Office 14 leaked screenshots: da!

In Friday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers gaze obsessively at leaked Office 14 Alpha screenshots from Russia. Not to mention weird wheels...

Emil Protalinski reports:

It didn't take long this time, either. Earlier this week, testers received alpha builds of Office 14, the codename for the successor to Office 2007. A reader wrote in to tell us that a tester from Russian site wzor.net has now leaked the screenshots of the applications included in the productivity suite.
...
I've been told that the beta of Office 14 will start in May, and the final version is slated for the end of the year. The alpha is reportedly running with good stability, all things considered. Redmond is expected to provide official release details for Office 14 next quarter.

Tom Warren broke the story:

Russian site Wzor has leaked some screenshots of the Office 14 alpha build that was handed out to select testers this week.

The build is pictured below installed onto Windows 7 and it doesn't appear like the UI has been overhauled yet and remains very similar to Office 2007.

Microsoft's Daniel Kornev asks:

Without any comment on whether these images are representing office 2009 or not - call to community:

Do these images represent the steps into direction shown by Microsoft Visionary videos (produced by Office Labs)?

Stephen Chapman votes yes:

I think it looks interesting. Certainly quite a change already from Office 2007. As for the screenshot with, "Office Mondo Fourteen" in it, "Mondo" was a term used for Office 12 as well. Apparently, it carries over internally regardless of code number (as opposed to code name).
...
According to WZor, Office 14 will indeed be called "Microsoft Office System 2009," and the beta is said to start in may with the final release being planned for the end of the year.

Justin Mann was just in time: [That's just lame -Ed.]

Rumors have Office 14 due in 2010, but Microsoft may choose to time its release to coincide with that of Windows 7 later this year. For now Microsoft is expected to unveil details about the next-generation suite before the second half of this year.
...
You can tell that they will be giving other office suites a run for their money. Office has been a core component of Microsoft's business for a long time and they certainly don't want to let that go.

But Matt Burns's love for Office has extinguished: [You're fired -Ed.]

Microsoft Office used to be a solid desktop publishing suite but after every new incarnation, it gets more bloated and overbearing. The leaked screenshots of Office 14 reaffirms Microsoft’s need to reinvent the wheel in order to drum up more sales. Personally, I’m content with Office 2000 but have ascended into the cloud that is Google Documents. I don’t think there is a feature that Microsoft could implement that would make me wanna buy the whole ... package.

PicklePower urges caution:

Just remember that this is a very early alpha build. If you recall, the Office 2007 ribbon UI looked very, very different in early alpha builds. The new Office button page (File, Open, Save..) for some reason reminds me of some early prototype shots of Office 2007 ... Slide 70 and on show some of what I'm talking about. Maybe it's just all the steel blue gradients and such.

Still, I'd like to see some serious PowerPoint improvement...I've been getting pretty jealous of Keynote users lately.

As does gcnaddict:

It looks like Microsoft fell back to Luna with some of the designs for the controls. I'm not happy with it, but then again, Microsoft usually has a batch of 5 or 6 UIs they use with Office while testing before settling on one for launch. (I personally preferred the brushed aluminum look of Office "12" but Office "14" feels like they went back in time with the UI.)

And finally...

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Nortel turns page; starts Chapter 11
• Patch Tuesday serves critical fixes for all
• Wow, bloggers quite like Windows 7