Up until now, we haven’t known much about Microsoft’s plans for the next version of Microsoft Office except that they involve Web-based versions of the major Office apps, and that the suite wouldn’t show up in 2009. Today, the company announced more news about the upgrade, including its name (Office 2010) and general timing (technical preview version in third quarter of 2009, final version out the door in the first half of next year). It also released a public beta of Exchange 2010, the server side of its e-mail system, which will enable new Outlook features such as a “mute” button that lets you ignore a message thread.

With apps as venerable as most of the ones in Office, it’s always a challenge for a software developer to come up with significant new stuff that makes for a compelling upgrade. The main thing we know about new Office 2010 functionality remains the browser-based versions (and features in the traditional ones that let them work in tandem with the Web ones). But with Microsoft planning to release a preview version of Office 2010 in a few months, it may not be too long until it’s ready to reveal more. I’m particularly curious whether the radically new “Ribbon” user interface from Office 2007 will receive a major makeover–although the glimpses we’ve seen of Office 2010 so far suggest that any tweaks may be minor.

 
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