Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

I was lucky enough to be invited to Microsoft’s Office 2010 technical preview program 3 days ago via email. I have since downloaded the key code and the 598mb .exe of Office Professional 2010 64 bit. I installed the new office suite which includes Word, Power Point, Outlook, Excel, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.

Microsoft has made some very interesting changes over Office 2007. The goal of the changes is to make you work more efficiently. With the use of Web applications you can make your work available anywhere. Also to make collaboration with others much easier overall.

Word’s new ribbion interface.

If you are familiar with Office 2007, then Office 2010 will be easy to get used to. The ribbon interface is almost the same. Familiar items are still in the same spots. But they have managed to make room for some new features as well. One thing I did notice right off the bat was how insanely fast all the programs open up. Before you get a good look at the opening screen; the programs are open and waiting. This may be due to the 64bit version I downloaded and/or my computer specs. But it seems like it does open alot faster than Office 2007.

I don’t really use any other programs besides Word and sometimes Power Point. So I will just stick to reviewing some new features of those two programs for now. As I haven’t had much time (maybe 9 hours ) to test out new the suite.

Word has been refined to make most of it existing features work better; with added functionality. Take for example the first time I pasted something to a document. I little window popped opened and wanted me to choose what format I wanted the pasted text to be in. Did I want to keep it the way I copied it or change it to match the rest of the document? While this is not a game changer; it is a good example of the refinements that Microsoft has made to the overall suite.

Another quick feature that I am pretty excited about; being a photographer. Is the ability to change photos after I have imported them to a document. Now let me say; I am well versed in Photoshop and Lightroom. But it will still be a big help to the average user. You now have the ability to make photos black and white, crop them, add drop shadows and a whole lot more. This is a nice improvement over Office 2007.

Overall I would say all the improvements to Word will be well received by the public. I like the ones I have seen so far and wish this product was out officially.

Power Point has been changed more under the hood than anything else. It is all about new features and how easily you can share presentations. With the Sharepoint feature you can invite anyone with a Live account to view your presentation. Great for businesses with employees in different locations

New features in Power Point are where the action is. Microsoft has added lots of new 3D transition tools and slide effects. In fact there are so many new features; I have not had time to try them all. One feature is the ability to overlay one slide over the next and then have it dissolve in to the new slide. Needless to say they are great new additions that will make power point presentations look better all around.

Office 2010 will not be released until early next year. But I am waiting on this addition patiently. Will the new features be enough to make most people switch?  I have no idea; but I can tell you it is a nice step up from Office 2007.

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5. Office 2010 UK pricing announced…twice!

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