office

Watching the growth of Windows Phone 7 over this past year has been an exercise in patience. Microsoft’s strategy of showing the customers what they were working on months ahead of an actual release is very different that what one would expect from a company like Apple, where they announce a product only after it was already in production. The advantage of Microsoft’s strategy is that they have received feedback from both developers and consumers on the different features and functionality that will be included or (in some cases) left out. I really think Windows Phone 7 will be a better product because of this strategy.

Hit the break for all of my thoughts on Windows Phone 7.

Here's a video of Microsoft demoing the latest build of Windows Phone 7 at the TechEd conference currently going on.

Cloud computing and enterprise was the focus of this session with Sharepoint, Office, Excel and Outlook being featured in this presentation. Overall, the UI is looking real smooth with some nice animations and transitions--in fact, it looks zippier than earlier demonstrations. While full document editing is not really plausible on a smartphone, they stress the importance and ease of document-commenting in WP7 and show off how that works. They do this by opening an email, then modifying an Excel document via Sharepoint.

Plus, that whole spell-correction/word prediction thing has this sorry-speller sold.

Check out the whole demo after the break, it's worth the few minutes.

[Thanks, wreiad, for the video & tip!]

Microsoft is certainly challenging Google in many areas recently, and services like Bing, MyPhone and Mesh show they can do it, too.

One big push for them in 2010 will be the new version of Microsoft Office.  The mobile version of course is a free beta download in the Marketplace but the less-talked about Web version is now in closed-beta testing as well.

This web version will also be viewable for many types of smartphones, not just Windows Mobile.  However, only Windows Mobile (and Symbian?),officially, will have editing capabilities, whereas the web-based version is view-only.  The phones/browsers that will work with the web version are the following:

• IE on Windows Mobile 5/6/6.1/6.5
• Safari4 on iPhone 3G/S
• BlackBerry 4.x and newer versions
• Nokia S60
• NetFront 3.4, 3.5 and newer versions
• Opera Mobile 8.65 and newer versions
• Openwave 6.2, 7.0 and newer versions

This is certainly an interesting  play by Microsoft to greatly expand their Office suite, which is one of the few areas that most agree upon is actually a really good product. The challenge to Google should be obvious, though we suppose they too could beef up and selectively favor Android devices.  There are other exceptions too.  For instance, this is primarily for enterprise right now, not consumers and SharePoint is required on the back end for this to work.

Finally, the bigger picture needs to be looked at here: make no mistake, Microsoft sees cloud computing as the future. Windows Mobile 7 will play a major role in this change and today's apps e.g. MyPhone, Mesh, Marketplace, Office, Skydrive and even web-based Recite are all the tips of this iceberg.

[via ZDNet]

It should come as no great surprise that Microsoft's upcoming Office 2010 (now in beta) will bring a refresh to Windows Mobile. After all, we've covered it here and here. (And here's the one you really should watch.) But just in case you were worried that Microsoft was holding out until Windows Mobile 7, fear not. Office 2010 will be coming to Windows Mobile 6.5. Some features (such as Sharepoint and Exchange) will be dependent on your Exchange provider having upgraded to 2010. But you've been looking for another reason to bug them, right? [Microsoft via Mobile Tech World]

For better or for worse (or own Nokia Experts likely will be less than enthused), Microsoft and Nokia announced today that MSFT's Office Mobile suite is headed to the world's favorite Finnish smartphone maker and the Symbian platform.

Because we love bullet points, here's what's coming, in bullet points:

• The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote.
• Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
• Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server.
• Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center.

That's stuff that we've enjoyed on Windows Mobile, of course, forever. And it's a no-brainer for Microsoft to go this route. Nokia has 45 percent of the world's smartphone marketshare.

Full presser here, and video of the announcement after the break.

Sigh. We've complained already that Office Mobile 6.1, released last November and available to all WM6 devices, doesn't include the ability to create new documents on Standard Edition. Sure, there are ways around it, but that's a hassle.

Now find a way around this hassle: Office Mobile 6.1 won't let you save in legacy office formats, only .docx, RTF, and straight text. Foleo Fanatics¹ pointed this out yesterday and it sure seems to be the case. We know a lot of folks who haven't updated to the latest office and will be forced to find converters for this sort of thing (and woe betide any Mac user who doesn't have the latest office trying to get a docx document converted). We know you're proud of .docx, Microsoft, and we like alright too even if it's not really the completely standards-based XML you kinda-sorta promised us way back when.

So: workarounds? Save everything in .rtf rich text formats? Switch to Docs to Go (If and when the Pro version supports .docx)? Include an extra attachment with every document you send out detailing to your recipients how to convert the .docx format if need be? What do you folks recommend?

¹Making fun of 'Foleo fanatics' after the Foleo has been cancelled is beneath us. Besides, we sort of believed in the Foleo too. You guys keep fighting the good fight, we believe Palm will bring it back in '09!

Update: Lyle writes in:

I was just reading your article about Office Mobile 6.1 only saving to .docx. I am confused. The first thing I did when I got my phone was go to Menu>>Tools>>Options>>Default Template>>.Doc
Now, every time I write something in there and save, it automatically saves as .doc. I didn

Malatesta, who's also a superstar in our own forums, has a post up over that PPC Geeks detailing how to get the WM6 version of office on WM5. In other words, those of you who aren't lucky enough to have an upgrade on the way may still be able to get your edit on. Docs To Go is still probably a better option for you (or at least a less legally-murky option), however. In any case, WM6 and WM5 are so similar that this isn't likely the last time we'll see WM6 "exclusive stuff" show up on WM5 devices.

Mobile Office from WM6 has been successfully, ahem, ported to WM5 devices and works wonderfully.

Read: PPCGeeks.com :: View topic - WM6: Mobile Office works on WM5 devices (all)