Microsoft Office 2007 is due out on January 30 and is favorably reviewed by Walter Mossberg for the Wall Street Journal, even while taking note of the shortcomings (link here). He likes the change in the radically new interface, is ambivalent about the new file formats which cannot be read in older Word versions without free conversion software, and then notes that the learning curve is steep, even for someone as computer expert as he. The much-cheaper but still expensive household version of the new Word lacks Outlook which must either be purchased separately or as part of the more expensive Standard version. His bottom line is, it helps business users but not the home user. Read the whole review for more details.

From where I sit, it is hard to see how this is worthwhile for most of us. In other words, it is standard Microsoft strategy to extract more money from us by creating obsolescence in the market place without really significant product improvements. Go for the free office suite, Open Office, downloadable at OpenOffice.org, which uses most file formats and is powerful at formating. It has made steady improvements to keep the program compatible with MS Office and no doubt will continue.