Microsoft has released a first beta version of the Office 12 productivity suite.

The test version of the software has been made available to a selected group of 10,000 customers and partners. The final version of the application is expected to be made available in the second half of 2006. The new suite’s main new feature is a user interface that Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates unveiled last September at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. The user interface will change with that task that a user is performing, which Microsoft expects will better inform users of the features that are available. Internal Microsoft research had shown that most features that users requested were already available, but that users had trouble finding them.

The new office version will also offer new tools for business intelligence (BI), offering features that will help employees find and analyse information. A second beta of the application will be made available spring 2006 to a wider group of testers. The software vendor is inviting interested tested to sign up online.