Office Newswire: Office 15 begins technical preview – 2.1.2012

Today’s Newswire is brought to you by the number 15.

As in…

1. It has been said, everyone will experience 15 minutes of fame.
2. I was 15 when I had my ear pierced (to be like Andre Agassi).
3. Just last month, I celebrated 15 years of marriage.
4. This list has 15 items.
5. In Mexico (& Latin America), the 15th birthday is very significant.
6. In the USA, the 15th birthday is also important (to teenagers) and scary (to adults).
7. Someone made a movie about 15.
8. There are 15 things worth knowing about coffee.
9. 15 is the constant of a 3×3 magic square.
10. My favorite version of Chapstick has an SPF of 15.
11. There are 15 minutes in a quarter (in an hour or in an NFL football game).
12. Major League Baseball is going to mess with tradition and have two, 15 team leagues (not cool).
13. Combined, Nadal and Djokovic have 15 Grand Slam Singles titles.
14. I’m still deciphering the meaning of 15 steps.
15. It feels like 15 years since we heard something new about Office…

Which brings us to today’s Office Newswire…

Office 15 news!

Let the speculation begin! Microsoft made the announcement and then offered little to no details. Look for a public beta late this summer. What happens after that? Let’s speculate!

• “Office 15” begins technical preview :: Straight from the horses mouth, PJ Hough (CVP of Development, MSFT Office Division), announces Office 15 has begun the Technical Preview phase. This news is exciting as it is a harbinger of more news to come. The bad news here is that the Tech Preview is already filled. But fret now, Summer is only something like 15 weeks away (well maybe more but today’s number is 15). And when Summer arrives, so will the public beta. Stay here at the newswire and we’ll keep you up-to-date. For now, read what the usual tech journalist suspects have to say.
• Microsoft Office 15 technical preview kicks off :: I had to re-read this headline several times. To me, it reads like a sentence fragment. I’m left wondering what did the Office Tech Preview kick off? A brood of vipers? The Super Bowl? A Microsoft Office enthusiast-geek frenzy? I’m going with option 3. This article is from Mary-Jo Foley doing what she does best… raising questions and making speculation. Watch her… she’ll be so close to correct on her hunches you’d think she has access to Steve Ballmer’s tablet.
• Select testers get first Office 15 preview, new cloud services emphasized :: A thoughtful reading of the tea leaves by Scott Fulton of ReadWriteWeb. As the title suggests, he is most interested in Office and the Cloud.
• What does the Office 15 schedule say about Windows 8? :: Windows and Office have a bit of history. Ed Bott reminds of the recent release histories of both products. From Mr. Bott’s article, you can quickly surmise that Microsoft is attempting something epic. Watch out Apple & Google.
• Office 15: to metro or not to metro? :: In a rare encore performance (I typically refuse to list more than a single item from a single source), here, again, is Mary-Jo Foley. Here she ruminates on one of the most intriguing Office 15 plots… will it go Metro? Lots of questions about this one and Ms. Foley raises them all. It will be fun to watch the plot unfold.

Office tips, tricks & tools

A smorgasbord of Microsoft Office-related good stuff…

• Infragistics buy SharePlus Office Mobile Client :: I noticed this item because, in my heart-of-hearts, I am a developer. Plus, this is the app I use to connect to my SharePoint sites (on-premise & online). It works great. This was a smart purchase by Infragistics.
• 6 ways to sreamline your tasks in Outlook :: I have my own system and I have promised to share it with you. My word is my bond. You can count on it. But for this week, read this item from Microsoft At Work. It might be overkill but then it again, you might learn something.
• Use error checking to correct common errors in formulas :: This is an underrated feature in Excel. It’s like a code debugger… but for Excel formulas. Use this tool to watch your formula calculate one-step-at-a-time.

Office developer items of note

• VSTO Stocks :: From Codeplex, here is a VSTO-based add-in for Excel that retrieves and analyzes stock history. It exists to illustrate VSTO features. So download it and take a look.
• SharePoint 15 technical preview managed Object Model SDK :: I suppose if you are in the Office 15 Tech Preview, this SDK will be interesting and useful. If you are not in the Tech Preview, this SDK will be interesting only cause frustration.
• How Microsoft can win the developer war :: According to the author, it’s won with something called “platform unity”. I thought he was going to say free espresso and stock options. I was incorrect. But he is onto something. Microsoft’s stack integration has always been compelling. If they can extend that integration to the so-called 3 screens and make it easy for users to purchase our apps, via an App Store (sorry Apple, you don’t own the term), it will be very compelling. Developers, Developers, Developers! Bring it.

Cutting room floor

News of note but not really worth a comment.

• What would you like to see in Microsoft Office 15? :: Seems a bit late to ask this question.
• Five things Microsoft should do in Office 15 :: Seems a bit late to offer this advice.
• Acting on file management feedback :: This item deals with Windows Explorer in Windows 8. I found it interesting in a very nerdy, don’t-admit-it-publicly-to-anyone-kind-of-way.
• Bill Gates discusses Steve Jobs, iBooks, and Education
• How Steve Ballmer made Microsoft a better company