Posts Tagged ‘Office 14’

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

In my quest to bring you as many unique Office 14 details as I can, I’ve managed to dig up quite a bit of information; so much, as a matter of fact, that I’m going to start a new mini-series of articles here titled, “Office 14 Revealed.” (I bet you didn’t see THAT one coming, did you?) In this mini-series, I’m going to approach individual details I’ve discovered about Office 14 that aren’t currently public. In part 1, we’re going to take a very brief look at how Microsoft plans to approach corporate activation in Office 14.

If you’re up-to-date with how Microsoft has gone about corporate activation with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (and more than likely Windows 7), then you’re familiar with Volume Activation 2.0. If not, then let me introduce you to MAK and KMS:

MAK (Multiple Activation Key): A key with an alloted number of activations which is given to a corporation. If that number of activations runs out, said corporation can contact their Microsoft Activation Center and purchase more. For instance, let’s say your corporation has 100 computers and you don’t want 100 individual licenses to have to install on each computer. With a VLM (Volume License Media) disc from Microsoft, you could either create an image of your install which uses the same key or you could go around and manually install on each computer while still using just one key. When it comes time to activate, computers can either connect individually to Microsoft’s servers or a tool called the VAMT (Volume Activation Management Tool) can be used to activate multiple computers through one connection to Microsoft’s servers or via phone.

KMS (Key Management Service): This is a service you run locally which activates computers in your network without having to connect to Microsoft’s servers, though the machine you specify as the KMS machine will need to be activated via Microsoft. For Vista and Windows Server 2008, there is a minimum number of computers you must have to run a KMS environment.

License Management with Office 14: The implementation of Volume Activation 2.0 in Office 14 is the fruition of the obvious success Microsoft has seen with it. Via KMS usage, organizations will be able to authenticate individual Office 14 licenses on-demand. As implied by the description of MAKs above, organizations will be able to manage “blocks” of keys. These two methods will help allow organizations to keep track of what’s deployed, how many activations are remaining, and protect their volume license keys from theft. Unlike with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, it’s currently unclear as to if Microsoft has a minimum set for the number of machines an organization needs to have to implement a KMS environment but it’s probably safe to assume they will to make it worth it for both an organization and themselves.

As noted by Microsoft regarding Volume Activation 2.0, “In the future, Volume Activation 2.0 technology will also be included in other Microsoft products.” That time is now as Office 14 will see the inclusion of Volume Activation 2.0.

Part 2 soon.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Grava:

“Grava is a set of tools developed for the needs of those creating educational content. By giving easy access to the power of .NET and WPF and enabling SMEs Grava provides enriched outputs at reduced cost and effort.”

Grava is scheduled to be released in sync with Office 14:

Grava is going to integrate with Office 14 and as the following slide indicates, it’s pulling its design from Office:

Does this mean that the following prototype screen shot is Office 14 with Grava integrated? I noticed that instead of the Office logo in the orb, there’s a ‘G’ to obviously signify Grava, so does this mean we’re looking at a standalone Grava application or a conceptual idea for how the interface of Office might change to signify the user is currently using Grava? If nothing else, we can see the ribbon influence in yet another application and further indication that the ribbon is certainly not going away in Office 14.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

In my never-ending quest for Office 14 information, I’ve run across yet another roadmap. From November 2008, this one seems to line up Office 14 as being wrapped up in 2009 since there’s no mention of it in “Future”. Curiously, Windows 7 is showing up as “Future” instead of CY2009, so this is either a slightly dated roadmap or perhaps Microsoft just played it safe in this one by not making any guarantees of a 2009 release. Then again, Azure is mentioned and that was only made public 3 months ago, so I don’t see this as being too terribly dated of a roadmap.

Also of note are the references to Windows Mobile 7 and its beta. Apparently, Microsoft isn’t going to guarantee a 2009 release for it, either. Have a look-see:

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Continuing my journey through Office 14 information, here is a screen shot of which products to expect from the business productivity side of the Office 14 wave (aside from the core make-up of the Office suite, i.e. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, et al):

Additionally, we know there will be the online version of Office 14′s heavy hitters, so all-in-all, it looks like the Office 14 wave is going to… WASH A LOT ON SHORE! HAHAHAHAHA, MAN, GET IT!? YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE!? MAN, I crack myself up! HAHAHAHAHAHA…. hahaha… ha? …or not.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Back in October, Microsoft gave a presentation in regards to “the translation tools and technologies used for Microsoft Office localization.” At the end of the presentation, Office 14 was discussed in addition to future thoughts on localization beyond Office 14. Perhaps the right person out there will be interested in the following information. For those of you who don’t understand what this is, it’s essentially Microsoft’s plans for making Office as language-neutral as possible via methods of accurate and efficient translation. Discussed below are some of their tools and ideas for the constant evolution of this process. As written in the presentation:

