Microsoft Australia has chosen a trendy Sydney nightclub for the daytime launch of Office XP.
Around 50 IT media representatives gathered this morning at Gas Nightclub for the long awaited unveiling of the software suite.
The theme drew on the popular television show "Get Smart" complete with shoe phones, theme music and Special Agent 99. All relied on Office XP to prevent choas - a reference to Kaos agents who featured in the hit television series.
But the skit was not all smooth sailing, with one of the leading roles forgetting his lines and a mix-up in a video address by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Guests were greeted by Clippy, a casualty of the Microsoft upgrade, who declared he was out of a job and now looking for work.
At the New York launch, Gates said: "The power of Office XP to unlock hidden knowledge will transform personal productivity, enabling people to easily access the data they need, capture and share team information and work more efficiently."
However, the product is seen by some as mainly benefiting corporate customers because its new features are geared towards work groups and Intranets.
The package now includes a virus security feature that blocks access to the Outlook address book. The feature has been available in the form of a download for over a year but the company has chosen to include it by default as too few people have been pro-actively installing it, as evidenced by the number of cases of worm viruses playing havoc with global server systems.
Office Standard edition will sell in Australia for AU$1,072.
