Office 2007 Announcement

Let’s see. First there was Office 4.0. (Microsoft jumped right past 1, 2, and 3). Then 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.3a, 4.3b, and the first almost-stable version, Office 4.3c. I remember it well.

Then we got Office 95. Office 97. Office 2000 was an enormous improvement – I still think the jump from Office 97 to 2000 rates as the most significant improvement in Office ever.

Then there was Office 2002. Er, uh, Office XP which included Word 2002, Outlook 2002, and so on. Then came the least significant improvement in Office history, Microsoft Office System 2003. Except we didn’t get just one Microsoft Office System 2003. Heavens no. We got seven different versions. I still can’t keep them straight without looking at a scorecard.

Microsoft has just announced Office 2007, the newly affirmed name for the product we’ve all been calling Office “12” for some time. (For what it’s worth, Bink has been saying for almost a month that Microsoft would brand Office “12” as “Office 2007”.)

Oh. Microsoft has also started referring to the new version as “2007 Microsoft Office system products” (note the lower case). Perhaps we won’t have “Microsoft Office System” to kick around any more. Wonder what they’ll call the new Word? “2007 Microsoft Office system product Word 2007”?

Another interesting semantic development: if you were expecting “Microsoft Office System Students and Teachers 2007 Edition” or some such you might be surprised to find the product re-branded as “Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007”. Small name change speaks volumes, eh? But beware of the fine print: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 doesn’t include Outlook. If you have Teachers and Students Edition 2003, and you want to continue using Outlook, you may well be up a very expensive creek. Nice marketing, eh? Bait and switch anybody? Ed Bott has an interesting take on the situation.

Here are the new versions, and prices:

* Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 (Only via Volume Licensing, no price given)
* Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 (Only via Volume Licensing, no price given)
* Microsoft Office Professional 2007 (Retail $499, Upgrade $329)
* Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 (Retail $449, Upgrade $279)
* Microsoft Office Standard 2007 (Retail $399, Upgrade $239)
* Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (Retail $149, no upgrade)
* Microsoft Office Basic 2007 (Only available when you buy a new computer, no price given)

For a chart of which programs go with what package, see the official System Packaing Scorecard. For details about the contents of each package, see “2007 Microsoft Office System Packaging Fact Sheet”.

UPDATE: I’ve been looking and haven’t found any info about the Academic version of Office 2007. Looks like we may have a few more packages on the way. Seven just isn’t enough, I s’pose.