So the cat is out of the bag! This morning, as the doors to Apple Expo opened, we officially announced the availability of Office 2008 worldwide from January 15 (dates will vary by markets). As part of the announcement, we also announced a new “Nordic Pack” that will include localized version of Danish, Finnish and Norwegian. Actually, Office is not the first product we offer in these languages; some of you might have noticed that the Messenger 6.0.3 update silently included them!

This means that between Office 2004 and 2008 we will have added 5 new languages (with Italian and Dutch for 2004). The localization team in Dublin has been working really hard the last few months to bring you all these flavours of Office 2008 (taking into consideration all the different flavours in the different languages, we will be signing off on 45 variations). In between the release of Office 2004 and now, we have been improving our processes to be able to introduce new languages in a more efficient and timely manner. It’s great for our team to see new languages coming to Office (for one, it keeps us really busy!).

We are now truly embarking the “Road to Ship”! With the new Mac Office 2008 website launched last week revealing some new features, it also means we can start showing Office in public! This starts this week at Apple Expo! I’ll also be showing Office 2008 at Apple Expo in Paris “en français s’il-vous-plaît!” So if you are around and want to discover the power of Office, drop by the Microsoft stand – 3 demos a day (12h30, 15h30 and 17h). I am really excited of finally being able to show you a product I’ve been working on for nearly 3 years now!

The show starts today and I will post my first impressions as soon as I have a few more minutes!

À bientôt!

Eric