Microsoft posts teaser for Office 2010
Microsoft has posted a teaser site for Office 2010, treating the next productivity suite like a forthcoming movie.
(Credit: CNET)Much like studios do with movies that are still months from hitting the theaters, Microsoft is looking to generate some advance buzz for the next version of Office.
The company has posted a movie trailer that teases Office 2010 and last week added a "behind the scenes" video that pokes fun at recent leaks of the product onto the Internet (and the fact that some leaked versions also came with a virus).
The "actor" being interviewed on camera likens the leaked preview to him being seen without his make-up and with a virus all over his face.
Microsoft quietly launched the site in April and the company says it is getting lots of hits and sign-ups, though it isn't offering any numbers.
On the site is also a button to sign up for a technical preview of Office, which is slated to begin next month. For those who want an earlier peek, we posted a ZDNet Australia screenshot gallery that comes from the leaked version.
The final version of Office 2010 isn't due until next year. Among the major changes with Office 2010 is the fact that it will also come with a collection of browser-based Office Web Applications that let Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote run from within Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
And the "interview" was mildly amusing...I still think it's creative of Microsoft to create buzz for Office 2010 this way, though.
(Men In Black was standing in line, and so was The Matrix...)
:)
They still think that the 'Agent Smith'/MiB/XFiles genre is cool with the demographic they're aiming for.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that meeting:
"Okay guys, we've just released Office 2007, to great critical and popular acclaim. I'm lovin' that ribbon thing! But now it's time to get to work on Office 2010. Any ideas?"
Silence.
"I got it! Since everyone seems to really dig the idea of trashing years of acquired knowledge to learn a new interface, how about we do it again?"
"Great thinking! Now that's what I call innovative strategery. We'll call it 'the puppy,' because everyone likes puppies, so everyone will LOVE Microsoft right? But how do we build some 'buzzing' on the internets? How do we get all those newfangled Tweetering-type people to go 'viral' and push our product into 'the social'? Any ideas?"
Silence.
"Uh, how about this? We make a really cool trailer? With kind of a 'Matrix' vibe?"
"Perfect! It'll be an even bigger hit than our 'Songsmith' video! And maybe even as cool as our 'SP1' video! Okay people, let's do this thing!"
Can I say it one more time: I hate the Ribbin Interface... and why couldn't they provide both during transition anyway.
At this point I don't see why CNet doesn't make a special box just for you to post in.
It could be labeled "Pentest insert troll here"
Why, I do believe this is the most postiive and glowing comment you have ever made on CNET on any subject. And here people were starting to think you were permanently a sour puss. :)
Times do change, it seems.
But at the end of the day, regardless of how lame you felt the ad was, you DID watch it, knowing fully well in advance that you would hate it. That, my friend, is a successful ad. You knew it was going to be bad and yet you still went out of your way to watch it. Sounds like they got to you.
how relevant (outside conservative enterprise segment) is this clunky, bloated virus-friendly, unsightly software?
even Apple, at first attempt, did a better & classier job with iWork
and your attempt of trying to make real everyday people who use Microsoft software look like "conservative" nerds is from Apple's snob playbook. So typical.
iwork guy? you are not serious, right?
iWork can't even touch Office when it comes to features.
@JasonCe
Heads-Up: Next year, you're going to be bombarded with ads telling you what a dinosaur Office 2007 is and how Office 2010 is the best productivity suite ever released.
... yep, the knowledge level of an a troll.
That's it.
No comments.
But -- and I have this feeling with many new products or "upgrades" -- what was wrong with previous products? I followed the Office upgrades through 2003. By that time, I realized they weren't changing much (for the average user) except the interface, which grew increasingly confusing.
Fortunately, I still had my old Office 97 CD, and installed it. Vista likes it just fine, and so do I.
zizzy is the type that says "stop coming out with new versions" then when they stop coming out with new versions.....he start saying, "look how long they haven't updated their software, they're outdated and behind the times"
just like the companies who didn't want MSFT to update IE6
...what exactly is there to update in a word processor, spreadsheet, and other similar apps that have been around more-or-less since the last ice age? What, did they add a new animation sequence in Powerpoint or something?
