Just got this email...
We've done it! We are pleased to announce that Microsoft Office System has released to
manufacturing! With your efforts in the Office 2003 Pre-Release program helping to provide us
with greater amounts of higher quality feedback than we've ever had before, we will ship the
greatest set of Office products yet! We wish to extend a hearty thank you for your
participation in the pre-release program. You helped make Office 2003 Editions, FrontPage 2003,
OneNote 2003, Visio 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager,
SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services GREAT!
We will begin 'ramping down' our pre-release program, systems and tools using the following plan
and timeline:
*Newsgroups*
- On August 25th, most beta O11, SharePoint and Visio newsgroups will be closing down.
- Through September 26th, we will maintain the microsoft.beta.sharepoint,
microsoft.beta.o11oep.sharepoint and microsoft.beta.o11iep.sharepoint newsgroups only, to allow
for migration of hosted SharePoint sites (see below).
*Bug Reporting Forms*
- After August 25th, bug reporting forms at betaplace.com will no longer allow bug submissions.
*Hosted Windows SharePoint Services Sites*
- On August 26th, a migration tool, smigrate.exe, will be posted to betaplace.com for download
in order to move hosted WSS content to a 3rd party hosted environment. Additional explanation
will be available on the betaplace.com website.
- From September 8th through September 12th the hosted environment will be offline for upgrade
to RTM. Service will return on September 12th.
- On October 31st, the Hosted Windows SharePoint Services sites will be taken down.
*Product Support*
- On August 25th, beta support through the pre-release program for Microsoft Office System
products will cease.
*BetaPlace Website*
- On October 1st the Office 2003, Visio 2003 and SharePoint 2003 betaplace.com websites will be
taken down.
What can you expect next?
*Newsgroups*
- public newsgroups are available for continued discussion and peer to peer support athttp://microsoft.com/office/community/
*Bug Reporting*
- you can provide feedback to the Office product team by submitting feedback from within Office
2003 applications' Help option. Office Online will provide assistance for submitting feedback on
Microsoft Office System products.
*Product Support*
- Options for Microsoft Product Support for shipping products can be found at:
http://microsoft.com/office/support/default.asp
*Trial, Evaluation and Full Purchase Products Availability*
- The following two links will be updated soon with Office 2003 information for your reference:
http://microsoft.com/office/techinfo...uy/default.asp
*Gifts for Technical Beta Testers*
- We appreciate all you have done to help us test our products. Gifts will be shipping to you
by October.
Please email the administrative alias for your beta program with any questions.
Thank you,