Windows 7: Microsoft already beginning to plan Office 15

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Does anybody else out there also feel that there isn't many great features that they can add to Office?

Besides polishing and UI improvements...I wouldn't be surprised if every release after 2010 feels like a minor update (like how Windows Vista -> 7 was)

Yes, i do. I think there's only so far you can go with Office applications, tbh, i'm suprised by what they've squeezed out of Office 2010 let alone the next release.

the only thing is better cloud integration...
that and more goodies for powerpoint...
dont really use access or sql server that much so not really a lot to see...
although that's what they said with win 2000 and look at were were are now...
so im trying to keep a open mind about this one although its hard...
MS Courier Support if it happens to be a actual product perhaps?

Yeah, I can't see that many features related to the documents created. Like DA said, it will be cloud integration, more online connectivity/sharing, etc.

Wouldn't it just be easier to focus on Office 2010 and keep updating features as well as bugs, security issues that may occur etc. Oh, wait, then they couldn't charge us full price again in a couple of years XD

Okay, joking, but I really do feel that planning a new version of Office is a bit too soon. The 2010 beta available for users will bring them a lot of feedback, but until the finished product is available, customer experience won't be complete, and besides, it will take some time before companies as well as home users adopt to Office 2010 and fully experience it. There can always be problems while using any Office application, and Microsoft should focus on that, instead of just releasing fixes and turning to a new Office version so soon.

Exactly. They have a brand (Office) that they need to push every other year in order to increase revenue.

It makes more sense for OS's because more important features, usability, efficiency can be achieved.

Hi there

I think perhaps (although here this might not be a huge demand) Office could do the following (shouldn't really need a NEW version - but could be integrated into current versions)

1) Better Integration between ACCESS and EXCEL. It's still a pain to generate a Table for an ACCESS DB from a Workbook in an EXCEL Spreadsheet and also in Reverse - getting ACCESS data into a WORKBOOK.

A lot of people don't even know you can do this -- I've had a few"fights" with Admins at some Work clients trying to get ACCESS installed into my Office suite on a Work computer --you'd be surprised how having an ACCESS DB application helps in automating a lot of tasks you'd have to do "semi - manually" via EXCEL alone which could be done in Seconds if you had ACCESS as well.

2) Better Multi-Media Integration with Powerpoint - such as DVD authoring so you could make "self learning" Tutorials. At the moment you have to go through hoops to get power point slides etc into a DVD application.

3) Web queries (getting external data) are still relatively primative in EXCEL if you need a "continuously" updating application say like tracking the FTSE 100 or Dow Jones 30 Stock exchange indices and dynamically generating charts from the data.

4) As 3) but also into an ACCESS DB.

Other than this sort of stuff I can't really see how they could do much more with Office - maybe a bit more "User Customisation" in regard to Backgrounds and "Skins".

Cheers

jimbo

I'd like to see a possible move to a single integrated app. I have too many customers that insist on typing a proposal in PowerPoint, or spreadsheets in Word, and no, I'm not kidding. Why do we need to launch separate apps for all these things? Why not just launch "Office" and then pick what we want to do? Yes, I know there is already sort of a way to do that, but I think it would be much simpler for the novice user to launch one item, no matter what they need to do.