Microsoft Office 2010 gets connected
By Paul Taylor
Published: June 10 2010 22:51 | Last updated: June 10 2010 22:51
When I first got a personal computer – an Apple II, nearly 30 years ago – I played Pong for fun, used WordStar for word processing and put numbers into VisiCalc, the pioneering spreadsheet program.
Eventually most so-called personal productivity applications coalesced into heavy-duty software suites such as Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, Apple’s iWork and the open-source Open Office. Today, one of their biggest challenges is to compete directly with web- or cloud-based versions, such as Google Docs .
On Tuesday, the latest version of Microsoft’s flagship office productivity suite, Office 2010, goes on sale to the public. I have been running the “beta”, or trial, version of Office 2010 for six months, and the final code since it was made available to corporate customers a month ago.
For the first time, Office 2010 includes slimmed-down versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote – under the umbrella term Office Web Apps – that allow users to view, edit and share documents online, something I have found particularly useful whenever I am away from my home PC, and help make Office users more connected.
The Web Apps – accessed via the Windows Live service – complement their desktop counterparts rather than compete directly with rivals such as Google Docs or Zoho Office, which generally offer richer features. Nevertheless, Microsoft clearly introduced Office Web Apps to try to halt defections to free or low-cost online alternatives to Office.
Microsoft has also priced Office 2010 aggressively – you can download the basic Home and Student version, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, for $149 (£110 in the UK), or buy it loaded on a new PC for as little as $119 (£90). Boxed retail versions cost more.
Although Office Web Apps are one of the most dramatic additions, there are also plenty of small improvements and tweaks to the main desktop apps that, taken together, represent a significant upgrade.
The verdict
Microsoft Office 2010
Pros: Significant but low-cost upgrade to Office 2007; lots of new features to improve productivity; adds web-based apps.
Cons: Somewhat cumbersome.
Unlike Office 2007, when Microsoft introduced the controversial “ribbon” interface along the top of most of its desktop apps, there is just one big interface change in the latest version: the inclusion of the ribbon on Outlook, Microsoft’s e-mail, contact management and calendar desktop app, making it feel much more integrated into the Office suite. Office 2010 users can now customise the menu ribbon in all the desktop apps to assemble the commands they use most often – which should help satisfy critics who felt the ribbon lacked the simplicity of the old Office menu bar.
Overall, Office 2010 will feel familiar to anyone who uses Office 2007, and the version of the software available on Tuesday is very similar to the beta version, which was Microsoft’s most extensive software trial to date. More than 5.5m users downloaded the beta code, which expires in October.
The competition
WordPerfect Office X5
Pros: Rival manufactured by Corel, which commands a significant minority following; clean interface; file-compatible with Microsoft Office.
Cons: Relatively pricey.
OpenOffice 3.2.1
Pros: Free, open-source office suite that is mostly compatible with its rivals.
Cons: Occasional compatibility issues.
Google Docs
Pros: Free, web-based productivity suite that includes word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps; clean and easy to use.
Cons: Requires internet connection.
But there are also enough nifty new features and productivity enhancements to keep potential buyers interested. My favourites include PowerPoint’s Broadcast Slide Show, which enables users to show a presentation remotely to anyone who has a web browser, while another PowerPoint option called Video Tools enabled me to pull in, edit and trim video clips from within the application.
I also like a new feature, the Backstage view, which includes several new options for creating, printing, saving and sharing a document as well as information about recent versions of the document and the “permissions” (who can do what) associated with it .
Among the core Office components of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the latest version of Word has new features that make it easier to create visually exciting documents, while new tools in Excel make it easier to visualise complex data.
However, it is Outlook that has undergone the most dramatic – and long overdue – changes.
Some, such as the option to view all messages in an e-mail thread, rather than in purely chronological order, match those already available in Google’s Gmail. Others make it easier to manage, delete and organise messages (including deleting a whole e-mail thread), add new e-mail accounts and configure automatic “Out of Office” replies.
I also like the new Quick Steps feature, which makes it easy to create e-mail rules that apply to specific messages – for example, I got it to forward all messages from the boss to my personal e-mail. Other tweaks make it quicker to create a team calendar or set up meetings. Another new tool, Social Connector, enables users to connect to popular social and business networks, including Microsoft SharePoint, Windows Live and third-party social networking services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace.
Overall, these changes transform Outlook from an ageing desktop e-mail app into a modern communications-management tool that can compete with the best of the rest, including applications such as Mozilla Thunderbird and Gmail.
It is difficult to argue that Office 2010 is a “must-have” upgrade for Microsoft Office users because, for the most part, the Office 2007 components work reasonably well.
If, however, you are a particularly heavy Outlook user or rely on Office to run a home business, then Office 2010 is worth the investment.
paul.taylor@ft.com
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