This review is based on TR2 instead of the RTM, but as the differences will be marginal and all the functions described herein will be maintained in the final product, I think this review is very nice indeed.

At the place I work people use MS Office 97 SR-2. When I say that, a lot of people counter with guffawing "whaa?" and a blank stare. "But, I mean, Office 2003 contains a lot of--" and here's where I interrupt them with "What, really? Think of it, despite the refreshed design, the research tools, and a handful of really innovative, useful stuff, where's the motif for raising millions of Swedish Crowns to purchase licenses and lift us to Office 2003?" No answer's heard then, especially as we're trying out OpenOffice, the free Office-suite (that has nothing to do with Microsoft, but is able to open, modify and save files that have been created through MS Office).

Office 2007 has been built through a process where Microsoft have, for the very first time, really watched how users work when using ye olde Office-suite: which menus and buttons don't they use? How can we decrease the number of clicks needed for users to perform tasks? Should we concentrate on user productivity? New functionality? Why do users have to wade through loads of menus to find what they need? Those questions really, really needed answers, not only to make people buy the next version of MS Office (and to accept the fact that it will require more of the computer, e.g. processing-power and hard-disk space) but to break the Microsoft development curse: they haven't delivered a new product in a very long time, and by that, I mean it's been ten years since the Exchange, Office, VB, server-platforms and so forth jumped out of the bag, so there's no real ring to it, right? No, shiny new versions don't count, and neither is stealing everything new from OSX to Windows Vista. But this is shiny new in a nice way, so let's see what's up and has happened since my review a year ago.

First, PDF-support is not built-in any more. MS said they didn't want to bring that competition to Adobe, but really, everybody knows they didn't want yet another monopoly-trial coming, so they're instead offering the PDF-functionality through a free plug-in. It actually binds together with XPS, which is Microsoft's take on PDF.

Second, the visual side. I wrote this comprehensive review - based solely on a video from Microsoft - a little more than a year ago, and have since then been beta-testing Office 12/2007 myself. I've found the first versions to be nothing more than bait for developers and people like me, who love to test and often find themselves writing notes about bugs, sending reports to Microsoft all the time, finding differences between the previous versions of MS Office and the new deal - and believe me, if you haven't seen Office 2007, you most definitely will now.

The Ribbon and the MiniBar (formerly known as the Floatie) are the two main new things. The Ribbon is the death of the drop-down menues in MS Office, and I still maintain there will be no "classic mode" implemented in MS Office that brings the old menues back, unless somebody codes a add-in that achieves that.

Last, a bit about the tiddlers: Pinnable files is a very nice function, charts are brilliant together with the super-new ways to display objects, elements, and putting stuff together, the Sharepoint Server Portal is nicer than ever, although I think it looks severely dated and...well, there are a few more interesting bits mentioned previously, such as the new file-types and how they're saving space, but this is what's interesting right now. Until this gets implemented. I mean, Office 97-users won't be able to open documents saved in the new formats at all. Every newer version of Office will be able to open them (by installing a plugin for it) but then again, Office 97 is ten years old. Ten years!

To finish off, prices: OpenOffice is free, and MS Office 2007 will cost money. Is the new version/upgrade worth it? There's only one way to find out - try before you buy, and keep notes on what's good and what's not. Use it as much as possible, and for heaven's sake, keep notes - otherwise you will forget how long it took to convert your super-long legal document with 55 different charts to Word/PDF/XPS and you won't remember what's better about Outlook 2007 - or if its interface is just cluttered now that it displays much more, if PowerPoint (or, indeed, Office Online) has new, exciting templates you can use, or if those collaboration and reviewing tools just upped the ante. Keep notes. Here's a visual tour of Office 2007, by the way.