What would be awesome is if Google came out with online versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. that rivaled Microsoft's latest offerings.

If they offered them for free and put their ads on the screen, I would use it. But it would have to be better than the current version of MS programs that exist already.

The only thing they could do one better is allow you to save your files on their system in a way that would have a guaranteed backup and secure encryption so others, including Google employees, would not have access to the files.

samfind
http://www.samfind.com

excellent features
plus its just a beta 2 version. can expect a very good office 2007

1. The beta2 is valid in full thru Jan '07.
2. Its' hard to give it away, but "truly accidentally", bypassed the verification after installation.....wonder whether it still knows it should quite working after the expiration date?

Sofar stable as a house, and making sure to safe pre '07 files in pre-07 file format in case. Hope that by that time the ODF plug-in is available for word....MS again trying to proprietise a format.....fortunately they were smart enough at the ISO body.

As for upgrading, the only compelling thing i've seen are the ribbons.....good looks / very functional, but NOT A MUST HAVE to shell out yet again a fee....yep yet again you will only use 1% of its capability, and with the new menu's you'll only see the 1%.

I got it. Yea! Working great.
Somethings are a pain.
But then, it is BETA.
Final will be tons better.
I might get this one for my now computer.
Then again, I might just use Openoffice.

What can I say excellent works great with vista keep up the good work?

After Feb 1st 2007 you won't be able to save any documents. The software will be unusable. It's a demo basically... and won't be usable after the expiration unless you purchase it.

...or otherwise patch it. ;)

After installing it and running it for about 2 days, my system was having some problems. I used faithful acronis true image and restored my system back to the point before I installed office 2007. Im going to wait a bit longer before trying it again.

ummmmmmmm the reason there's so many downloads is because it's FREE. you can get ms office for free and it's legal. so why wouldn't you want to download it?

hmm, must be shareware?

Word and Excel and almost stupid-proof now, and for my friends who call me for tech support every week, that's good.

It's supposedly gonna end up being two or three or four hundred dollars, so I don't even care anymore. I'm perfectly happy with the free offerings.

I'm not sure you will be able to keep using the beta software after Office 12 is formally released. Unless I am wrong, doesn't Microsoft prevent the software from functioning after a certain date?

I agree with Don as the last couple of betas have been stable enough to use indefinitely.

How can a beta be useable "indefinitely" when there is a security release on their modern Office every month?

It can still be usable. If you are behind a firewall and don't open strange files from unknown sources you could use the software indefinitely. A fresh install of Office XP or Office 2003 without any service packs still funtions just fine.

This might not work for a company but a single end user could shouldn't expect much trouble. It's not like there are many bug fixes in the service packs. It's mature sotware. Even this version is mostly the same as previous versions except the menu structure has changed. Yet the same dialog boxes are still present - you just access them differently.

i believe he meant openoffice, etc.

The beta runs until February 1, 2007.

What happens to the beta software installed on my computer February 2nd 2007?

uh, OK. The end user can waste their time dealing with the bugs (yes there will be many in beta software.) and take up their time wondering why the random corruption/etc is happening. I'll stick with SP1 or higher software, kthx.

Likely it expires, and is no longer usable. Not 100% sure on that.

I don't blame you. I wouldn't use the beta for anything other than a spare computer. It's still fun to mess around with and it is free.

When you download and install it, it does say that some of the functionality will be lost on the day after the license expires, which to me, means that you can still use it, it's just not going to be as good as it is when you use it now.. I am not too worried about that anyway.

"It can still be usable. If you are behind a firewall and don't open strange files from unknown sources you could use the software indefinitely."

That's not true, there is a timebomb, and date monitoring code in there to ensure it timebombs Feb 2007, regardless of any Internet connection.

got the email but no download

The download link is in the page with the codes, just click on the names...

I just wish internet calendars worked better with google calendar.

And that some RSS feeds would constantly refill themselves (many copies of articles in a feed so I need to delete the feed because outlook keeps loading duplicates).

Got it, love it. I just wish they would add newsgroup functionality to Outlook. The RSS feature is great!