Microsoft Office

Microsoft is already testing the waters with the next version of its popular Office suite.

Office 15 officially made its debut as a technical preview yesterday, available to a small number of early testers who will provide feedback that can influence the final release.

And though the technical preview program is already full, a beta of the new Office suite will surface for everyone to play with later in the summer.

A Microsoft blog posted yesterday by PJ Hough, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Office Division, spilled very few beans about the new suite codenamed Office 15. And those … Read more

iPad owners searching for software to create Microsoft Office documents now have a new and free app.

The iPad app CloudOn lets you create, edit, and view Microsoft documents using online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Your documents are stored in the cloud via your DropBox account, letting you access them whenever you're online.

Although it officially hit the App Store on January 3, CloudOn was subsequently taken down when the company bumped into technical difficulties as a result of huge demand. But CloudOn has since caught up with its service issues and is once again ripe for download … Read more

Microsoft's versatile note-taking app OneNote is the first Office software to make its debut on the iPad.

Already out there as an iPhone app, the latest 1.3 update to OneNote, released yesterday, optimizes it for the tablet's bigger screen real estate.

Though it's part of certain versions of Microsoft Office, OneNote is probably the least understood application in the midst of Word, Excel, Outlook, and Access.

In the desktop version, it's basically a note taker and to-do list, but one designed to capture free-form notes and ideas as text, images, tables, bullet points, and other … Read more

Microsoft is prepping a version of its Office productivity software to run on Apple's iPad, according to The Daily.

The iPad-based news outlet, citing "sources," reported that Microsoft is working to adapt Office for Apple's tablet. The app could arrive before the next version of Office for Mac, which is expected to debut late next year.

Microsoft didn't comment directly on the report.

"We already deliver Office on multiple platforms and devices and are committed to expanding in the future, but have nothing further to share today," the company said in a statement.… Read more

Several free Microsoft apps will be hopping aboard Nokia's Symbian phones by the end of the year.

As described in a blog yesterday, Microsoft and Nokia will deliver the apps in the form of free updates sometime during the fourth quarter. The updates will only be available to owners of phones running Symbian Belle, the latest update to the Symbian OS, or to those who upgrade from Symbian Anna to Belle.

The mobile apps and updates scheduled to roll out this year include:

Microsoft released four security bulletins for Patch Tuesday today, including one that fixes a critical hole related to Bluetooth in Windows 7 and Vista and three less serious patches that plug 21 holes affecting all supported versions of Windows and Visio 2003.

The highest priority is MS11-053, which fixes a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer by sending malicious Bluetooth wireless packets.

Jerry Bryant, group manager for security response at Microsoft, downplayed the possibility of exploitation in the wild, saying there are mitigating factors, including the fact that Bluetooth on a target device would … Read more

Microsoft, which has tiptoed into offering online versions of various Office products for years, leapt into cloud-based productivity applications in a big way today.

The company launched Office 365, a service that offers customers the chance to pay a monthly fee to use its most familiar applications--Word, Excel, PowerPoint--as well as server software--such as its Exchange e-mail program, its SharePoint collaboration software, and its Lync communications technology. The service will be hosted by Microsoft and a handful of telecom partners.

The opportunity may be huge, but the risk isn't insignificant either. More than a billion people use Office. The … Read more

Microsoft took the beta tag off Office 365, launching the product at a New York City event today hosted by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

The new product is the software giant's effort to bring Web functionality to its widely used desktop applications as well as server products that are found primarily in large enterprises. Microsoft is betting that by offering products such as its Exchange e-mail server and its Lync online communications technology as Web services, it can expand the market to small and midsize businesses that don't have IT staffs and have traditionally shied away from those … Read more

Google took a few swings at Microsoft's Office 365 yesterday as the product gears up for its official launch today.

In an official Google blog, Shan Sinha, Google Apps product manager, touted several reasons from his perspective on why customers should opt for Google Apps over the new Office 365. Though he claimed to have 365 reasons in total, Sinha focused on just a few key points, flavored with a couple of quotes from seemingly satisfied Google Apps customers.

Sinha's first claim is that Office 365 is for individuals, while Google Apps is for teams, meaning that Google … Read more