Office 14 to appear next week

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 21 Oct 2008 at 09:37

Microsoft will offer attendees at its Professional Developers' Conference a sneak peek at its latest Office suite, according to reports.

Little has been heard about Microsoft's successor to Office 2007, currently titled Office 14, beyond a potential release date of late 2009 or early 2010, which appeared as part of a Powerpoint presentation leaked onto the internet.

However, according to ZDNet, the company will be offering a glimpse at the suite next week, despite the fact that current listings for the event suggest talks about Office will be restricted to the OOXML document format.

Microsoft, as with most of its major releases, has been tight-lipped about what to expect from the new Office, though back in February Bill Gates hinted that it would feature a greater online presence.

"Outlook Web Access is not the full version of Office, but if you want to go into a kiosk or an internet café and browse and connect, it gives you plenty of functionality," said Gates. "As we look at all the modules [in Office 14] we have in mind the equivalent of Outlook Web Access."

This was backed by Steve Ballmer, who admitted recently: "If you are in an internet café and you want to do some light editing we need to provide for that. That's all I'm going to say about that otherwise there'll be no drum roll in four weeks [at the Professional Developers Conference]."

The PDC kicks off October 27, and is looking to be a jam-packed event with Microsoft set to unveil Windows 7 and Windows Cloud.

We'll be on ground keeping you up-to-date with all the breaking news, so make sure to keep your eyes on www.pcpro.co.uk.