Microsoft today began sending out invites for the beta of Office Starter 2010 to users of Office Live Workspace. According to the blog I Think Different, potential enrollees must complete a survey and are contacted later if they meet the eligibility requirements. The survey is straightforward and asks questions about the productivity software and operating system you currently use.

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The company I worked for was in on this same program when Office 2007 was released. Maybe we'll get the 2010 version.

But I have to admit, I think Office 2007 was a big step backwards from the simplicity Office 2003 was. I really hated the fact that they changed half of the keyboard shortcuts that people had been using for years and also went with a weird toolbar configuration with icons you couldn't make heads nor tails out of rather than simple pull-down menus.

Be interesting to see what they've done with 2010.

Want the office 2003 Toolbar on Office 2007 (not sure if it works with 2010) Because I like the new toolbar.
But here's the Microsoft Forum that talks about an add-in that puts a drop down toolbar instead of using the ribbon. (but you have to minimize the ribbon).
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/office2010general/thread/a44faf9b-5965-4367-95d6-da6f68c43226

I'm also interested to see what the come up with. Office 2007 drove me to OpenOffice in a frenzy. Although I'm very happy with OO, what happened with Office reminds me of what happened to Windows when Vista launched. Maybe they'll do as good a job on 2010 as was done on W7.

I hope they don't break compatibility with Office 2007. It's annoying that i have to install 2007 just because 2003 can't even open it.

TomSEA - try this - gives you the best of both worlds and Starter Edition is free (BTW, don't let the moniker "starter" put you off - unless you're wanting to completely customise, you won't need more than the starter"

Puiu - there is an add-in available from Microsoft that allows 2003 to open and read 2007 files.

I have around 100-150 computers that i have to take care of where i work and some have 2003 while others have 2007. TY for the heads up with the add-in. I'll try it to see how well it works.

THe add-in for office 2003 works great. .. but ofice 2007 still sucks. The ribbon should be left for presents...totally destroyed office..

Not interested in MS Office.... 200.000 registry entries are not that what a good working system really needs. I will still using Open Office.org