Microsoft Office 2010

 

SPECIFICATIONS

Microsoft Office 2010

www.microsoft.com

System Requirements

OS: Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/7;

CPU: 500 MHz or higher;

RAM: 512 MB recommended;

Hard drive: 3.5 GB free

Contact      Microsoft India

Website     office2010.microsoft.com/en-in

Price  TBA

Verdict: Powerful and polished, there really isn’t any competitor to Microsoft Office. 

Microsoft Office 2010 launches three years after the 2007 edition blew us away. With its brand-new Ribbon interface, it  turned our perceptions completely on their heads. This version by comparison has only a few cosmetic changes to offer, and it seems that the programs are struggling to appear fresh.

The Ribbon now makes its way to every program in the suite. Outlook, Access, OneNote and Publisher had previously been left out (or spared, depending on your opinion). The major news is that you can reorganize tabs and chunks so that everything is where you prefer. You can even turn off entire tabs if you like. The freedom is welcome, but could make button placement even less predictable for those who aren’t sure which commands live where. Of the three color schemes, Silver was the only one in which button labels and sidebar text were easily readable.

The round ‘Office’ button in each app is now replaced by a color-coded ‘File’ button, which brings up what’s called the ‘Backstage view’, a full-screen dialog box which includes classic File menu operations such as ‘Open’, ‘Save’ and ‘Print’. The rest of the screen is filled with your document’s properties and shortcuts to common tasks. Sadly, the list of recent documents is now an extra few clicks away. ‘Open’ and ‘Save’ launch their usual dialog boxes, whereas ‘Print’ and the new ‘Save & Send’ options use the Backstage space. A new option, Save to Web, uses Windows Live SkyDrive for storage. The Print dialog now includes page previews to save time, but also gives you less space. The final ‘Print’ button is in the top-left corner, the opposite of its usual spot.

Office Live Web apps are launching alongside Office 2010, but we'll review those separately and in depth later.

Outlook

Outlook has received the most attention in Office 2010. The ribbon is actually quite pleasant to use, exposing more options but making some others harder to find. The neatest improvement is called Quick Steps, which are like one-click macros. You can create Quick Steps to forward the current message to a particular person, compose a new mail to a fixed set of recipients, categorize and archive messages, etc. Backstage View makes little sense in Outlook, and all account management functions are now inexplicably found here.

Mail display is the same except for an option to group messages into Gmail-style threads. It’s convenient, but will break if the mail subject is changed during your conversation. Category markers are a little less prominent than before, but a contextual Ribbon tab makes searches and filters easier to select. A new People Pane tries to aggregate social networking information from LinkedIn (and soon Facebook) about the people you communicate with. It’s a great idea, especially the tab that summarizes your prior email exchanges with that contact, but the pane can’t be repositioned and clutters up your screen.

Word and Excel

Apart from the Backstage View, there are new SmartArt templates for creating rich diagrams  as well as a pretty powerful photo editor that can handle brightness, contrast, cropping, recoloring and even artistic filters. A neat Screenshot tool saves loads of repetition. The Paste Options dialog now shows live previews of text formatting as you hover over options. A new Document Navigation pane shows page thumbnails and structure.

A new “mini translator” pops up when you hover over selected text. It includes the usual reference tools as well as a text-to-speech button.

Again, there isn’t much new on the surface, although business users get new automation and collaboration features. The biggest addition is Sparklines, mini graphs that occupy only a single cell. Seen alongside numerical data, these can help illustrate changes and trends. Sorting, filtering, and Pivot Table generation are improved as well.

PowerPoint

There are some fairly powerful video editing tools in addition to photo editing. You can crop, trim, and filter videos as well as give them transitions and effects. You can even choose the still that will appear in the video frame when it isn’t playing. PowerPoint also gains Merge and Compare features similar to Word’s reviewing tools. Slides can be grouped into collapsible sections within the Slide Sorter for easier management. One feature we love is that presentations can be broadcast over the Web for anyone to watch (after they sign in to a Windows Live service).

OneNote and Publisher

Both are frequently overlooked, and both are now more polished and inviting to use. OneNote is improved nicely by simply being able to dock to one side of the screen while you work with other apps. Documents and web pages can be linked to notes for quick referencing, although this isn't automatic every time like it should by. Pen input on tablet PCs is supposed to be more sensitive and it’s easier to apply styles and tags.

Publisher is also a lot more powerful than its previous incarnations. It’s easier to use snap guides to place and align objects on a page. The preset styles and color schemes are actually quite professional looking, and save a bit of effort. Typographers will appreciate OpenType support, including stylistic sets and flourishes. Surprisingly, the powerful photo editing capabilities in Word and PowerPoint are missing here.

Conclusion

It’s hard to see many reasons to upgrade from Office 2007, but anyone holding out with 2003 or older should consider making the jump now. Word and Excel, the two dominant apps, offer nearly nothing new, while Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote fans have plenty to be happy about. Of all the available packages, Home and Student edition will be the best value for most, containing everything thatcasual user would need.