET ‘Microsoft Report’, blogged about his finding’s in the latest leaked build of Windows 7, build 7057 and some interesting developments have surfaced concerning the next version of Microsoft’s productivity suite ‘Office 14’

You learn the most interesting things when you poke around in some of the arcane files that are included with Windows 7 beta releases. In the most recent build of Windows 7 that I’ve been able to examine, I’ve confirmed that Microsoft plans to release its next version of Office in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. That’s a detail that my colleague Mary Jo Foley didn’t discover in her December 2008 rundown of what we know about Office 14.

Read the entire article here

Is it surprising, not really? Welcome? Maybe. Considering that more machines are coming preloaded with 8 GB’s of RAM these days and post Windows 7 you will be seeing a lot more I can understand the reasoning behind making ‘Office 14’ include native 64 bit support. I see applications in the suite such as Excel, Access and Outlook gaining increased performance and speed from being native 64 bit. Ed, provides an XML source list showing all the applications that will be 64 bit, looks like a majority will be. Of course, a 64 bit version of Word is not going make you type or save a document any faster. But if you are working with complex/technical documents that contain a lot graphics and hundreds or even thousands pages, you will definitely see a boost to your productivity work flow. This will probably even open up Microsoft Word to competition in a market dominated by well known high end word processing programs such as Adobe FrameMaker and Corel’s Ventura Publisher which are designed specifically for technical document creation such as manuals. Microsoft recently confirmed that Office 14 will support Windows XP.

Previously

Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?
Confirmed: Office 14 will support Windows XP
Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Just a Note: A small change I noticed in Microsoft Word 14

An interesting article over at Business Insider, discussing Microsoft’s decision to continue supporting Windows XP with the Office 14 upgrade expected next year.

Chris said:

Our install base of Office 2003 and 2007 is actually quite quite high in enterprises even if XP is what most enterprises are still using on their PCs.  We're looking at XP [for Office 14] with some service pack.  We don't think it makes sense to require only Windows 7 with a new version of Office.

Read the entire article here

I personally don’t find Microsoft’s decision all that surprising, especially with the case of Windows XP still remaining strong after 8 years on the market. Microsoft Office has always been known as a product to support generations of Windows behind the latest version. Take for example, Office 2000, you could run it on Windows ME, 2000, 98 SE, 98, NT 4 and 95.

Microsoft has not set any specific date pertaining to the next release, but recent leaked screenshots have shown its still a work in progress. Microsoft is also hard at work on the next version of Exchange Server, code name ‘Exchange 14’ the Company’s Mail and Collaboration system.

Previously:

Ballmer: Office 14 not this year
Checking out Outlook Live – ZDNET iGeneration
Office 14 – Finally! Anytime Upgrade, Portable Office?

Sorry, I haven’t started off the new year as quick as possible with blog post, but you probably have a good idea of why I am busy – and yes, its Windows 7 related. But I also have some Windows Live content I want to finish up. So stay tuned.

This blog post in particular is about one of Microsoft’s other important platforms, Microsoft Office. With the success of Office 2007 and great reception that the Office Fluent (Ribbon) has gotten since its release, folks have been wondering, what’s next?

Well, finally, someone has satisfied our curiosity, it seems there will be Office Fluent across the board, and more improvements to the user interfaces. There is one particular screenshot that caught my eye amongst the Office 14 modules. The About Page features some cross pollination from Windows along with new mobility improvements. Lets check it out:

Office 14 new ways of upgrading and carrying Microsoft Office with you?

Office Anytime Upgrade:

With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft offered an easy way for users to upgrade to higher or more feature rich SKU’s (editions) of Windows. For instance, licensed users of Windows Vista Home Basic can do an upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate by using their existing Windows DVD and gain access to  new features such as MCE, Domain Join, BitLocker, (depending on the SKU), by simply purchasing a key online. Office 14 looks like it will be taking a page out of this book.

Create Mobile Office Device

Interesting, could Microsoft be making Office a portable piece of software? Sounds like it! Taking into account, the size of the Office disk around 500 MBs that’s miniscule for any thumb drive these days. What this probably guarantees is that any computer that can run Office 14 you can simply plug in your thumb drive and have access to the latest version with all the features you enjoy using in the suite. There is also the concern for rampant piracy. I assume, it will lock down Office 14 installed locally on your system when you take it with you. Personally, when I am on the go with documents I might want to access, its most likely for light editing, so the Office 14 web applications might be just enough for that. But its good to see Microsoft possibly making the suite more flexible with how you can use it.

Office 14 based on these screenshots still look like a work in progress, and the About Page which displays unrelated pictorial representations proves that there is still some polishing to go before you can buy this at the store or online. Its good to see programs in the suite getting the full treatment such as Publisher 14 and programs like Visio also adopting Office Fluent. I am definitely looking forward to run this update on Windows 7!

Been searching around the web for information about Microsoft’s next version of Office, currently code named ‘Office 14’. Didn’t find much apart from what was demoed at PDC 2008 back in October. Some people are wondering, what’s new to the suite except for the addition of a webified version and OneNote 14 getting the Office Fluent (Ribbon) UI?