Office 14 Translation Plans:

Translation Automation Internally:
- Automated word-count forecasting for accurate handoff volumes.
- Scalable process automation around word-counting, recycling analysis and machine translation.
- Integration of Helium, Trados and MSR-MT for post-editing. (UXEvangelist Note: All are internal localization tools but can be read a bit about here)

‘Tools Independence’ Externally:
- Translation vendors have flexibility to choose which recycling, MT and translation tools they want to use.
- Enabled by: standardized word-counts, standard quality expectations, XML-based file format.

O14 Language Technology Initiatives:

Raw-MT Piloting for Office Developer Documentation:
- Translation wiki for SDKs

Translatability Checking:
- Style checker tool integrated with authoring environment
- Reduces effort in editing, catches no-brainer issues
- Improves consistency and quality for translators
- Implements MSTP style-guide: Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications

The Version After Next – Thoughts for the Future:

Tools Independence:
- Move toward standards-based localization, giving translation vendor freedom to choose/innovate tools that works best to deliver on the quality defined by Microsoft.

Extend and Improve the Use of Language Technology:
- Investigate broader use of Machine translation, when appropriate and when the quality is there.
- Adopt advanced recycling solutions.
- Tools support for translation quality assurance.

Customer & Community Engagement

External Academic and Industry Engagement

Again, most of my readers won’t find this information particularly interesting but if you happen to be one who would like to further engage the aforementioned information, feel free to download the document I’m referencing. Likewise, feel free to leave comments and discuss this topic with others who may share your interest!

Reference: TM Europe 2008 Presentation

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Well, they say perseverence pays off. While “they” seem to be right, I still have yet to figure out exactly who the heck “they” happen to be… *crickets*

Anywho, I managed to get a hold of a very recent presentation regarding Software + Services and amongst the plethora of information is a small-yet-informative section regarding Office 14. In one slide, there are 3 pillars listed as an Office 14 value proposition by “dealing with the paradox of empowerment at the top and control at the bottom.” The 3 pillars with their generic descriptions as they appear in the presentation are as follows:

Ubiquity and Specialization (Role-Based Productivity): Anywhere availability for information and applications. Avoid information overload through personalized workspaces and reporting for each end user.

Consumerization and Governance: The new “thumb generation” comes to work with an expectation to use devices and services uncommon in today’s enterprise class systems. At the same time, the enterprise must also be able to maintain governance by enforcing policies to those new systems and services (today: instant messenging, VoIP and web conferencing; tomorrow: live workspaces, content sharing, peer to peer, web 2.0,…).

Flexibility and Consolidation: Seamless integration with third party back end systems (CRM, ERP, etc.). Need for a cost-efficient platform that doesn’t require allocation of additional resources, consolidation of specialized technologies.

After reading that, bear in mind that Office is primarily an enterprise product. Sure, the usage of Office extends to the realm of home users, students, etc., but the functionality and productivity for those realms has been well-established since Office 2003, though the ribbon bar in Office 2007 has received mixed reviews. Because of this, the breadth of Office 14 is absolutely business-centric. I haven’t seen Office 14 yet, nor have I found any information regarding a UI facelift or what they have planned in terms of user experience but everything I’ve personally run across thus far has pertained specifically to making Office much more productive for enterprises. Not that increased productivity hasn’t always been a goal with Office but my point is that you probably won’t feel much change at all in terms of productivity and performance as a home user, student, or general enthusiast. All of the aforementioned is merely personal opinion, though. Feel free to comment and let me know what YOU think!

Now, without any further adieu, here is a screenshot of the roadmap slide which shows Office 14 in alignment with a 2010 release (click for full-sized image):

Well, I guess that sums it up; Office 14 RTM appears to have officially spilled over into 2010. Personally, I’m in no rush for a new office product, so the fact that they’re a year behind schedule doesn’t affect me at all. As history has shown, I would rather them spend the time on a product to get it right than simply to get it out in the marketplace. Where this jives with my recent post of Office 14 having a final name of Office System 2009, who knows. I guess we’ll see what the cat drags in as we approach Beta 1, which is sure to come in the first half of this year.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

I touched on this in a previous post of mine but I wanted to make it more front and center. Along with it, I wanted to post a picture of the document from which I obtained this little tidbit. There are some other things to try to discern from it but I’m sure the answers will all come in due time. I know it really doesn’t matter to some people if it’s Office System 2009 or Office System 2090 and if you happen to be one of those people, no one cares that you don’t care, so nix the “I don’t care” remarks, mmmkay? lol.

