Living with Office 2010

With Windows 7 having been finalized, I realized that my main work set-up was utterly lacking in the unfinished software department.

Clearly, that couldn't stand. So, last week, I installed the technical preview of Office 2010 on the Windows 7 machine I have been using every day. For the foreseeable future, I'll be trying to see how the new applications stack up in handling my day-to-day work.

As for my early impression, I think my colleague Rafe Needleman said it best in a tweet he wrote earlier this week, while tying out the new Office.

"I wish Outlook/Office 2010 tech preview would do something weird and dumb so I could write about it. Sadly, it just works."

Microsoft has a tradition of internal testing of its products, which it dubs "dogfooding." Here at Beyond Binary, we like to do a bit of dogfooding ourselves, despite the fact we have two cats and no canines.

Although I have installed all of the main Office applications--Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and OneNote, I really only use Word and Outlook on a daily basis.

The most noticeable change for me is in Outlook, particularly its new conversation threading feature. Although the concept is familiar to anyone who has used Gmail, it is quite powerful to see the notion applied to the hundreds of e-mail messages that land in my in-box on any given day.

I have a few minor quibbles. Office 2010 is good at bunching together e-mails even if the subject line changes, but its grouping has some false positives in joining disparate conversations just because the subject lines are the same. For instance, it tends to put all of my messages with the subject "Hey there" together, even though that's a standard subject line for me. Similarly, it puts all of my "(no subject)" e-mails together.

That said, I really like the feature overall. It definitely saves me time and makes finding those earlier messages in a thread much simpler.

On the Word front, there are features I am interested in trying out, but few that I have noticed in my casual use. Of course, my use of Word is somewhat atypical. I basically am only looking for a text editor with really good save capabilities. The first thing I do is turn off the smart quotes, hyperlinking, autocorrect, and all of the other features that help distinguish Word from, say, WordPad.

I wrote earlier about one feature I am excited about--paste preview--which helps one see what the different paste options will look like before you commit. That's helpful because usually what I want is the "paste unformatted" option (see above section where what I really need is a text editor), but every now and then I am looking to preserve more of the formatting and it is nice to see what I will get ahead of time.

As a photo nerd, I am also keen on playing around with the artistic effects that Microsoft added to Word. In the past, I needed Photoshop, or at least a program like Photoshop Elements, to do things like turn a photo into a watercolor painting. But now one can do that straight from Word.

Let's see, what else? I'm not a huge fan of the Ribbon, but given that it is here to stay, it is nice to see it has made its way into all of Outlook, as well as to OneNote.

Microsoft Office 2010 technical preview (screenshots)

I'm more fond of the Backstage view, which is new to Office 2010. Essentially a replacement for the file menu, the backstage view offers a more contextual and visual way to do tasks like opening recent documents, creating new ones or printing the document you are working in.

But the thing that I am most interested in, the browser-based versions of Office, I will have to wait a little bit longer for. Although Microsoft released the technical preview of the desktop versions in July, we're still waiting on the Web apps. The official word is they should be out in test form "later this summer."

If I were Microsoft, I'd work to get a Web-based Office out there pronto.

[Super2online]

In many cases, when it comes to new version changes, familiarity with features become the enemy. The changes don't appear to suit me at first, yet during the first 6 months I find myself becoming very happy with them and realizing I wished it had worked that way all along. I have grown used to the ribbon and now actually look for other apps featuring it like Snag It version 9 which I upgraded to the day it came out. <br /> <br />There are many new features in Outlook that I absolutely love. It's about time Microsoft got their act together with this application. I would love to see them integrate many of the features we saw in Google Wave in the next version.

[sparker781]

I also have the Technical Preview of Office 2010. I have used Word, Outlook myself almost exclusively. I do find the ribbon to be a pain. There is some software called Classic Menu's that will allow you to turn the ribbon into the classic menu's of Office 2003. Other than as you said it just works. I am not used to MS products working right out of the box.

[shyfi]

if you dont use Office much . dont waste our times by your ... nonsense reviews

[mrbdm99]

If you do not have a mastery of basic sentence and grammatical structure, do not leave a comment. You always have the option of not reading the article. <br /><br />Back to the article at hand, I think that a vast majority of people in the work force use mostly Word and Outlook. Since most people out there stick to those two products, this is a very valid review.

[MaggieRed]

Those who live in glass houses, should not throw stones.<br /><br />Woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning eh?

[johnw2009]

If you cannot post anything constructive, please refrain from posting.

