Microsoft sends out Office and SharePoint 2010 SP1 invites

Microsoft has sent out invitations to lucky participants for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1. For the lucky ones that actually receive an email about the Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 SP1 beta, they will need to complete a survey which will be reviewed before being accepted.

Although Microsoft just released Office 2010 four months ago into retail outlet stores, it seems the company is quickly improving their software for not only Windows 7, but Office as well.

No further information other than the invitation emails were provided, but we can speculate that programs like Outlook will receive a hefty update, including the ability to send SkyDrive photo albums and pictures to friends, as seen in Windows Live Essentials Mail. Many other features and improvements found in Windows Live Essentials 2011 may be included into Office 2010 SP1 early next year.

As the email explains, the beta is to begin later this calendar year, as posted on Geeksmack:

Hello Valued Microsoft Customer,

We are contacting you about an opportunity to participate in an upcoming Beta testing program. You may be a previous tester of Microsoft products, or someone who has been nominated. Beta programs are unique ways to experience product updates and provide feedback to the development teams. Later this calendar year we will begin an invitation-only beta testing of the Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Service Packs contain product updates since the product released. We would like to invite you to participate in the private testing of that service pack.

Call to action

If you are interested in participating in this Beta, and if you are already using Office 2010 or SharePoint 2010, please complete the application survey by following the link below. Upon completing the survey, your participation status will be set to ‘pending', while we review your submission. If you are selected to participate, you will receive a formal invitation to join the program. Due to the limited number of seats in this private Beta, we may not be able to accommodate all interested testers.

If you are already registered on Microsoft Connect, make sure to sign in with your existing registered Windows Live ID account to submit this survey. If you are not registered yet, you will be prompted to do so.

or copy the following URL and paste it into your Web browser's address bar:

Thank you for your interest, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

The Microsoft Office Customer Programs Team