Scoble had this to say today:
I’ve been using Office 12 for the past few days and, I can’t go back. The Excel pivot table feature alone is worth paying hundreds of dollars. Alone.
And tables are finally really cool. PowerPoint is actually something I’ll use again. Creating a chart there is sure a lot nicer than I’ve been able to do on any Web site.
Steve also hasn’t been paying attention to our secret weapon: workflow. Try to stick that in your Linux server and smoke it!
And now I see there’s new extensibility in OneNote 12.
I’m a card-carrying member of the Web 2.0 Working Group, but there isn’t anything as cool as OneNote coming out yet. Sorry. Not even close.
I’d love to say the same, except I can’t. As I pointed out yesterday, the terms of the Office 12 confidentiality agreement prohibit me from discussing any aspect of the product. This information blackout applies to everyone except Microsoft employees, apparently.
Now, I know some very senior members of the Office group read this blog, so this is addressed to them: Loosen up! Give us a chance to give you some feedback in public. Sure, you’ll hear a few criticisms, some of which might make you want to change the product. You’ll also get a priceless boost in public awareness of a product that has the potential to be very, very popular.
Ed Bott 
You’re so right Ed. I’ve been extremely reluctant to do any real blogging about my Office 12 test experience, except to point to Jensen Harris and other Microsoft Office team bloggers who seem to have a green light to disclose a lot of what is going on with the beta. It’s terribly frustrating. There’s so much to write about but the terms of the NDA were quite clear and I’m not willing to test the boundaries.
Keep in mind that my comments are pretty darn basic (and you’ve seen a Channel 9 video that shows off most of it).
I’m forwarding this to the Office PR folks, though. I agree that it’d be nice to be able to more openly discuss stuff.
I couldn’t agree more. While in some ways I understand the Beta 1 NDA choice, I think it would be very powerful to let us start taking about Office 12 today.
Its an interesting contrast between Office and other product groups in Redmond. Like with beta 1, you could blog about the alpha bits.
I’m working with Office 12 and don’t have much else to blog about these days, hence my blog has gone silent.. just waiting to start talking Office 12.
Chris Kunicki
OfficeZealot.com
I understand their reluctance to let us talk about it, though I have to confess that I have blogged/posted about Office 12 to a limited extent — i.e. only to discuss those features that Softies have already publicly disclosed and I don’t really reveal anything they haven’t.
My good rule of thumb is that if Chris Pratley or Jensen Harris have blogged it then so can I.
-B-