The IW Center

Back in March, I interviewed Gray Knowlton who is the Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Office Infopath 2007. In that prodcast, he mentioned that Infopath 2007 forms will also be able to be rendered and filled out via a web browser. This is probably the number one feature request from customers around the current Infopath offering and it should enable many new scenarios for capturing data via electronic forms.

To get more details on this new solution, I spent some time recently with Christian Stark, who is also a Senior Product Manager in the Office Division. Christian was actually on the product development team for Infopath 2003 and has now switched the "server" side to handle the new Infopath Forms Services and the Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007.

In this prodcast, Christian outlines the functionality for Infopath Forms Services and the primary usage scenarios for this great new technology. He details how InfoPath Forms Services are hosted on top of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and talks about the deep level of integration between the two products. Christian highlights how Infopath forms can be used as the front-end to an existing back-end processes or line of business applications.  He also discusses how Microsoft has built tools to provide centralized forms management for enterprise customers.

Finally, Christian also reveals details on the new Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 which enables customers to deploy Infopath forms to THEIR customers over the internet. This server was designed primarily for customers who want to build a pure forms solution without some of the additional functionality that SharePoint Server provides, such as authentication or workflow templates. For example, a government agency could provide forms for their constituents (permits, tax information, license and registrations, etc) and have the ease of use and flexibility that Infopath delivers.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Infopath and am happy to see the next release supporting browser-based forms. Listen to the prodcast and see if you don't get as excited about forms as I do!

Click the links below to play audio (20:09)
WMA Audio
MP3 Audio

For more information on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, please visit the Microsoft website.

One of the more exciting things about the upcoming Microsoft Office 2007 applications is the new default file format in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Based entirely on XML, the new OpenXML file formats are smaller, safer, and more flexible. Gray Knowlton, a Senior Product Manager in the Office division spent some time with me on the phone discussing the benefits of the new file formats.

Gray highlights how the new formats will save disk space on your network (Word and Excel documents are approximately 50% smaller than previous versions), make your networks safer by not running macros by default, and will make it easier to recover data if necessary. He also explores how you can now inject XML data INTO an Office document, making it easier to automatically create or update information, without even opening the Office application. Gray also talked about the "Save as PDF" feature and ability to create XPS (XML Paper Specification) documents.

Click to Play Audio (16:20)
WMA Version
MP3 Version

For more information on the OpenXML file formats, please visit the Microsoft website. If you're a developer, you can learn more on the OpenXML specs at the OpenXMLDeveloper.org site.

Most customers are familiar with the two main boxes of Office applications, "Standard and Professional". With the 2007 versions of the main productivity applications, the boxes are evolving to include new technology and additional products. Now the main Office boxes for corporate customers will be "Standard 2007", "Professional Plus 2007", and "Enterprise 2007".

Today, we'll explore the two higher end sku's (store keeping units), Pro Plus and Enterprise.
Mark Alexieff, the Product Manager for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, spent a few minutes with me on the phone talking about why a customer might want Professional Plus instead of the Standard edition. In this prodcast, he details technology that will ONLY be available in the higher end SKUS, such as infopath forms integration, rights management, and enterprise content management components. He also touches on the additional applications included in Pro Plus; Access 2007, Publisher 2007 and Office Communicator (the enterprise IM client for Live Communications Server.

Take a listen to this prodcast to see why Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 might be for you.

Click the links below to play audio (16:43)
WMA Version
MP3 Version

For more information on Microsoft Office Excel 2007, please visit the Microsoft website.

In today's second prodcast, Anne Weiler details the newest offering in the Office System, Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007. The Enterprise edition of Office 2007 is intended for highly mobile employees who spend a lot of time in meetings or on the road. A superset of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, Office Enterprise 2007 also includes Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 and Microsoft Office Groove 2007. If you are a information worker who collaborates with people in other locations or even within other companies, the Office Enterprise 2007 product may be for you.

Click the links below to play audio (12:39)

WMA Audio
MP3 Audio

For more information on Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, please visit the Microsoft website.