back to article Office 15 beta ready for fondling by early 2012

Microsoft will spin out its first test build of Office 15 in January next year. WinRumors discovered that Microsoft is in the process of preparing the beta, after sources familiar with the vendor's plans tipped off the website. Office 15 is the codename for Redmond's upcoming version of its productivity suite. It's understood …

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  1. TRT Silver badge
    Joke

    Previous incarnations...

    of Windows were definitely tablet friendly. They had me reaching for Anadin on a regular basis.

  2. JDX Gold badge

    Does Office need to be touch-friendly, when by their very nature touch-screens suck for typing?

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      Joke

      You don't need a keyboard for input any more. You can use Dragon dictate like me. I find it saves me a lo<RING> <RING> <RING> <RING> <RING> SOMEBODY ANSWER THAT BLOODY PHONE. Honestly if he leaves it here again I will flush it down the ###### toilet. Where has he sloped of 2 again anyway? Is he hiding in the coms cupboard again?

  3. BristolBachelor Gold badge
    Joke

    User Interface change

    Another rumour has it that MS was bored with the ribbon that they subjected everyone to in 2007.

    The new user interface will be Latin only and with no icons, because MS thinks that users are starting to get used to the ribbon and need something else to hinder their progress.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If only ...

      I can cope with Latin and no icons. That's actually a doddle.

    2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      @ "The new user interface will be Latin only and with no icons"

      How un-orthodox. I would expect a Mass of complaints to Russian (rush in).

      I finally worked out what "the ribbon" that everyone complains about is - the onscreen options banner that I've been casually using with no particular training for years.

  4. davemcwish

    No chance of a Jesus-mobe or Fondleslab version for the fanbois then ?

    Thought not.

    1. bobbles31

      About as much chance of getting flash on them.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Windows

    Good timing?

    I like Windows 7 and I also enjoy working with Office 2010 and quite frankly I don't see them topping this success anytime soon.

    Still, I think that is one big benefit of using MS software; they also don't drop support for their stuff on a whim. People like me can continue using their environments for many more years to come, no matter how many new versions of Windows will ship.

    Its also the one thing which I think MS has the advantage in comparison with Linux / Open source software. Very often you don't have a choice /but/ to upgrade if you wish keep receiving (security) updates.

    1. TRT Silver badge
      Terminator

      >Upgrading is compulsory.

      And if I refuse?

      >Then you are not compatible.

      What happens then?

      >You will be deleted.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Good troll.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WOW

    WOW, the words 'productivity' and 'Tablet' in one article... El Reg is feeling adventurous today :-)

  7. Manu T

    Funny this.

    I started reading but my eyes kept dwelling at that small picture of DOOM (antique code show) on the right.

    Funny what strange effect 'Microsoft Office' has on me :-)

  8. Fuh Quit
    Thumb Up

    can't the make it Kinect-friendly?

    Double word score if it can get my gestures when using Lotus Notes and IE too!

  9. Mike_JC

    Office 15 beta

    Microsoft need to dump the awful "ribbon" and go back to decent toolbars. Either that or people will vote with their feet and go to OpenOffice.org.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think people DID

      vote with their feet and went from OOo to LibreOffice...

    2. Keith Goodhead

      Ribbon, what Ribbon?

      I find the current Office interface very friendly - it just takes a little time to set up your Quick Access Toolbars (If you hadn't set them up in Office 2007 and imported them, that is!).

      I have the icons I need and only those I need on a slim border at the top of Outlook, Powerpoint, Word, and Excel; maximum screen utilisation with no satin hair accessory in sight.

  10. JDX Gold badge

    @Mike_JC

    If all those ribbon haters spent as much time (or even a fraction of it) learning how the ribbon works as they did complaining on the web about how it's too difficult, they would be able to _stop_ complaining on the internet, saves themselves a lot of time in the long run, and perhaps be a bit happier.

  11. MNB

    codename...?

    seeing as Office 2010 is version 14.0* of Office this is hardly a codename is it?

    Its like a new hatchback sized car from Peugeot being codenamed "208"... it's hardly keeping us guessing now is it?

    * 2007 was version 12.0, it seems MS is superstitious after all as they skipped 13.

    1. Simon Neill

      13 Was the mac version wasn't it?

      aka Office 2008.

  12. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    FAIL

    But some things

    will remain the same

    Like not being able to reading a single thing saved with Office 2010.. 2007 2003 1997 etc etc etc

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      FAIL

      You what?

      Not only can current versions of Office read files created in pretty much all previous versions, but Microsoft have released a compatibility pack for Office 2003 to allow it to read files created in more recent versions.

      Or, to put it another way - what are you blathering on about, man?

      GJC

  13. Herby

    And in February...

    Service pack 1, 2 and 3 will be released. Probably on successive Wednesdays, after the corresponding patch Tuesdays.

    I would have used "joke alert", but I suspect that it won't be.

  14. Shagbag

    Still using Office 11

    It must be hard for MS to get people excited about ANOTHER release of their office product.

    I'm using Office 2003 and I have little need for 50% of its functionality.

  15. Adrian 4
    Trollface

    Wow, office work you can do with a pen. Revolutionary.

  16. John Tserkezis
    Thumb Down

    "Not only can current versions of Office read files created in pretty much all previous versions, but Microsoft have released a compatibility pack for Office 2003 to allow it to read files created in more recent versions."

    Future versions can *read* earlier version documents just fine.

    But all bets are off if you expect all of the formatting to LOOK the same though.

    Ditto for their official 2010 to 2003 document conversion utility.

    Result is very messy, and that's not counting the painfully wrong formatting either.

  17. John Tserkezis

    "vote with their feet and went from OOo to LibreOffice..."

    There is a Bug^H^H^HFeature in LibreOffice Calc that removes gridlines if you change the cell background colour.

    The original intention was to mimic Microsoft Excel.

    Many people quite rightly argued that if they wanted to use Excel, they WOULD have used Excel.

    The powers that be finally admitted the change was short-sighted, and revered changes for the next major release (v3.5)

    We're still waiting. This is a year down the track, on a release that split from the Sun OpenOffice because they didn't like how things were going.

    Sounds like the blind leading the blind...

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