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At PDC, Microsoft have also demoed Office 14, the successor to Office 2007, slated for release either in early 2009 or closer to the release of Windows 7.

The key new features are due to its integration with the Windows Live Mesh, which shows Microsoft is really thinking about cross-device collaboration.

• Several users can open the same document at the same time, without being locked out, and collaborate. You get a little notification saying someone else has changed this part of the document, and you can accept their change or communicate with them (email, IM, call).
• There will be web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote,  similar to Google Docs
• There will also be Mobile versions, which can also get in on the collaboration act
• The gist of this is that several home/office PCs, web browsers and phones can all collaborate on the same document at the same time, receiving and providing real-time updates to/from each other. This is a big mashup of simultaenous editing, online storage, instant messaging and whiteboarding.
• The Ribbon interface, which has proved popular in Word/Powerpoint/Excel etc is being ported to Visio and Project

This new version of office won’t be tied to Windows, nor Internet Explorer, nor Silverlight. It will work on Macs, Linux and the iPhone, in Firefox and Safari and across many other demographics.

Microsoft has said a technical preview of the Web-based Office apps will come later this year. Microsoft hasn’t explicitly said there will be a free version, though executives have said the apps will be part of Office Live, which has both free and subscription-based options.

We’ll provide more information as it comes!