Microsoft Office 2007 released to manufacturing

Office 2007 is slated for release to businesses on 30 November

Microsoft has wrapped up the development of its forthcoming Office 2007 productivity suite and released the code to manufacturing. 

The application is slated for release to businesses on 30 November, together with Windows Vista and Exchange 2007. The consumer launch is scheduled for early next year.

Office 2007 was originally scheduled for release by "late 2006" but the product's roll out was moved back to coincide with the forthcoming Windows Vista.

The productivity suite has been in beta since November last year and has since been downloaded by more than 3.5 million people, according to Microsoft.

The suite's main feature is a new user interface unveiled last year at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.

The interface is designed to change with the task being performed, which Microsoft expects will better inform users of the available features.

Internal Microsoft research had shown that the features most requested by users were already available in the software but were difficult to find.

Office 12 will also offer new business intelligence tools to help employees find and analyse information.