Office 2010 test version leaks onto Web

Public testing of Microsoft's Office 2010 suite wasn't supposed to start until July, but a leak on Friday of the software onto torrent sites has sped up that process.

I first heard about the leak Friday evening from this site, which also links to the torrent files themselves. (A word of caution, though--in addition to facing possible legal entanglements, those who downloaded the Windows 7 release candidate from unofficial sites recently found themselves unwittingly making their PCs part of a botnet.)

The leak included both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Windows software.

For those who just want a peek without the risk, ZDNet Australia has a screenshot gallery of an Office 2010 technical preview that we have posted to our site.

Screenshots: Office 2010 technical preview leaked

At last week's TechEd conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft said it would begin official testing of the new Office in July, with TechEd attendees among the first to get access to the code. (I originally called the conference TechNet, the name of one of Microsoft's developer programs.)

Among the biggest changes in Office 2010 is the fact that Microsoft will also start offering Office Web Applications--browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. That means the software should eventually find its way onto Linux-based computers and even the iPhone.

[odubtaig]

What are the chances these web version will require the absolute latest version of Silverlight? Won't be running them on Linux or ther iPhone then.

[cb3431]

As I understand it, Office 2010 will use Silverlight where available and a JavaScript version otherwise.

[don_bidarian]

I see some people don't like change.
I loved Office 2007 and I'm gonna buy this one. (I'm student, but office is one of the useful programs for students)

[RompStar_420]

Disappointed with Office 2007, I hate the ribbons and so does 99% of everyone here, fortune 500 firm.

If Office 2010 don't give us back the classic look, might as well switch to OpenOffice.org, that looks more classic and does pretty much everything that Excel can (less the VBA), but there is other scripting and macro languages.

[Jonnygthedrummer]

i agree

[Vegadan_Man]

If you are attempting to sound like you know what you are saying, you have failed miserably.

[sanenazok]

@star: ribbons are here to stay. Sounds like you should have started the switch to OpenOffice about a year ago.

[Chevalr1c]

Or else IBM Lotus Symphony or Sun StarOffice, because those are commercial programss (as far as I know) "your" company may get better "enterprise support".

By the way, OO.o will get a new GUI too, which is said to hold the middle between the "classic" lay-out and the ribbon stuff.

[rapier1]

I have my doubts about a fortune 500 firm being happy with OO. Don't get me wrong, its not a bad application but for complex documents its a bit on the unusably slow side.

[bashmohandes]

Are you kidding my, the Ribbons are AWESOME, I hate the ugly looking Office 2003 toolbars and side panels, the Ribbons ROCKS!

[Angmarr]

Ribbon is great Deal with change dude ... the 90's look doesn't last forever!

[BOTNET]

Totally agree, ribbons are great. There is however a learning curve for sure.

Fortune 500 companies?

1. Well, since Ribbons simplify your daily work and speed up things, then YES they are going to like Office 2007
2. Since Office 2007 supports (not that great but does support) OpenOffice then YES they are going to like Office 2007
3. Since Excel has 1mm+ rows limits (this is huge for finance folks in some companies), then YES they are going to like Office 2007
4. Since Default Graphs are much nicer, then YES they are going to like Office 2007

[MZLweasel]

Nobody likes change.

I really like how the ribbons look (really pretty), but I am still getting used to them after a year of using them. So much for ease of use.

Pages, on the other hand, I got straight away. (Don't flame me.)

[stringboy]

Completely agree. The biggest problem is that what you need disappears. If multiple ribbons were visible, it wouldn't be that bad, but when you select the insert ribbon, the home is no longer there and dropping the classic menu and macro support (as it was) was stupid. It has been a one poor move after another by MS.

By and by, I have over 12 years experience with Office and 2 years with Office 2007. It simply does not add to my productivity, it detracts from it. I could live with Word, but Excel and Access have been ruined. Mac envy leads to stupid decisions.