[artistjoh]

On the contrary, Ina's usage of Word is similar to mine and I suspect that there are quite a few who look for a trimmed down experience when using a word processor and this review speaks to this constituency thoughtfully and in a real world depth that is often lacking in reviews from power users who criticize the lack of this or that feature that a substantial portion of users will probably never use anyway. <br /><br />There is room for reviews looking at products from a wide range of points of view. I, for one, appreciated this example. Thanks Ina.<br /><br />By the way, as pointed out elsewhere, it is also probably wise to be more careful with punctuation and sentence structure if you want comments to do with word processors to be taken seriously.

[Commander_Spock]

Hey "Ina Fried"! Reading this article I know that you have said inter alia: "Although I have installed all of the main Office applications--Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and OneNote, I really only use Word and Outlook on a daily basis...."<br /><br />Anyway, would you happen to know if those "dudes" on the Redmond Campus sat down this time around with the "bankers" to know what functionalities are really needed in that spread sheet program of theirs; and, that they did not assume that functionalities that they have again included in Office 2010 are what "bankers" and other international folks that might be using Office 2010 need?<br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br />Commander_Spock

[Lennron]

Awesome new Office to go with their awesome new OS. Too bad it all costs so damn much! I'll probably be limited to using them at work while using the older versions at home. :(

[jake3373]

Hey, at least it doesn't cost as much as Apple's stuff (except the $29 OS upgrade)

[Lennron]

VERY true! Although that $29 OS upgrade is really no more than a service pack, which Microsoft gives away for free. So in the price wars, Microsoft wins... again.

[Chameleon81]

I hate that every single article ends up with MS vs Apple debate. Apple's OS is cheaper than MS operating system. Apple's office package is cheaper than MS Office Package. ( I would pay more money on MS Office since I really like 2007 and 2008 on Mac side )

[MaggieRed]

They just can't help themselves. Whatever the basis for their hate, it is just there and they can do nothing about it. It takes over them and their little fingers start pecking on the keys spewing about how much they hate Apple. So regardless of the article and it's relevance to Apple, they will find a way to make their statements.

[Lennron]

I was just starting out by saying I think Office 2010 looks awesome. Mac or no Mac. But don't act for a second like there aren't a ton of anti-Microsoft people on these boards that will trash MS regardless of the article's relevance to it.

[heygeo]

Ok lets put this to rest once and for all.. <br />Apple charges you 2-3X for hardware over a PC.. then they include the OS for "Free".. its not free.. you paid for it just not as software... but as a surcharge on the hardware end. <br />So the fact that you are then charged another 29.00 or any amount for that matter, for essentially what is a patch, makes them even more expensive... <br /> <br />The reason that these commentaries always break out into catfights is because there is so much disinformation that it always strikes someones nerves when they know its an outright lie.. Apple's marketing has made a killing by spreading out and out falsehoods.. and I'm sick an tired of seeing it day in and day out. so when I see some dyed in Kool-Aid Apple apologist/self proclaimed messiah I will go out of my way to expose them.

[Lennron]

Amen brother. Amen.

[Jeremy Chappell]

@jake3373<br /><br />How much is iWork'09? How much is Office? How much is Windows 7? How much is Snow Leopard? How much is Visual Studio? How much is xCode? <br /><br />Feel silly yet? While you could argue that Macs cost a lot to buy (and I'm sure you will) Apple's software offerings aren't expensive. <br /><br />Now what has ANY of this got to do with a preview of Microsoft Office 2010? And yes, I use both Mac and PC otherwise I'd not be interested in Office 2010 on Windows.

[CA1900]

heygeo --<br /><br />"Apple charges you 2-3X for hardware over a PC..."<br /><br /><br />No, they really don't. Not for EQUIVALENT hardware. They don't make a stripped-down model, but if you're comparing the same class of hardware (say, a Dell M1330 to a basic MacBook), you'll find the prices are very competitive. While Dell also makes a laptop for half the price, it's also half the speed, much heavier, and with half the battery life. If a stripped-down model is all you need, that's fine. Apple chooses not to compete in the low-end market. Claiming they "charge 2-3x for hardware" is disingenuous at best.

[Lennron]

@CA1900 <br /> <br />Mac doesn't charge 2-3x more, but they do charge a LOT more. It's not just simply that Mac doesn't sell stripped down versions either. I looked into prices when I bought my last PC and the Dell Optiplex had an extra GB of RAM, faster processor, AND almost twice the hard drive space. All other specs were virtually the same yet the Mac costs an extra $400 over Dell. So to say Mac is 2-3x the cost for comparable hardware is an exaggeration, but they're still a LOT more expensive.

[ITcomposer]

Um lennron, ever heard of OFFICE HOME &#38; STUDENT, its $150 for 3 pcs, just a thought, and WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM upgrade will retail for $119, so your argument is well.... pointless <br /> <br />At commander spock: I'm pretty sure not just DUDEs coded OFFICE 2010, i can be certain MS also has female coders working on the office team, and btw for theose complaining of the new ribbon, really? get over it, no one is forcing you to upgrade, keep OFFICE 2003 if you'd like.

