Business applications including the Office suite, Visio, OneNote, Project, and Project Server. Also includes the Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product, the Live Communications Server instant messaging and presence platform, and related messaging, voice, and conferencing products.

The next major release of Microsoft’s Office suite, code-named Office 12, is currently planned to arrive in 2006, and many of its features will be announced at the Sept. 2005 Professional Developers Conference. The Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product will is also due for a 2006 update, with improvements for unified messaging (such as voice mail) and enforcing corporate messaging policies.

Office Suite, Visio, OneNote

Microsoft’s most widely used client application for business, the Office suite, supports document editing, data access, e-mail, presentations, and collaboration.

(For a graphical overview of recent and upcoming business application releases, including the Office suite, OneNote, and Visio, see the illustration “Office Suite, Visio, and OneNote Overview“. For an overview of Office 2000 and XP versions, including service pack release history and life-cycle support dates, see the chart “Past Office Versions“.)

Business applications overview includes the Office suite, Visio, OneNote, Project, and Project Server. Also includes the Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product, the Live Communications Server instant messaging and presence platform, and related messaging and conferencing products.

The next major release of Microsoft’s Office suite, code-named Office 12, is currently planned to arrive in 2006, but design priorities for that release have not been made public. The Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product will probably be updated around the same time, with improvements for unified messaging (such as voice mail) and large-scale deployments.

Office Suite and Client Applications

In 2003 Microsoft updated its Office suite and Visio business diagramming product and introduced the OneNote note-taking application. Based on past release history, new versions of all of these products are likely to appear in 2006. Because of timing, it’s unlikely that the next versions will require the next version of the Windows client (code-named Longhorn) or leverage it to any great extent.

This section covers business applications such as the Office suite, Visio, OneNote, Project, and Project Server. It also includes the Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product, the Live Communications Server instant messaging and presence platform, and related messaging and conferencing products.

No future releases have been announced for Microsoft’s most popular business applications, with the exception of the Office suite. The next major release of the suite, Office 12, is currently planned to follow Windows Longhorn client in 2006. The Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product also has no scheduled new releases, apart from a new “Edge Services” gateway edition. However, the Live Communications Server instant messaging and presence product will get a significant update in 2004.

(For a graphical overview of recent and upcoming business application releases, including the Office suite, Project, OneNote, and Visio, see the illustration “Business Applications Overview“.)

The next major release of Microsoft’s Office suite, code-named Office 12, is currently planned to arrive in 2006, and many of its features will be announced at the Sept. 2005 Professional Developers Conference. The Exchange Server e-mail and collaboration product will is also due for a late 2006 or early 2007 update, with improvements for unified messaging (such as voice mail) and enforcing corporate messaging policies.

Office Suite, Visio, OneNote

Microsoft’s most widely used client application for business, the Office suite, supports document editing, data access, e-mail, presentations, and collaboration.

(For a graphical overview of recent and upcoming business application releases, including the Office suite, OneNote, and Visio, see the illustration “Office Suite, Visio, and OneNote Overview“. For an overview of Office 2000 and XP versions, including service pack release history and life-cycle support dates, see the chart “Past Office Versions“.)

Office 2003

The most recent version of the Office suite, Office 2003, was released in Oct. 2003. Office 2003 delivers better support for collaboration through integration with the Windows SharePoint Services Web site hosting and document management service, improves support for “smart client” application development through import and export of XML data conforming to custom schemas, and enables control of document and e-mail distribution through Windows Rights Management Services.