Microsoft readies the next version of Office. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Microsoft says it has finished work and begun manufacturing the Office 2003 line of software that will begin shipping on new PCs at the end of next month and arrive in stores in October. There are new versions of the familiar Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook programs... .and some new add ons... such as InfoPath, OneNote and Live Communications Server. That's designed for corporate instant messaging. Lead product manager Dan Leach says pricing will be unchanged... .and Microsoft has decided to continue offering a discounted student and teacher edition of Office for 149 dollars...

"It was a pilot program when first introduced but with Office 2003 we have made the Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition a permanent part of the Office lineup of products. The one change that customers asked us to address was the fact that with previous versions of Student and Teacher, it was available to install on one machine but customers said hey, I have multiple machines in my home, I'd like to install it on more than one. With Office 2003 Student and Teacher edition, customers can install it on three different machines in the home."

Microsoft relies on the Office line as much as it does on Windows for software sales. It hopes a redesign of Outlook... with a new look and new tools for fighting junk email will help to convince many of its customers the upgrade is worthwhile. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.