The next version of Microsoft office is under the pipeline and Microsoft says that it has started running the preview program for the same for a selected group of customers. Unlike other up gradations the new version of Microsoft is projected to be much bigger and wider. It has been codenamed as “Office 15” and will combine the core features of software suite along with the cloud based applications and mobile platforms.

Microsoft confirmed the same in a blog post and appeared evidently excited about the new change. Microsoft observed it is the first time some one outside to the company will view the new Office software, though they dint shed any light on who the technical experts would be. Everyone is bound by the non disclosure agreement and Microsoft said the team of technical aristocrats viewing the new Office was nominated by the sales team itself.

The new Office 15 has been widely popularized as the most the most ambitious project and under taking of the company and aims to combine its core features with mobile and cloud based usage.

It promises to deliver new and updated versions of:

– Office, and its core programs of Word, Excel and PowerPointa

– Office 365, the web-based tool that’s often compared to Google Docs

– Exchange, the email-management tool

– SharePoint, the enterprise content management system

– Lync, an enterprise messaging and conferencing tool

– Project, a project-management program

– Visio, a diagram editor

It is clear that Microsoft has realized the need to go portable with cloud based services and mobile compatibility. The recent times have seen Microsoft push it products deeper in the mobile arena, especially after the releasing the apps for SkyDrive, OneNote and Bing on various platforms like iOS. Besides, it must be noticed that Microsoft offers 25 GB of storage space on its coloud based storage system – SkyDrive and 5 times the space provided by other serviced offered by competitor, for instance its Dropbox.

In case you are wondering when the new Office will be released to the world, you may have to wait a little bit longer. It has been predicted that the Office 15, or whatever the name be in the end, will only be released after the release of its Microsoft Windows 8. The new windows 8 offers a complete overhaul of it core Operating System and has features like new user interface, touch screen integration and etc. Office 15 is said to be the office suite which will work with Windows 8.