We've just posted our Microsoft Office 2007 review. Like the wait for Vista, Office 2007 development seems to have to have gone on forever.

I could do the popular thing and sound the death knell for Microsoft Office by claiming excellent Web 2.0 office software will end its dominance (Google Docs lets you do your work in a web browser and save it online so you can access all your documents and files from any computer) but I won't. Despite valiant advances by OpenOffice, Microsoft Office remains the best (and only) option for most white-collar workers.

The reason I say 'only option' is because of that contentious issue of document formats. Microsoft is using a document format called Office Open XML, which is different from the one used by OpenOffice, and one which Microsoft controls. The main fear remains: a Microsoft Office document won't display correctly in competing products.

So, until Microsoft uses a 100 per cent open document standard, which it won't change willy-nilly and can be viewed as universally as, say, an ASCII .txt file, we'll be tied to the product.

A small feature, one we as journalists really appreciate, is the new running word-count. It counts the whole document or a highlighted section and sits in the status bar. Students will like it too if they're trying to hit a target word count.

Finally the licensing scheme appears to remain the same. I delved into the license agreements for the different versions and found that for retail versions of Office Basic, Professional and Small Business editions:

1. "You may install and use one copy of the software on the licensed device."
2. "You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device."

The license agreement is more generous in the "Office Home and Student" edition (since home/student users have got the least to lose going to the free OpenOffice or Google Docs):

"You may install one copy of the software on three licensed devices in your household for use by people who reside there. The software is not licensed for use in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating business activities."

For OEM copies, i.e. those bundled with new PCs, all the licenses state the software can only be used on the computer it ships with.