[techman21]

You can usually find Office Home and Student for about $80 online.

[Lennron]

@ITcomposer <br /> <br />Wow. Ok yeah, I understand Microsoft's products are much cheaper than Apple's. That being one of the many MANY reasons I use Windows over Mac. But even at the cheapest prices you quoted, that's still $269 which not all of us have to spend on software. I am going to try to save up and get them eventually though. Especially Windows 7! I love the RC and am dreading the day it stops working.

[Chameleon81]

Home premium upgrade over Vista that people bought begin of January 2007 . <br /><br />And you can not use office home &#38; student version for commercial purposes. You can use 79 dolar iWork for commercial use. ( 99 dollars for family install )<br /><br />Again, I'm not fanatic of any brand. My personal choice would be Mac OSx as operating system with MS Office 2007. ( windows )<br /><br />I didnt use Windows 7 checked online for info and read peoples comments . I guess this time MS will deliver users a good stable and working system. I had no problems with XP but didnt like Vista.<br /><br />And I disagree with any comment saying Apple charges 2-3 x times for hardware. ( but i ll agree for extra 100-200 dollars )

[moonbeard]

Um ITcomposer...you know not of what you speak. You're more out of touch than a politician. I was forced to upgrade to Office 2007 at work. Just because something is new, pretty, and comes from Microsoft doesn't make it good and it certainly doesn't make people like it. There was nothing wrong with the Office 2003 interface except Microsoft's perception that they could possibly sell more product if they made it easier to use for the underserved mouse-click-happy-moron market segment. Since your moniker suggests to me that you are some sort of coder or involved in coding in some way, massive overhauls to software like "the ribbon" mean more work & money for you, so your "ribbon love" is easy to understand. <br />[CNET editor's note: Offensive language deleted.]

[SuPaGrAm]

Moonbeard, seriously shut up already. <br /> <br />I don't care if you don't like the ribbon, I dont care if you are being forced to use office 2007, I especially dont care if your life is so empty and pathetic that it makes you feel better to complain on every review related to office. <br /> <br />Deal with it.

[Kissmyne]

MS should provide the option to choose which menu interface a user wants to use, each has their own advantages and disadvantages, so it should come down to user preference. I'm sure many will agree with that idea.<br /><br />As for the comments about this approaching, if not encroaching upon, the concept of personal attacks... I get your views but personal attacks are uncalled for. Each person is going to have their own opinions, please respect them as you would expect of your own opinions.. If that requires you to go get a cig or a cup of coffee or whatever else then go do that.<br /><br />@moonbeard- I'm sorry you don't like the ribbon, and I'm sorry your job requires you to use Office 2007.. if its making you so unhappy I think instead of lashing out in a public comment section, you should take this up with whatever member of your employment is responsible for the deployment of software at your job. :)

[henebry]

I wish Word would make "Paste Unformatted" the STANDARD option when you choose "Paste Special". When I go to the trouble of choosing "Paste Special," it's never for ANY purpose but to paste the text in unformatted.

[KTLA_knew]

henebry, the functionality you want is already there. Go into Word Options, and in the advanced section there is an entire section devoted to multiple options like that. <br /> <br />Or, if you drop the new Paste gallery, there's a clearly marked option to "Set default paste". <br /> <br />It's all right there. :-)

[EcuadorHomesOnline]

Thanks KTLA_knew - that's a great tip. It's one thing that's always bugged me as well.

[JessicaInPink]

Great Job, Ina!<br /><br />Quick question. Does Word still offer the Grammar check explanations? For example, if you set Word to check "Grammar &#38; Style", will it highlight grammatical errors and offer an explanation?<br /><br />This feature was changed in Word 2007, but is still present. It was completely removed from Word 2008 for Mac.<br /><br />I would love to know if it is still there?<br /><br />Thank you!

[goodspeed8701]

The whole experince as a beta feels like the final. Office 2010 loads so fast. I like it. and will buy the final release.

[slumbergod]

But is there truly any compelling reason to justify the expenditure on the upgrade? I thought Office 2007 was the best release of the suite for a long time. It seems now that improvements are so minor that the price and effort of upgrading is not worth it. Sure, if you need to buy a new office suite you'd go for it; for users with a previous version would you upgrade?

[jake3373]

I think it depends on the cost... If I have that much money to spend, I will, but I'm happy with Office 2007 right now, and it doesn't seem like there will be any really big changes between office 2007 and office 2012

[Bill_I]

Still using Office 97 pro running W2K on a P1-633. It works just fine.

