Microsoft Office 15 technical preview opens

Microsoft has launched its technical preview of Office 15, promising a full public beta this summer.

If we were building a new version of Office, we'd probably give it an exciting codename like Office Excalibur or Office Opossum – you know, something that stays with you while subtly bigging up the product (do not underestimate the opossum).

Not Microsoft though – no, Ballmer's babies have gone with the thoroughly unimaginative Office 15 which tells you nothing but that it'll probably be, you know, more of the same.

Save your party poppers

But perhaps we're wrong about that: "I'm not able to share too much about Office 15, but I can tell you Office 15 is the most ambitious undertaking yet for the Office Division," blogged PJ Hough, CVP of development, Microsoft Office Division.

And by that he means that the software will be capable of simultaneous updates of cloud services, servers, mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project and Vision. Doesn't it sound exciting?

We're also expecting full Skype integration into the new version of Office, video editing, some potential new apps, Metro-inspired styling and a thoroughly appropriate name like Office 2012.

We won't be hearing too much from the technical preview though, as all customers testing the early builds are bound by non-disclosure agreements.

Still, we're sure you can control your excitement until the public beta this summer – something which surely means a Windows 8 release date is not far behind.