I stumbled across a Flickr photo stream with some shots taken by member gholzer, in one of the screenshots of Word 14 and even the new OneNote with Office Fluent UI, the Office Team has made some small changes to certain parts of the UI. I noticed that the Office Button or File Menu has been made more subtle with an integrated perspective instead of the tack on appearance in version 2007. Lets take a look:

Microsoft Office 14 Fluent application with a more subtle File menu - (image gholzer)

The Office button or File menu in Word 2007

There seems to be some streamlining between applications in Windows 7 and the Office 14 suite. Programs such as Word Pad and Paint that take advantage of the new UI also feature that subtle appearance of the File menu.

Word Pad and Paint in Windows 7

How major a release will Office 14 be? This is anybody’s guess, Office 2007 is major as it is already and a lot of people love it based on their experiences. But, is there anymore that Microsoft can do to a suite that has seen such a drastic update?

From CNET News

Last month in a blog post about PDC 2008, I wondered if Microsoft will be including early code for the next version of Microsoft Office, codename Office ‘14’ on those cool external drives that will be given to attendees. Looks like its not gonna according to CNET’s, Ina Fried:

Quote:

“Windows 7 and Windows Cloud may be the stars of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference, but the next version of Office has also landed a role in the production.

Office 14, as the product is code-named, will be discussed at next week's event, with attendees likely to get a peek at a couple of its features, according to sources. Unlike Windows 7, though, folks shouldn't expect to leave Los Angeles with a copy of their own.”

Read the rest here

I don't know if I should find this strange or disappointing. Looking back at PDC 2005, Microsoft didn't present Office 12 (now Office 2007) to Developers there. The beta for Office 12 didn't begin until around December of 2005. With rumors going around that Windows 7 beta 1 will not be made available until December of this year, its a possibility that testers will not see early code until then. Microsoft could also be holding out until their Office Developer Conference next year before showing it off to the public. I am expecting though that Windows 7 and Office 14 when finalized will be launched together. Microsoft should also use the codename '14' for the final product. Its kinda catchy: "7 x 2 = 14"

Resources:

Office 12 Technical Beta Invites
Up Next: Office 2007 SP2

Mary Jo Foley just informed us that the Office Team is full steamed ahead with their next update for the popular productivity suite. Last week I noted that Office 2007 SP2 would might appear sometime around mid 2007, the Office Team is aiming for much earlier, think early 2009 or spring.

Quote: Among the new features coming in the desktop SP are previously announced file-format changes — specifically support for Open Document Format (ODF), Microsoft’s own XML Paper Specfication (XPS) and PDF. SP2 also will add improvements to Outlook calendaring reliability and improved Outlook performance overall; improvements to Excel’s charting mechanism; the ability for Visio to export UML models to an XML file compliant with the XMI standard; and an uninstall tool for Office client service packs. Read the rest here

Last week, a Microsoft Knowledge Base article gave early information about the existence of Windows Vista and Server 2008 SP2, which I suggested could probably be made available by mid 2009. Technical Testers have already received invitations to participate in the BETA Program.

Previously:

Up Next: Windows Vista SP2
Microsoft sends Vista SP2 invites - beta release in 4 weeks

From Microsoft Downloads

Quote:

Overview

Users of the Microsoft Office XP and 2003 programs Word, Excel, or PowerPoint—please install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack.

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074.

Note: If you use Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2002 to read or write documents containing complex scripts, please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925451 for information to enable Word 2007 documents to be displayed correctly in your version of Word.
Administrators: The administrative template for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint converters contained within the Compatibility Pack is available for download.

Download here

From Windows Live

With Microsoft® Office Outlook® Connector, you can use Outlook to receive your Windows Live™ Hotmail® messages—free of charge. Plus, use all the same formatting and organizational features you already use in Hotmail! With quick, easy access to your information on and offline, Outlook Connector helps you keep track of all your e-mail and contact information and automatically synchronize your Hotmail account.

Learn more here

UPDATE: Brandon Leblanc over at the Windows Experience Blog gives us a tutorial and some background information on the new Outlook Connector. Some interesting features include the Delta Sync technology which replaces WebDAV protocol formerly used for downloading Hotmail email in Outlook.

"The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to let you access your Windows Live Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. You will be able to download and install the Connector to sync up your email and contacts in Windows Live Hotmail for free. However, if you are a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials, or Office Live Premium you will get the added functionality of being able to sync up your calendar, tasks and notes from Outlook to Windows Live Hotmail."

Read the rest here

Well, just learned this morning after launching Excel 2007 that the Office 2007 BETA 2 suite has finally expired. I have been running the suite on one of my desktop systems since beta 2 was released last year and I guess you could say this is just another proof of how stable the suite has been. I guess its time to upgrade. :)

Resources:

ActiveWin: Office 2007 RTM Review

New Office Online Website

Citrix Terminal software allows you to test a virtual version of Office 2007.

The new Office 2007 Online Portal is now out of beta, featuring a radical departure from its predecessor. Reflecting a similar look and feel to the core Office 2007 applications using the new Ribbon interface, Office Online features quick access to Help and How to (tips and tricks) on getting the most out of Office 2007 along with a online try out of the new version of the venerable Office suite. Its really cool. :)

Check it out here