Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Today

Thanks to slimy & nshahzad for posting this and many others who submitted this to our newsdesk.

Microsoft will release a Technical Refresh build (4407.1005) for Office 2007 Beta 2 today. The UI is at lockdown after about 1000 changes to the ribbon and a new silver scheme. Anything after this will be bug fixes.

B2TR is compatible with Windows Vista RC1 and comes in 5 languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. The Technical Refresh will be available for public download at a cost of $1.50. This fee is requested in order for Microsoft to be able to pay for bandwidth and shipping costs.

Jensen Harris has posted many performance and reliability improvements:

• Improved Ribbon (nearly 1000 changes)
• Top-left redesign of the programs (File Menu)
• Double-click the office button to close the window
• Silver color scheme
• Redesign of the PowerPoint Home tab
• Improvements to default styles for all objects (pictures, tables, charts, SmartArt, headers, footers, etc.)
• New Icons for all the products
• Usability improvements to the Office menu
• Send button in the form in Outlook

Beta 2 customers are expected to receive the update free of charge. A web patch, that is meant to be installed over Beta 2, is expected to be released for these users. The full install can only be used if the current Beta 2 is uninstalled. Public launch of Vista and Office 2007 is expected in early 2007. Three final editions will be released:

1. Standard Edition ($399 USD)
2. Professional Edition ($499 USD)
3. Ultimate Edition ($679 USD)

Screenshot: Three Themes Preview
Download: Download Office 2007 Beta 2 TR
Link: BPN Discussion
News source: Jensen Harris" Blog