I downloaded Microsoft Office 2007 (Beta) a couple of days back, and so far, I like what I see. It has some pretty sexy interface features, quite a departure from the usual ‘File/Edit/…’ menu system of pre-2007 editions.

Only one snag though, the documents created with it are in advanced formats that “reduce file sizes, improve the recovery of corrupt or damaged files, and improve integration with external sources” – thus, pre-Office 2007 versions of Word etc can’t read them (although I could choose to save documents so that they are backward-compatible).

So, if you get sent one of these new-format documents that will eventually rule the roost, either

a) download Office 2007 (Beta) here, or
b) download a plugin here for your existing Office programs to enable them to read documents created with Office 2007.

Then I don’t have to do anything myself ;-p