There comes a point when it doesn't matter how much icing you add to a cake - it's still just a cake.
You are seriously lacking imagination and vision (ironically, it's your MS-hate that's blinding you). What's there to update in an office suite you ask? Wow!
I don't see you complaining about OpenOffice or iWork.
That alone pretty much proves my point, folks. ;)
Last I checked, OOo and iWork aren't marketing new products like mad (and OOo still need a lot of polish).
People who use the product seldom complain about it. Those that don't have plenty of free time to complain.
completely agree with ya!
...and here we are seeing justification for what has to be the most disruptive, desktop-real-estate-eating, ugliest UI element to have come out since BOB was released...
Tell me, how does that kool-aid really taste?
I saw the trailer and thought how much did this cost them? Microsoft could do better for giving a better break on costs for people that do end up upgrading.
For me advertisements never work. It is the functionality of the product that either has me wanting to work with it or not.
If they really want to get people excited they should do what they did in 2007 when office and vista were released. Hold expos in various cities where the people attending get the office 2010 product for free. This way they can show what they learned at the expo to their employers etc.
Maybe they should FIRE Ballmer - hint, hint!
Oh shut up. Seriously, if you think iWork is even remotely comparable to Office you're delusional. Why do you think Office 2008 outsells it comprehensively?
Silly person.
Inertia. Legacy issues. Lock-in.
iWork opens Office documents.
I have to say that after using Keynote more and more, it runs circles around PowerPoint in its ease of use and graphics capabilities.
Just for the heck of it, I had her email me the presentation and I opened it in Keynote. Opened perfectly. No translation errors. No graphics errors.
wow it makes me wonder if you're just lying to make your point......but my girlfriend who just basically knows how to check her emails, write her papers in Word and check out those celebrity gossip websites, guess what? she did her presentation in PowerPoint 07 and she isn't that good in using computers.... [CNET editors' note: Personal attack deleted.]
Anyways, it makes me wonder which version you were using? because 03 and 07 has different usability strengths....my girlfriend uses 07 with ease because everything she needs are right there on the ribbon.
...but not all of them.
Drives me nuts! (Short drive.)
Inane redundant illogical dialog popups, like: The suchandsuch document was created by Excel. Do you want to open it with Excel? (and the popup has the powerpoint icon). <- ***?
In Word if you have grouped graphical objects when you "ungroup" them their alignments are not maintained (this worked before in earlier office versions). I suspect this is probably because I built these objects in an earlier Word version (Office 2004) and I maintain the documents in "Compatibility Mode" (so much for compatibility). This one feature is almost a deal breaker for Word. As a work around I have to copy the grouped objects from my word document over to powerpoint and ungroup them there to rework them and then regroup in powerpoint and paste them back into Word. Unfortunately, when I paste the group back into Word it gets put back in as a MS Graphical Object (that I cannot ungroup???), so I have to now store both the word document and a powerpoint document of my graphical representations for my documents. Earlier version of Office handled this better.
Keystrokes for the same actions are different between Word and Powerpoint and should not be. For example, if I move a graphical object 1 pixel at a time left/right/up/down I use the Option/Alt and the appropriate arrow key in Word. To do the exact same operation in Powerpoint you use the Apple/Cloverleaf and same arrow key. Strange inconsistency within their MS own office apps.
Copy and Paste do not work as they should. I get random font color and size changes when I copy/cut and paste in-between MS Office apps. The older version of Office 2003-2004 worked slightly better for this operation.
Word still doesn't properly maintain "Bullets and Numbering" when it comes to either captions or sections of text. Insertion of new captions or sections is a hit or miss operation for their numbering which is used for building your tables (content or figures). A lot of times I have to manually start at the beginning with my first caption or numbered section of text and manually reissue the numbering selection for each succeeding one to insure it Word get it right. This has always been a problem with Office.
Gee, this all works fine in Open Office. Maybe MS should take them over.
Why do people live with their shoddy software.
- by wiredchicken June 18, 2009 1:13 PM PDT
- Funny, creative for a company like microsoft
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