Like Free Software? You'll Love Microsoft Office 2010

By Jeremy A. Kaplan

- FOXNews.com

Microsoft Office has been the best selling piece of software for five years running. How does the company plan to compete when it releases Office 2010 Wednesday? Make most of it available for free.

With the release of Office 2010, Microsoft will let users create, edit, and share documents online -- for free.

Microsoft Office has been the best selling piece of software for five years running. How does the company plan to compete when it releases Office

2010 Wednesday? Make most of it available for free.

To counter the popularity of Google's online Docs application, which bundles a word-processing tool, spreadsheet editing, presentation functionality and more into one free app, Microsoft is adding its own free online component: Web apps.

The Office 2010 suite, which Microsoft will release to business customers tomorrow and to consumers in early June, will include the ability to create, edit, view and share files online using the company's SkyDrive website. In fact, you won't even need to buy the program to use the online tools; Microsoft will make the majority of Office functionality available for free to anyone -- whether they've bought the new suite or not.

To use the online functions, simply visit SkyDrive.com (or the Facebook-ified version at docs.com). You can also save a file from one of the Office 2010 apps directly to SkyDrive. Then visit the file from any browser, anywhere you go, and click the edit button to bring up editing options. The free versions of these apps don't include all of the functionality you'll find if you buy Office 2010, but most users will probably find it sufficient.

So which is easier to use, Google Docs or Office 2010? Both are relatively straightforward programs, though Office adds some neat extras, such as the ability to broadcast a PowerPoint presentation across the Internet. Office Web Apps have a few rough edges still, but once ironed out they'll be very robust programs -- especially considering the price.

There's more to Office 2010 than just that, of course. Outlook fans will appreciate a new Social Connector feature, which brings the e-mail and calendaring program into the world of social networking. It lets you sync contact data with popular social networks, sharing status, pictures, shared documents and more.

Office 2010 Also adds a very neat "broadcast" function for PowerPoint presentations. The feature uploads your presentation to a secure website and gives you a unique URL to it; pass the URL to your friends or colleagues to create an impromptu presentation from wherever you are. It's a very convenient way to collaborate -- though to start such a presentation, you'll need to buy Microsoft Office 2010.

There are many other smaller improvements, of course, such as Excel's Sparklines -- a new data visualization technique that adds little trend lines into individual cells -- new text effects for Word, video editing functions in PowerPoint and so on.

But the biggest change users will encounter is hardly a new one at all. When Microsoft released Office 2007, the company rewrote the rules for interfacing software with "the Ribbon," a new user interface paradigm that bubbles up contextual commands -- in theory, just the ones you'll want for whatever you're doing.

The interface is polarizing: You either love it or can't figure out how to use it. And that's part of the reason MS didn't have a gigantic hit on its hands with the last version of its productivity suite. With Office 2010, the Ribbon expands onto all of the Office apps. Learn to love it, in other words -- and embrace the online future of Office.

Office 2010 sells in several versions. Office Professional, which includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, and premium technical support is priced at $499 for the full boxed copy or $349 for the product key card.

Office Home and Business sells for $279 in a box, or $199 for a product key that lets you download and activate the app online. This version includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, and Outlook 2010.

Office home and Student is priced at $149 for the boxed version and $119 for the product key card and includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, and the Office Web Apps. It is available in a Family Pack, allowing use on three PCs in one home.

Dissecting Microsoft Office 2010

computerworld.com — The soon-to-be-released Microsoft Office 2010 will offer users some exciting new changes, including a vastly improved Outlook and other snazzy features.

Click here for the full article: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9176254/Dissecting_Microsoft_Office_2010_?taxonomyName=Applications&taxonomyId=18

Microsoft Details Dates, Versions of Office 2010

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - by Jennifer Johnson

Microsoft plans to release its Office 2010 software suite in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, making it the first Office suite to support both versions. As its name suggests, both versions will be available sometime next year. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said "Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, and Microsoft Project 2010 are scheduled to enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010." After the productivity suite is shipped to manufacturers, Chris Capossela, senior vice president, Microsoft Office has said it takes six weeks to four months or more to reach PC users.

Applications included in Office 14 suite are Word 14, Excel 14, Powerpoint 14, Outlook 14, Access 14, InfoPath Designer 14, InfoPath Filler 14, Publisher 14, Groove 14, InterConnect 14, SharePoint Designer 14, OneNote 14, Visio 14, and Project 14.

One of the most significant new features of Office 2010 is the addition of a Web-based version of the software. Microsoft announced this feature at its Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles last September. The company has said there will be a free, ad-supported version. Microsoft is still working out fees for businesses who want a version without ads. A Web-based version would make it possible for Office to run on Linux or the Apple iPhone.

Office 2010 was formerly known by its codename, Office 14. As you’ll recall, Office 2007 was codenamed Office 12. Microsoft skipped “13” because it was supposedly suspicious and superstitious about the connotations associated with the number. Screenshots of the latest Office suite (in beta mode) were leaked in January.

Combined with Windows Vista, Office 2010 is set to push 64-bit onto the masses. Until Office 2010, the suite has only been available in the 32-bit flavor. The benefits of running Office in a 64-bit environment may not seem very exciting at first, but it could help expedite 64-bit adoption among other vendors. Moving to 64 bits also provides the ability to take advantage of more RAM than the 4GB limit that exists with 32-bit OSes. Theoretically, 64-bit systems can support up to 16.8 million terabytes, though other system limitations make that quantity of RAM unfeasible at the present time. In addition, users who access large databases and spreadsheets as well as those who use multiple programs simultaneously could benefit from the move to 64-bit.

Microsoft also plans to roll out Service Pack 2 for the Office 2007 suite on April 28th.