Whats new in Microsoft Office 2010
Office 2010
February 6, 2011 Category: Featured, More, Uncategorized No Comments 
Whats new in Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 2010, codenamed Office 14, is a productivity suite for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and is the successor of Microsoft Office 2007 for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X. Office 2010 includes extended file compatibility, user interface updates, and a refined user experience. It will be available for Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 and Mac OS X. With the introduction of Office 2010, a 64-bit version of Office will be available for the first time, although only for the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.
Microsoft has confirmed that Office 2010 will be released in the first half of 2010 (around June), and a public beta was made available in November 2009.
Office 2010 will mark the debut of free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, which will work in popular web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari). A new edition of Office, Office Starter 2010, will replace the current low-end home productivity software, Microsoft Works.
Microsoft’s update to its mobile productivity suite, Office Mobile 2010, will also be released for Windows Phones running Windows Mobile 6.5.
Features
According to an article published in InfoWorld in April 2006, Office 2010 will be more “role-based” than previous versions. The article cites Simon Witts, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s Enterprise and Partner Group, as claiming that there would be features tailored to employees in “roles such as research and development professionals, sales persons, and human resources.” Borrowing from ideas termed “Web 2.0″ when implemented on the Internet, it is likely that Microsoft will incorporate features of SharePoint Server in Office 2010.
Microsoft Office 2010 will implement the ISO/IEC compliant version of Office Open XML (OOXML) which was standardized as ISO/IEC 29500:2008 in March 2008, though will also have the option of implementing as a setting the ISO/IEC compliant version of OpenDocument Format (ODF) v1.1, beyond 1.0 which was standardized as ISO/IEC 26300:2006 in May 2006.
New features are also said to include a built-in screen capture tool, a background removal tool, a protected document mode, new SmartArt templates and author permissions. The 2007 “Office Button” will be replaced with a menu button that leads to a full-window file menu, known as Backstage View, giving easy access to task-centered functions such as printing and sharing. A refined Ribbon interface will be present in all Office applications, including Office Outlook, Visio, OneNote, Project and Publisher. Office applications will also have functional jumplists in Windows 7, which would allow easy access to recent items and tasks relevant to the application.
Confirmed features of Office 2010 include:
- Refined Ribbon interface and Backstage View across all applications
- Background Removal Tool
- Letter Styling
- The Word 2007 Equation editor will become common to all applications, replacing MS Equation 3.0
- New SmartArt templates
- New text and image editing effects
- Screen Capturing and Clipping tools
- Live collaboration functions
- Jumplists in Windows 7
Office Edition Comparison
| Programs and Features | Starter | Home and Student | Home and Business | Standard | Professional | Professional Academic | Professional Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing | OEM | Retail | Retail | Volume | Retail | Academic | Volume |
| Pricing of Single Product key card (in USD) | Not available in retail markets | $119 | $199 | Not available in retail markets | $349 | ? | Not available in retail markets |
| Pricing for Boxed Full Version (in USD) (can be installed on 2 PCs) | Not available in retail markets | $149 | $279 | Not available in retail markets | $499 | $99 | Not available in retail markets |
| Word | Starter edition | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Excel | Starter edition | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PowerPoint | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OneNote | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Outlook | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Publisher | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Access | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Communicator | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| InfoPath | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| SharePoint Workspace (Groove) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Office 2010 Starter Edition
In November 2009, Microsoft released a private technical preview (beta) of the Starter Edition to select people. Office 2010 Starter edition is a scaled-down edition of Office 2010 that only includes Microsoft Word Starter 2010 and Microsoft Excel Starter 2010.
There are significant differences between the Starter Edition and other editions of Microsoft Office, such as:
- Included components: Office 2010 Starter edition includes only Microsoft Word Starter 2010 and Microsoft Excel Starter 2010.
- Reduced functionality: Office 2010 Starter edition only provides basic support for macros. It is unable to open the following file types: .xla, .xlam, .dsn, .mde, .accde, .odc, and .udl. Add-ins are also not supported.
- Supported operating system: Office 2010 Starter edition only runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
- License: Office 2010 Starter edition is only available to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for preloading on Windows PCs.Users who purchase these products however, are allowed to load Office 2010 Starter edition on a USB drive and run it on any computer.
- Inclusion of advertisement: Office 2010 Starter edition displays advertisements.
Office 2010 Starter edition is to replace Microsoft Works.
Office Web Apps
Microsoft plans to offer a free web-based version of its Office productivity suite, known as Office Web Apps, that will debut with the release of Office 2010.Office Web Apps will include online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. The web apps will allow sharing and collaboration of documents and files and also feature user interfaces similar to their desktop counterparts. It was also noted that the release does not include full functionality of the Office Web Apps and did not include the OneNote Web App nor the ability to edit Microsoft Word documents, however, these functionalities are enabled in the public beta release of late 2009.
Office Mobile 2010
The office suite for Windows Mobile by Microsoft will also be updated together with Office 2010. Windows Mobile 6.5 will be required to run Office Mobile 2010. New features include:
- Presentation Companion: The add-on to PowerPoint Mobile allows users to control a presentation through their Windows Phone and display speaker notes.
- Conversation View: Outlook Mobile will thread related emails into a group for easier reading and management
- SharePoint Workspace Mobile: The new application will allow users to sync documents from SharePoint servers directly to their Windows Phone for offline viewing and editing.
- Support for new content in Office 2010 such as SmartArt graphics and charts
It is unknown if Microsoft will release an upgrade to Office 2010 for existing Windows Phones running Windows Mobile 6.5.
