Ed Baig
USA Today
Outlook in Office 2010 (Microsoft)
Microsoft is taking the wraps off the next major release of Office today, with an early peek at freshly-baked versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and several of the other business-oriented programs that comprise the company’s market dominant suite of software applications. Microsoft made the announcement this morning at its World Wide Partner Conference in New Orleans.
Microsoft hopes to reclaim some of the attention focused on Google, which said last week it was developing a new Chrome operating system that will compete against Microsoft Windows.
If Windows is the bread, then Office is the butter at Microsoft. Only techies invited by Microsoft will get an up-close look at a “Technical Preview” of Office 2010. A beta or test version that’s open to the public isn’t likely until the Fall, still well ahead of the expected spring or summer release.
And the Technical Preview doesn’t include a sneak peek of the brand new Web browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (notetaking software). Such online versions will be available free to consumers through Windows Live.
Microsoft didn’t announce pricing for Office 2010 either, but said it’s cutting the number of Office editions from eight down to five. That’s welcome — I always thought having so many versions was confusing. The Home and Student 2010 edition will include Excel, PowerPoint, Word and OneNote. The Home and Business version adds Outlook to the mix. Office Professional 2010 also includes Access (database) and Publisher (desktop publishing). The two other Office 2010 versions add capabilities aimed at larger businesses and enterprises.
Microsoft is hoping customers will continue to pay for versions of Office, even as more users access free online productivity-type programs, most notably Google Docs. In addition to its well publicized intention to unveil its own new operating system, Google lifted the “beta” tag last week on Google Docs, Google Calendar and Gmail.
The last major new release of Office, Office 2007, introduced the concept of a Ribbon, a strip at the top of Word (and a few other applications) which purported to make it easier for users to find the commands and tools that were needed for the task at hand. In Office 2010, Microsoft is spreading the Ribbon to all of the Office applications. I’ve grown accustomed to the Ribbon in Word and like it, though there definitely was a learning curve, so there may be some growing pains when the new Office arrives.
Office 2010 will also include a new “Backstage View” so that related but separate tasks are brought together in one place, along the lines of printing commands and tools that were previously scattered throughout the program (page layout, preview, print). Among numerous other features, Microsoft is adding video and picture editing to PowerPoint.