And, ignore bashmohandes, he just joined 5/18 to sing MS praises.

[dynosewer]

This might be interesting to the outsourcers who will be using it. They'll probably want to pay proportionately to their earnings.

[jshaddle]

Meh I'm young enough to get used to the ribbon and the flyout menu things in office 2007 annnnnnd...

I LOVE THEM

[Ralph Doctorow]

What would be really nice is if they released a real .NET version, that is one that could be directly programmed in C# or other .NET languages rather than requiring VSTO.

I imagine VBA might be accommodated via some sort of reverse .COM to .NET bridge.

[TheReaperD]

Why do you hate your IT security staff and the rest of the world so much?

[BOTNET]

You can use C#, VBScript or JavaScript and hit Office Object Model or you can create add-ins in other than VB language .... I kinda like VBA, it's so simple to use that even after years of not touching it, it takes me few hours to get back.

[dennisl59]

Excuse me, but I "thought" MS had their security locked down and this type of thing couldn't have happened. UNLESS there is a Disloyal Employee, probably a H1B Fraud, who violated their employment contract agreement. But hey, who cares about Contracts and Copyrights anymore?

[KTLA_knew]

From the sound of your post, it seems very prudent for you to use quotes around the verb "thought" when applying it to yourself.

[knowles2]

or unless they really wanted it leaked out there to begin testing but did not want the hassle the thing cause damage to people systems, they should not have downloaded in the first place is a easy defence for the sever microsft lawyers to produce in court.

It could very well an unofficial official leaks.

[Ralph Doctorow]

For a somewhat cautionary example of the current state of machine intelligence take a look at the "Sponsored Ads" chosen as relevant for this story.

[darkknight22]

I just realized that Ina is actually a guy. Never knew that, kind of like the It's Pat skit on Mad TV. I can honestly say I was surprised by realizing that.

And for posting the link to the the torrent site should get you an epic fail.

[1812dave]

What a stinking pile of dog doo-doo. There's little room left on the screen for one's spreadsheet or word doc. Stupid, stupid, stupid ribbon! And don't anyone tell me you can turn it off. It simply SUCKS that they would even THINK of such a screen wasting piece of crap. Of someone can't figure out where features are on the menu of Office 2003, they have no business sitting in front of a computer.

[1812dave]

Make that "if someone can't figure..." Why in the heck isn't there a 15 minute window to EDIT our posts??????? I always make a typo which seems to show it's ugly head only AFTER I've submitted the post...sorta like the driver's side wiper always wears out first...

[monkeyfun14]

I think it's more of the troll of the post that makes it look ugly not the typo...

[robocoprobert]

You hit it right on the spot. What's the point of getting bigger monitors when the ribbons takes up a 1/3 of the screen, leaving the user with little space to look at his data. Keyboard shortcuts and customized toolbars that are small will always be the fastest and most efficient way to use Excel which is why I still use Office 2003. By the way, I signed up for Windows Live and the system kept inserting a Windows Live toolbar whenever I launched Excel. It was so annoying and impossible to turn off I deleted the entire program and will never go back to it again.

[craig.knapp1]

MS Werd still cannot automatically follow the paragraph and sub-paragraph numbering conventions initiated by a typist which Word Perfect 6.0 for DOS could do in about 1996. Try typing an Army document using any version of MS Werd using the U.S. Army Writing Style, vs Word Perfect..hint...one is intuitive and will follow your lead, the other will make you want to smash your face with a hammer and it is not the "Perfect" software.

Why did Office 2007 fail to offer a "classic" toolbar option? I have been using computers since the Commodore 64 days, can program with MS Access, but had to ask someone how to print and save files with MS Werd 2007. Oh yeah, click on the "invisible to me" MS Logo which I mistakenly thought was just more Windoze "eye candy".

Don't get me started on why Windoze still does not offer a "dual pane" file browser like PC Tools for DOS did back in about 1995. Back in 1995 we only had two drives; A: and C:. Now, everyone has external drives, media players, digital cameras, and still no dual pane browser capability, thank God for free software like 2xExplorer.

And where is the A.I. in computers that we all feared 15 years ago? My quad-core, 4GB RAM, 750Mb video card, belchin' of a system is still just as dumb as my IBM Selectric II typewriter was in 1979. If I open a browser and 80 percent of the time go to C:\data, why does the OS not ask if this should be the default location when opening the browser? Sure, I edit the registry to accomplish this...but I say bring on the A.I.

Craig Knapp
craig.knapp1 at yahoo dot com

[knowles2]

Because if they offered the classic version they may of well not of put in the ten of millions into developing the Ribbon because will not change when given the option of sticking with what they know, cooperations will not change because they fear it will affect productivity. They force the change A. A it actually a bettter user interface design, especially for the new touch screens. B. It will be cheaper and easier to maintain and developed set of code for the user interface rather than two.

Microsoft kept like two or was it three, could more different user interfaces for hotmail to keep everyone happy. All it does just makes the entire thing messy.

[craig.knapp1]

For those who actually like the MS Werd Ribbons, after using MS Werd for over 10 years, try finding some of the things you "used to easily find" such as conditional formatting, and other useful formatting tools. It is if someone suddenly decided to switch the location of the gas and brake pedals on your car.

I suspect that many who like the ribbon do nothing more complex than typing "tweets" and never use the full potential of the software.

There is a reason that certain conventions are used, because they are conventional!

[jshaddle]

is everyone turning into robots, they can only do what their told? if they moved the gas hole I would find it, remember where it is and the next time i go to the gas station i would go there to fill up

geezie kreezie

[knowles2]

just because they are conventional does not mean they are better or easier to use. It just that they were develop first.
If Ribbon design was produce before the old one the ribbon design would be known as conventional.

[Jonnygthedrummer]

i dislike the ribbon too, at first i was like oh whats this looks neat, then i tried using it an i couldnt figure it out , i was lke , how do i do anything , whers file , or anything, they should have left it alone.

[jakeboom]

What about Outlook....Microsoft ****ed things up when they choose to have Outlook 2007 use Word's rendering engine for HTML emails and sent the web/email design industry back about 5 years in terms of compatibility and standards....Here's hoping they fix that in 2010.

[AriNitz]

Looks Amazing!

[BOTNET]

I just wish Ina Fried would be a bit more than professional and show what is actually new in Office 2010 ...

[knowles2]

Look at the screen shots and on the right hand side there is a description of what the screen shots show and pointing out some of the more obvious and noticeable changes.

[BOTNET]

yeah .... download MS OFFICE 2010 and you will see that he just took blindly few print-screens

[scottecher]

The one thing I would like to know is if Excel currently has a keyboard shortcut for subscripts and superscripts, or if Excel 2010 will have this feature. Can anyone help with this, because Microsoft has not been of any help.

Thanks

[Spiffyman777]

Dunno if you will see this after 5 days, but ll Office programs use the same shortcut for superscripts/subscripts. 'Ctrl+shift+=' willl superscript 'Ctrl+=' will subscript.

[MZLweasel]

Wow, those screenshots look SUPER PRETTY.

Glad to see Microsoft is stepping up their game in the design department.

Willing to bet the Ribbon still ruins ease of use, though...

[gorfmasta]

Im glad they went with the ribbon... having to go through two drop down menus to open a window with another drop down menu and then open another window to find that the feature didnt do what you wanted was a pain... now most of those menus have been replaced by single buttons

[devirusat]

:) A lot of money..... ! I use open Office! :D

[Gunit7677]

Its always nice to see that people in this day and age FAIL to be able to adapt to change. *boo hoo* I hate the ribbon etc... etc.. things change and we MUST adapt, or face falling further behind than we already are. No piece of software will ever be perfect, because someone is always going to have an issue with it regardless.

[stringboy]

Change for the sake of change is stupid. Productivity should drive innovation.