Office.About.com Munday:Harness the power of the mundane with one little Monday maintenance chore.

It's an exciting day for productivity! The rumors are a-brewing, so let me quickly summarize it as we all wait for Steve Ballmer's purported press announcement later today regarding the next version of Microsoft Office.

Since this productivity suite's reach affects most of us, today's maintenance task is to review some of the anticipated feature information I highlight below.


As for details of the new suite, here's what we do know:

• A new Microsoft blog site has been prepared, featuring PJ Hough, Corporate Vice President of Program Management for Microsoft Office. The first and only entry thus far includes this sentiment: "In my 18 years at Microsoft, I think this is the most transformational release I've worked on!"
• Due to announcements this past January, Microsoft intends to upgrade mobile and cloud clients simultaneously with this next Office suite release.

As of now, neither of these two names are yet official, but as far as speculation goes, this suite could be called:

• 'Office 2013' (because it would follow the suite's previous naming conventions)
  

• 'Office 15' (because it would coincide with the name for January's Technical Release of new office technology)

And here's the additional details we hope to know today!

• Will the new Office work on iPad?
• What are the implications for the Surface tablet?
• Will it still have the controversial Ribbon interface that some have loved and others deeply despised?

• When will the Consumer Preview ensue and when will the actual first consumer release of the product be?
• Will it include recently-acquired touch capabilities?
• Will it include Metro design for Windows 8?
• Will PDF-editing capabilities be included with this version?
• Will the cost change?

Please link out to anything that may be new to you.

I will be posting tomorrow's Newsday entry early, as soon as the press announcement is forthcoming, so please check back today!