DailyTech - Microsoft Realigns Office 2007 Launch Schedule, Again

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Software Microsoft Realigns Office 2007 Launch Schedule, Again
Brandon Hill (Blog) - June 30, 2006 11:04 AM

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14 comment(s) - last by CKDragon.. on Jun 30 at 5:48 PM

Early January 2007 launch becomes early 2007 launch

Back in late March, Microsoft announced that it was pushing back its launch of Office 2007 to coincide with the launch of Windows Vista. As a result, Office 2007 was scheduled to ship in October to volume licensees and early January for retail customers. Yesterday, Microsoft announced another delay for its productivity suite.

Thanks to a new launch schedule, Microsoft is now giving a more vague "late 2006" release for volume licensees and "early 2007" for retail availability. It appears that Microsoft is taking feedback that it is receiving from Office 2007 Beta 2 to heart and is making some changes under the hood. "Based on internal testing and beta 2 feedback around product performance, we are revising our development schedule to deliver the 2007 Microsoft Office system by the end of year 2006, with broad general availability in early 2007. Feedback on quality and performance will ultimately determine the exact dates," said a Microsoft spokesman to BetaNews.

It appears that delays are becoming more and more frequent at Microsoft these days. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that even Windows Vista may be delayed again.

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I will wait

By RyanLM on 6/30/2006 11:46:26 AM , Rating: 2

I have been using the betas, and it is great. I am using it for day to day work, I just can't go back.

If they can make it even better, please - take more time! Currently ever other office suite is several generations behind.

RE: I will wait

By Chadder007 on 6/30/2006 12:55:37 PM , Rating: 2

I love the Beta also....Im not sure what "performance" issues other users have had though. It has worked great for me.

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RE: I will wait

By jskirwin on 6/30/2006 1:05:44 PM , Rating: 2

What's worth upgrading for this release?
I'm using 02 sp3 at work and 2000 at home.

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RE: I will wait

By CKDragon on 6/30/2006 1:42:03 PM , Rating: 2

I use it regularly, too, but I still have a few issues with it.

I regularly create 30-35 page slide presentations within powerpoint with many diagrams for work (don't the new graphics look amazing?). Once you include 10-15 dynamic diagrams, PowerPoint is very likely crash on all three of my workstations (3Ghz+ Intel, 1GB+ RAM on each). I usually end up taking a screen capture, cropping the diagram portion out, and pasting them back in the PPT doc as a bitmap.

Also, I still notice compatibility issues with Office 2003. After saving a *.docx to 2003 format there are instances when it will not open in 2003. Again, these are strenuous tests as I'm working on 100-150 page IEEE docs filled with diagrams/tables.

Finally, Beta 2 has this chronic problem of resetting the table cell shading to white. It's absolutely maddening.

Hopefully they can fix it all up in time for release, I really like it when it's working well.

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not bad...

By ncage on 6/30/2006 11:40:04 AM , Rating: 2

This is not a bad thing if they are REALLY listening to feedback of beta testers and implementing changes they are requesting.

RE: not bad...

By stupid on 6/30/2006 1:50:45 PM , Rating: 2

Yes, but the average sharehold doesn't care about that. All they think about is "Great, so how much will the price of my shares drop because of this."

It think it's a good idea to delay the release if the product will end up better. The real problem with Microsoft is that they over promise and under deliver Windows Vista's features.

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RE: not bad...

By rushfan2006 on 6/30/2006 2:03:01 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
Yes, but the average sharehold doesn't care about that. All they think about is "Great, so how much will the price of my shares drop because of this."

Actually, its only the folks who are trying to make a quick buck and then leave (withdraw) that think that way. Any serious, professional broker/investor worth his or her salt will tell you those people are the amatuers of the finance world. As the serious minded people are in the market for the long haul.

That all said, smart shareholders will certainly not frown upon a longer time to market *if* the company can make a good sound pitch that its a good business decision and in the long run will deliver a better product. Only foolish shareholders would be so stereotypically simple to say "now now now now...we don't care...get out now".

I've heard people use the "shareholders will be pissed" argument before with relation to release dates. Clearly there are a ton of people out there that aren't understanding how the real business world thinks.

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Just say it: they are LATE

By peternelson on 6/30/2006 2:33:36 PM , Rating: 2

Microsoft "Realigns Launch Schedule"

Why not use PLAIN ENGLISH? Tell it like it is:
They are LATE. And LATER still.

As for Office being a "next generation" product, Openoffice has had pdf export for ages, and the final Office won't even ship with that capability built in. ROFL. It's only "next gen" in MS proprietary standards, whereas others go the truly open standards route.

RE: Just say it: they are LATE

By MrPieGuy on 6/30/2006 2:59:02 PM , Rating: 2

Why are people so fascinated with PDFs? I personally avoid using them whenever possible, they take way longer to load, are harder to navigate and in general are just a worse product. On top of that MS tried to allow exporting to PDFs but Adobe wouldnt allow them to. It's completely just a bias towards MS.
Lastly have you actually used the Beta? Because they have more new features than that. I've tried OpenOffice, comparing it to MS Office, is unbelievable. Let MS take as long as they want, if you want a superior product like they will deliver then it takes time.

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RE: Just say it: they are LATE

By CKDragon on 6/30/2006 5:48:52 PM , Rating: 2

I can't speak for every version of PowerPoint, but in the Office 2007 beta AND Office 2003 it is possible for a presentation to appear differently on different workstations. The most noticeably difference I've come across is that on one workstation the text will be automatically re-sized to fit a shape on a diagram. On another workstation the same text will be a different font size (the original font size) and it will throw the diagram all out of whack.

Unfortunately, I found this out the hard way when I went to have 30 copies of the slide presentation printed at Staples. Locking a doc or presentation into PDF format guarantees that the doc will look identical on EVERY workstation.

CK

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MS betas

By sieistganzfett on 6/30/2006 12:42:25 PM , Rating: 1

I heard a joke many years ago that everything from MS is in beta form, even when released its a beta. But thats just a joke I heard.

RE: MS betas

By msva124 on 6/30/2006 1:23:15 PM , Rating: 3

Sorry, you must have them confused with Google.

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MAKE BETTER

By whalenapp81 on 6/30/2006 12:37:18 PM , Rating: 2

please make the windows programs better, its not going to kill anybody to have to wait a couple more months, it will give me more time to buy new stuff for the comp.

opening new office files with older versions

By kattanna on 6/30/2006 1:37:38 PM , Rating: 2

has anyone seen or tested the promised add-ons that will let office 2000 and up open the new file formats?

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates