Want to take the new Office 2007 for a spin to see what’s new but don’t want to actually install it? Microsoft has made Office 2007 available through a remote server login (Citrix client, I think). All you have to do is visit this page using IE 6.
When I first went to the site, it said that there was an 18 minute wait to get online, but I got in within 5 minutes.
First time I tried Outlook 2007, it started to load and then I got this (click to enlarge):
Okay…it’s a beta.
After that, it didn’t crash again. I really like the new calendar/task views. I also like Word’s format-on-the-fly menus and I didn’t find the ribbon difficult to navigate at all.
I can’t think of using the beta fulltime until I’m sure that it will sync with my PDA, but it’s a nice tease and a good way to learn your way around the applications before you have to worry about really using it.
Judi Sohn 
2 responses to “Office 2007 test drive”
Thanks but the MS registration process to use the beta was too intrusive and time consuming. Did you go through that whole process?
Most of the process was in setting up the Citrix client. After that was done, it was just a matter of signing in with a Passport account that I already have. Took maybe 3 minutes total, not counting waiting to get a seat at the table due to traffic.
Some folks are saying that this is a test for Microsoft to offer the software as an online application. I disagree. This isn’t a web application…this is remote login. Yes, on a large scale, but still more GoToMyMeeting or WebEx than Google Spreadsheets or Writely.