Anyway, here is a screenshot from a July 2008 Microsoft software product roadmap I obtained (click for full-sized image):

I have no idea what those other 4 are that are ambiguously labeled but what intrigued me was the 12/31/2009 “Primary Milestone Date”. More than likely, they’re just placeholders but 2009 being listed as the “Primary Milestone Date” for the row with “Microsoft Office System 2009″ on it leads me to believe that Office 14 RTM could indeed see the light of day in 2009 instead of 2010. We already know Microsoft is a year behind their initial schedule with Office System but maybe it’s all supposed to fit together with the release of Windows 7 and VS 2010; who knows? Anyway, I just wanted to pass this little tidbit along. What are your thoughts?

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

I’ve received a few emails from people who recall the previous version of Office carrying a code name of “Office 12.” Their inquiries ring through a resounding, “what the heck happened to “Office 13?” Though this issue has been addressed within a few of the Microsoft communities ever since we first found out there would be no “Office 13,” I’ll go ahead and echo the core fact of the matter: Superstition, Watson! Ho ho!

Yes, it seems the folks who coin the code names on the Office team at Microsoft decided that 13 was indeed an unlucky number, but this comes as no surprise seeing it as Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky and many 13+ story buildings either have a 12a designation or they do as Microsoft has done with Office and skip to 14. It’s all just cutsy little semantics and doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in terms of what the product will actually be, so don’t freak out simply because someone at Microsoft has a sense of numerologically impending doom. lol.

Psst! Hey, Microsoft: “…the number 13 isn’t any more unlucky than any other number. There exist negative and positive, and balanced, over-balanced, and under-balanced qualities for every number.” That’s straight from a numerology “expert.” Personally, I don’t subscribe to any superstitious dogmas but if you want to see just what they’re buying into, go here.

And if you happen to wonder if this is all indeed why they skipped “Office 13″ for a code name, nothing’s better than a document straight from Microsoft’s servers showing as such. Here, Eric Vigesaa, the 2006-? Program Manager for Office System client applications, is having a discussion with TechNet and says the following on 12/27/2006:

“Eric: I actually am taking a vacation for two weeks and then, it may sound strange but the next version of Office is already in the planning stages, we want to make sure that our IT perspective and apps are represented in the new product focus and offerings so we’re going to be very involved with that.

Michael: So that’s Office 13 in development huh?

Eric: Well, 13 is unlucky so we’re calling it Office 14.“

Source: TechNet Radio 12/27/2006 Transcript

Oddly enough, even folks within Microsoft prior to then were assuming the natural progression from “Office 12″ to “Office 13.” Again, residing on Microsoft’s servers, are a couple of documents containing the same information from 2005 referencing the development of “”Office 13″ prototypes”:

Source 1: Dik_Bigl.pdf

Source 2: ServiceorientatieEnICT.pdf

Both of those documents are in Dutch, but with a quick Babel Fish translation comes a loose interpretation of what we can easily gather to be the information we’re interested in in regards to “Office 13:”

“With which (version of) product Microsoft comes also on the market, there is always a remake in frequently make and is thus still worked to the prototypes of a still remake. To give an example: Office 2003 are in 2005, the current version of Office and have the internal version number 11. For Office 12 for the `Longhorn wave’ and is now already researchers there it is at present worked busy with considering and developing prototypes for Office 13. Thus continues invest Microsoft in the future.”

All in all, this is a pretty frivolous effort in research but hopefully this will provide the be all and end all of this topic. Personally, I think Microsoft should’ve just replaced the 1 with a <, thus ending up with Office <3 annnnnd that's why I'm a freelance journalist and not on Microsoft's marketing team. lol.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

With the recent flood of information surrounding Windows 7 and its official status of Beta 1, I thought I would take a moment to shed some light on some of Microsoft’s current plans for the Office 14 Beta. As some of you know, Microsoft begins collaborating very early on in its development process with select customers via a program called TAP (Technology Adoption Program). The next tier of testing much later down the road is a program called a Technical Beta. A Technical Beta is much more far-reaching with testers than participants of a TAP, but even then, the number of people on a Technical Beta is drastically less than the third tier of testing; a Public Beta. Both Windows and Office have followed these testing tiers, though it’s questionable as to if the recent Windows 7 Beta invites sent to select people are merely a formality or if they’re truly an invite to a Technical Beta program to be distinguished from that which the public will be able to participate in. Regardless, here is a detailed breakdown of the tiers of customer interaction with Office 14:

