Office goes gold. Here come the tools

Microsoft officials confirmed first thing on November 6 that Office 2007 has gone gold. (The Softies aren’t saying exactly when the product was released to manufacturing, but word is it happened on November 3.)

The team’s work isn’t done; now it’s time for Microsoft to roll out new distribution, deployment and management tools to convince customers ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù especially the usually recalcitrant business ones, for whom older versions of Office work just fine, thanks ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù to upgrade. (Microsoft’s Windows Vista team is equally focused on improving the customer deployment experience.)

Microsoft is claiming the new Office 2007 “includes the largest investment in deployment and management tools in the product?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s history.” On the list: Office Migration Planning Manager, Open XML Formats Conversion Toolkit, the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Solution Accelerator and the Office Resource Kit.

And starting December 1, Microsoft will make available free, downloadable product trials via its recently revamped Office Online site, officials said. The new trials will be similar to the Online Test Drive that’s already available to Office users.

Full article: blogs.zdnet.com