All my other emails to steveb have been about security and IE for the most part. This next one is going to be about Office 12, not just a request for features but for some reason it seems my beta copy hasn't come yet. He hasn't replied to any of my email messages lately, I hope his spam filter isn't accidently filtering my emails...You can get some information (what little is out there) from here.

To:steveb
From: El Roberto
Subject:Office 2006

Good morning Steve!

I have been reading about the next version of Office with much excitement, and wanted to add a couple of comments about items that may help with getting people to upgrade. I know during every release you fight with the 'what I have is good enough' mentallity and anything I can do to help you bring the masses to the next level, I am more than happy to assist with.

Some of the things I would personally like to see come down the pipe with Office 2006 are

1. More XML compliant on the back end. I understand the want to keep your data formats proprietary, but this is no longer viable. Consumers *want* to be able to use threir documents in whatever application the feel like. The 'other guys' are going to reverse engineer your formats and allow their apps to read it any how, so quit being a pain in everone's ass and just play nice. The consumer is the target audience here, and as much as most of them may not even know it, they want this feature.

2. WinFS should be out by the time the next version of Office comes out (yeah, I know, this is probably a 50/50 with Microsofts track record with WinFS). I would like to see some components rewritten to work seemlessly with, really integrated and not hondge-podged together as so often happens when Microsoft 'adds' features.

3. Give me a decent spam filter. The one in Office was a good start, I am not going to deny that, but it quickly became something that was easily defeated. Gives me something that isn't so linear and is more componetized and can be replaced/expanded over time.

4. Include One Note with Office. One Note is *the* bomb. One Note is an awesome application that would be even cooler if it were to get some mainstream attention. The kind being included with the new version of Office would provide.

I think that is it. I don't think 4 things are such a demanding list. I do think some of the things I have seen listed as 'going to be included' are nice, like some of the new tools that help you manage information flow and manage the data sources it comes from.

I know you are a busy man, and I will let you get back to whatever you were previously doing. I did notice, if you have the time, I haven't recieved my beta copy yet. If you could send off an email and check on that for me, I would owe you a big one. Stop by and have a look at the blog, I hit 100 posts the other day ;)

Bob