TAP (Technology Adoption Program)

There are two phases of the Office 14 TAP: PV (Product Validation) and RD (Rapid Deployment)

TAP – PV: Extending from Alpha builds through Beta 2 builds, TAP – PV customers interact directly with their very own Microsoftee(s) to “provide actionable feedback throughout the product development cycle and commit substantial resources for the duration of the program.” To be eligible for this phase of the TAP, you are required to have a sponsored business solution/POC (proof of concept), architectural and deployment plans readily reviewable, and a pilot deployment at Beta 2 (based on POC status). Alternately, you can just hope you happen to work for and have access within a company who goes through this process and gets nominated. That, or you can write the script for “Ocean’s 14″ and make the payload that of builds galore. Your choice.

TAP – RD: Getting involved at the end of Beta 2/beginning of the RC (Release Client) phase, TAP – RD customers “drive marketing evidence for launch” via requirements of production employment at Escrow and participation in launch activities. TAP – RD is “ideal for companies looking to showcase their involvement in leading edge industry efforts [and] engage in joint public relations efforts with Microsoft.”

The total number of TAP customers is ~150 and regardless of which TAP phase they’re a part of, they are the cream of the crop in working the closest with Microsoft. Some of the benefits are pre-release software, early documentation and guidance, technical readiness content, Beta technical support, private newsgroups, an MS Connect account, and much more. Call within the next 10 minutes and you’ll receive not one but two – count ‘em – TWO of said product! Back to reality, the extent of their involvement runs through the entire phase of product development; in the case of Office 14, that will be from Alpha to RTM +90 where each milestone has an activity appropriated for it:

Alpha – POC envisioning and planning.
Beta 1 – Lab testing and evaluation of POC.
Beta 2 – Departmental pilot (non-mission critical 50-100 seats).
RC – Full production deployment.
RTM – Upgrade to RTM bits within X days post release.
+90 (Customer/Partner Account TAP Closeout) – Scorecard review, survey, and set clear expectations of future interactions.

Technical Beta

Of the two Beta phases/tiers beneath the TAP, the Technical Beta is the step Microsoft takes to solicit broader feedback. By invitation only, Microsoft’s customers and partners receive content and support via an MS Connect account. Pre-release software, documentation, and bug feedback are typically amongst the perks of landing a spot on the Technical Beta. The Technical Beta starts at Beta 1 and carries through to RTM. Even when the Public Beta starts, Technical Beta participants typically receive more content just as TAP participants receive more content than either of the Beta phases. The number of Technical Beta customers is ~5000.

Public Beta

Essentially a free-for-all, the Public Beta drives pre-launch excitement by putting the product into the hands of ~5,000,000 individuals. A unique addition to the Office beta this year will be Office Online.

With the Office 14 TAP already under way, Beta 1 should be soon to follow. An early 2009 Beta 1 means Microsoft is a year off from their initial target of a first-half 2008 Beta 1 which I found in multiple slides and posted about back in 2007 here. Regardless, Office is a product that Microsoft has just about always managed to keep a tight lid on. There has been plenty of chatter going on via company presentations in regards to Office 14 since early 2007 but that lid is still quite tightly sealed.

For what it’s worth, the final name for Office 14 may be “Microsoft Office System 2009″. Why do I say this? Well, Microsoft has a Product Roadmap that it releases often for all of their products to select customers. Since March of 2008, I have been seeing Office 14 as being listed additionally as “Microsoft Office System 2009″ with an RTM year of 2009. Take it for what it’s worth.

-Stephen

While these aren’t anything in particular to write home about, I just like seeing future products in official slide decks. =) Here we have Windows 7 and Office 14 showing in a “2007 and Beyond” roadmap and below that, there are a couple of Office 14 related slides; one of which is essentially a reiteration of a slide I had initially discovered and wrote about a number of months ago.

Again, nothing superterrificandgreat about any of these but the 2nd Office 14 slide is kind of neat. It basically breaks down to this:

R1 – R(n): Product planning time frame.
M0: Product management begins with product design and writing of specifications.
M1: When the product vision is released and PMs start coding.
CC: Customer Connection through Beta and TAP programs.
Beta 1 – Beta(n): Continued CC in addition to more open beta programs.
RTM: Product is released.

Slides:

Older O14 Timeline Slide (Looks like Office 14 is still on track):

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com