Office 2003 is expected to go to manufacturing Aug. 15, which is also when pricing information should become available, according to people familiar with the company's plans. Office 2003, which has been tested by about 600,000 users, is the upgrade to Office XP. The software was originally set to launch in June but was pushed back because of additional testing requirements.

The company is stepping up its quality assurance, stressing a new goal, called Milestone Q, of getting code clean and solid earlier in the development process, according to a Microsoft internal memo examined by CRN. Toward that end, the company will use more automated quality-assurance and testing tools such as Big Button and Buddy Web. Office 12 is also known internally as the Longhorn version of Office.

Thanks Fisher  ;)

I'm waiting to buy this one  :P

I can`t wait for it !!!!

Still the best office productivity suite around imho.  Looking forward to purchasing a copy or two.  Thanks for the update.  Have they set a release date?

Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003

Word 2003
Excel 2003
Outlook 2003
PowerPoint 2003
Access 2003
Publisher 2003
Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager
This edition includes additional support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) and information rights management (IRM) content creation and authoring.

Note  InfoPath 2003 is included in Professional Edition


Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003

Word 2003
Excel 2003
Outlook 2003
PowerPoint 2003
Publisher 2003
Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager

Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003

Word 2003
Excel 2003
Outlook 2003
PowerPoint 2003

Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003

Word 2003
Excel 2003
Outlook 2003
PowerPoint 2003

Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003

Word 2003
Excel 2003
Outlook 2003
PowerPoint 2003
Access 2003
Publisher 2003
Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager
InfoPath 2003
Note  This edition includes additional support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) and information rights management (IRM) content creation and authoring.

what is infopath?

OK; Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003 is the edition I am after. :)

http://www.microsoft.com/office/prev...h/overview.asp

ok thanks.  i think all i need is the student version.

I'm looking forward to Outlook 11 (is it?) and its more secure email handling :)

REDMOND, Wash. - Aug. 19, 2003 - Microsoft Corp. today announced the completion of the core products in the new Microsoft Office System and has released all products to manufacturing, marking a critical step in the delivery of the company's most powerful and valuable release of Office.

The Microsoft Office System is composed of industry-leading productivity programs, servers and services, and includes programs such as the Microsoft Office 2003 editions, and the 2003 versions of Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint?, Access, Outlook?, Visio?, FrontPage? and Publisher. The abilities in the core products can be extended in Microsoft Office System solutions by taking advantage of the productivity-enhancing capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint? Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and the three new programs: Microsoft Office InfoPath? 2003, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 and Microsoft Office OneNote? 2003. The Microsoft Office System is the result of one of the largest and most successful development efforts and beta tests in Microsoft history. More than 600,000 beta testers ? approximately three times the participants in previous beta tests ? provided Microsoft with detailed feedback over the past year, allowing the company to develop the most innovative and stable Office products to date.
More info:
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/aug03/08-19MSOffice2003CompletePR.asp