The Technical Preview of Office 2010, formerly codenamed Office 14, is scheduled to go live in just 49 days, at the start of July 2009, but fact is that Microsoft is already accepting registrations to the Community technology Preview build of Office 2010. What will testers get to play with? Well, the Office 2010 System, namely components such as: Access 2010, Communicator 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Publisher 2010, Visio 2010 and Word 2010. The Technical Program is broader than the Office 2010 testing Microsoft has run thus far for the Alpha version, but still quite limited, with access being restricted on an invitation-only basis.

“I'm pleased to announce this morning that the technical preview for Office 10 will be available in July. It's an invitation-only technical preview, and you all will have first dibs on those invitations. Very, very exciting for us, and we look forward to your feedback, and we look forward to delivering a great solution and platform for you with Office 2010,” said Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Windows business.

At Microsoft Tech•Ed North America 2009, the Redmond giant launched the Office 2010 the Movie website, an online destination designed to essentially provide a countdown to the availability of the technical preview for the next iteration of the Office System. It is also the place were users can register for the Technical Preview of Office 2010. Of course there's no guarantee that the software giant will invite all those who register to test the Office 2010 CTP.

“By registering you are signing up to be considered for the Technical Preview Program, you will be waitlisted for consideration to be invited into the Technical Preview Program. We will notify invitees in early to mid July,” Microsoft revealed. A broader, public Beta is planned ahead of the Office 2010 RTM which is scheduled for the first half of 2010.