Microsoft has finished the system code for Office 2007, concluding the company's largest beta program to date which generated an "unprecedented quantity of feedback". More than 3.5m people downloaded Beta 2, the company said.

Redmond's finest also confirmed the code's release to manufacturing (RTM), which it termed a "gold code milestone" on the road to the business release of the Office 2007 system, along with Vista and Exchange Server 2007 on November 30 2006. The general release will follow in early 2007, Microsoft said.

“We’ve crossed the development finish line, and the team deserves to celebrate,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade. It’s rewarding to be able to send this release off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity.”

In the US and Canada, trial versions of Office 2007 will be available via Office Online from December 1. This will be expanded to a further 13 international markets "soon after" the company said in the press announcement.

The new version of Office has an additional 50,000 help articles, some 400 new templates, and 35 new demos. Office Outlook 2007 has SMS support, allowing users to send and receive emails by mobile phone.

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