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Microsoft has said it will be a challenge to convince some consumers to buy its new version of Office.

"One of the biggest challenges..... Is to fight that perception that old versions of software are good enough," said Microsoft's Chris Capossela.

Office 2007 goes on sale to business in the US from the 30th November, the same date new operating system Vista is launched.

"Our business model of course allows you to keep using Office 2003 - the software doesn't really expire," said Mr Capossela, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Division.

Many Large businesses will have Office 2007 delivered as part of existing IT contracts but small business and individual consumers will need persuading to make the change. Once people have changed, they will need to master an overhauled user interface designed to give people simpler access to the features of Office.

Mr Capossela said: "One of the most compelling reasons to move to Office 2007 is the new simplified user interface, something called the Ribbon. It lets you get at far more of the power of the product." He added: "We've put in a lot of effort to redesign the interface but to make it still familiar but more natural."

To aid the transition Microsoft has retained all of the keyboard shortcuts in Office 2003 and is providing more than 50,000 help articles online. In addition, the firm also undertook hundreds of thousands of hours of lab research and received the feedback of the 3.5 million people who downloaded the most recent test, or beta, version of the software. Mr capossela said their research showed that the vast majority of the users adapted to the interface very quickly. "The people who take longer are the die-hard users; the expert Excel user, for example" he said.