Microsoft today released a customer preview of the next generation of Microsoft Office, which is optimized for both touchscreens and traditional desktops. While the new features of Office are definitely tailored to Windows 8, the suite will work on both Windows 8 and Windows 7. You can test it out now by going to the Office Customer Preview link. (Caution: download and installation is a bit slow.)

With Windows 8 hitting RTM (release to manufacturing) next month, Microsoft provided its first in-depth look at the next version of Office today. Microsoft has promised "touch everywhere," stylus control, and of course traditional keyboard and mouse input. In addition to the traditional suite, ARM-based Windows 8 devices will include Office Home and Student 2013 RT, containing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (but not Outlook).

Ars has been testing Office's pre-release versions, and we already have extensive articles detailing the features of Outlook, Word, Excel, and OneNote.