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Cheap Office Starter comes with a price.

 

The answer? Introducing the “Product Key Card.” This little jewel will likely make it possible to buy a download version of Office for a bit less money, but here’s the catch - (did you know there was one, somewhere?), the product key is valid for only a single download copy. And, don’t spend a lot of time figuring out ways around this, folks; trust me when I say that MS has already spent the time and effort to make sure when they say single, they mean single. 

 

What else is new at Microsoft today? Well, at MS they say that the new “click-to-run” download method isn’t anything of interest, but there are a lot of industry and product analysts out there begging to differ. The technology, which allows you to begin using Office with only partially downloaded code, is apparently an excellent market segue into online application subscriptions that we know are coming.

 

Finally, the final code for Exchange 2010 was delivered last week. Release is due sometime in November. For the non-corporate user, folks using Outlook at home will have to wait for the Office 2010 release scheduled to actually hit the streets in 2010 (what do you know!). The only cool feature folks are really talking about is the thread editing - a nifty little feature that will let you ignore some threads of conversation. Remembering my corporate days way back when, I often wished I could turn some of the endless “cc” mails out. On the other hand, I wonder how many phonecalls will now ensue because even more folks will want to call just to make sure you got that email. 

 

The touted feature, although I don’t know why, is called “MailTips.” According to Microsoft’s Rajesh Jha, "MailTips is kind of like a guardian angel before you send the mail," (oh oh - am I the only one that gets a weird shiver when I think of MS as any kind of guardian angel?) “For example, it will warn a user if they are about to send an e-mail to a large distribution list or if they are going to send an attachment outside their company's firewall.” You know, maybe I’m out of touch as a little home user here, but if I just spent the time and effort it usually requires to send an email to a large group of people (even a list/group!), I am fully aware and cognizant, and I don’t think I’ll be taking very kindly to yet another delay in getting it out of my hair when a “guardian angel” pops up to tell me again what I am about to do. Maybe I’m just cranky.

 

So, there you have it. Another fun and fascinating day at Microsoft Office land. Still no word on the MS Word lawsuit - or at least nothing that actually changes anything for now. Go back to your typing, and feel free to send those “docx” files until further notice.