We know by now that Windows Phone 7 Series isn’t finished. In fact, there’s still plenty about the new platform that we have yet to see, like the Office applications. But armed with some new information, we can speculate on what Microsoft’s focus will be for the productivity suite.

But first, some history. Microsoft Office on Windows Mobile has changed very little in the last decade. It offers very minimal editing functionality, nothing even close to what you get on the PC and Mac versions. The interface is difficult to use, the navigation is combersome (ever try to view a large spreadsheet in Excel Mobile?) and the tools are limited (forget about making a presentation in PowerPoint mobile…it’s STILL just a viewer!). It amazes me that a product so important to Microsoft got so little love in its mobile iteration.

All of this is likely to change with Office on Windows Phone 7 Series. We’ve seen the hub, above, which acts as a gateway to all things related to productivity on your phone. The hub gives you quick and easy access to all of your documents, whether they are stored locally or on a SharePoint server. We’re likely to see four Office applications on WP7S, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. And don’t expect to see the pivoting Metro interface used for these applications, because this UI is not conducive to creating content, but rather for consuming it (meaning, Metro with pivot is great for an Associated Press application, but not so great for a word processing app).

Here’s what they’re looking like in terms of features:

Word:

We won’t see copy and paste in Word, because “People don’t do that” according to Todd Brix of Microsoft in an Engadget interview. Instead, the focus of Word will be on the most common scenario: a coworker/friend sends you a document for review, and they want to see your changes. Word Mobile for WP7S will likely have some pretty solid commenting and editing features, perhaps similar to what we get on the desktop. You’ll likely be able to have Word track changes, making it easy for the other party to see what you’ve changed. Also, we expect better email integration, so you don’t have to go through the annoying process of saving, finding, and attaching a file to get it into an email once you’ve edited it.

PowerPoint:

With the graphical prowess of WP7S devices, it wouldn’t surprise me to see tools for building presentations, including the much-loved SmartArt feature. Don’t expect PowerPoint Mobile to be full featured, because most people aren’t going to create entire presentations on their phone. Again, Microsoft will focus on the commenting/editing aspect of presentation-making, giving the user tools to easily change the order of slides, add text, and send them back to the person that you received it from.

Excel:

Have you ever tried navigation a big spreadsheet on a Windows Mobile device? Even if you’re using a device with a high res screen like the Touch Pro2, the widest zoom option doesn’t give you an appropriate overview of the spreadsheet, nor does it make the text readable. Expect that with Excel Mobile for WP7S, thanks to pinch to zoom and various resizing options, working with an Excel spreadsheet will become MUCH easier.

OneNote:

We will see a complete overhaul of the OneNote application to work better with the desktop version, and offer similar capabilities for note creation. We should expect an interface that allows users to organize notes into various color-coded folders, and to search through many notes with ease. I also expect there to be some great collaboration tools integrated so that you can easily pass notes among your coworkers, get comments and revisions, and put it into a workable form.

We’ll hear more about Office later this spring. In the mean time, what do you think Office Mobile for WP7S will be like?