[jake3373]

Sounds exactly like my sister running Office 97 on Windows ME for many many many years. Eventually, she bought a new computer, which came with Vista and Office 2007 Pro

[ghnata]

I can hardly wait until it is available. I shall install it the week that it is available.

[kevsmail]

If the author only uses 40% of the entire suite, is she really the best person to be posting any kind of review on a multi-hundred $ software package??? What about Excel? Knock knock? Everyone I know in the workplace uses this essential program every day! Or PowerPoint?<br /><br />What I want to know is if this is worth the couple hundred $ per user suite-upgrade from Office 2007 or Office XP. For an office-wide upgrade, we're talking many thousands of dollars...

[KTLA_knew]

Not an unbiased review of course, but you can read much more about Excel 2010 here: http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/ <br /> <br />PowerPoint 2010 is here: http://blogs.msdn.com/powerpoint/

[moonbeard]

As long as the "brain trust" (term used very loosely) at Microsoft wants to perpetuate the design disaster known as "the ribbon", how could there be a compelling reason to buy any version of Office after 2003? <br /> <br />Salaries for idiot Vice Presidents, Analysts, and Programmers, millions - MS Office Standard 2007 (Full Version) $290 - alienating 90% of your formerly loyal user base with crappy software "dumbdowns", priceless!! <br /> <br />Ribbons belong in girls' hair, wrapped around presents, hanging from festive decorations, and tied around oak trees....they DO NOT belong in software.

[Mark_Anderson]

Yes. The Ribbon is better than the file menu.<br /><br />Next question.

[moonbeard]

Some folks just love "pretty software" and clicking that "cute little mousy thing" too much, while the rest of us perfer to use software to actually accomplish something as quickly as possible and move on to the next task. The ribbon is just an evil plan by Microsoft to wear out your mouse so you'll buy one of theirs.

[Chameleon81]

I find Ribbon better than normal file menu as an experienced user. But the real benefit of ribbon is for new comers. People who never used Office before would find their way easier with ribbon.

[ralfthedog]

If you don't like the ribbon, upgrade to Neo Office on the Mac or Open Office on Linux or Windows.

[GusterBear]

I actually find the Ribbon to be a much easier interface to use than the file menus. It is far more intuitive. You seem to be very spiteful of the ribbon. A lot of people I have met who don't like the ribbon have such a stance because it is simply change. It is different. The world is changing and leaving you in the dust.

[Endbringer]

Tell Autodesk that. They've put a ribbon in all their software, which they say Microsoft is going to force on developers. I hate using the ribbon in Autocad because it relies on .NET 3.5, which is a resource hog and its performance is slow. Not to mention you have to click more to get to the same command that used to take one click. <br /><br />The ribbon works fine for MS Office, but forcing it on other developers is not a good thing, IMO.

[Lennron]

LOL! moonbeard is all OVER these comments and he's just repeating himself over and over again. Yes, a whole lot of people do love "pretty software" as you call it, and they do like clicking that "cute little mousy thing" which is exactly why Microsoft changed their Office programs to be "pretty" and let people use their mouse to their hearts desire. Whether you think those people are smart or not, they are in the majority. And the majority is exactly who businesses market to so they can maximize sales.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I find using the ribbon to be helpful for me. I am by no means a power user of Word and I'm discovering new options and ways of doing things that would have required already knowing exactly how far to drill down nested menues to find an option whereas now it's presented in a (for me) easy to follow interface and I'm learning new things as I go.

[fletchb]

Agree, they screwed up by forcing ribbon on users. If they had made it so it was optional, then that would be fine but they crossed the line assuming they knew what was best for you. Because of that , we have been expermimenting with Open Office and so far it seems pretty decent.

[Lennron]

@fletchb <br /> <br />Careful while upgrading OpenOffice. They're adding the ribbon pretty soon too.

[Eddie-c]

[quote] As for my early impression.... while tying out the new Office."[unquote] <br />Umm, that should be *trying* ? -- Unless you're having too much fun with those ribbons Ina. <br />(I hate those things, give me classic view) :)

[lguvenoz]

As another member of the Technical Preview community I have to say my impressions are similar to the reviewers. I'm a little at odds with the new ribbon, but they've added some nice new widgets like the ability to take icons into the title bar so you can move printing and other quick operations up there. <br /> <br />My one concern will be user disruption. Office 2007 was a huge shock for a lot of users, and there are enough material changes in Office 2010 that I am concerned that my customers and their users are going to have a lot of heartburn over the switch.

[moonbeard]

Microsoft needs to add an option to let the user choose between "the abject horror of the ribbon" and the user-friendly, productive, short-cut oriented, "classic menu" of success and accomplishment. I still have Office 2003 at home and it works handsomely. However, I am forced to use the pathetic, dumbed-down, click-till-you-drop Office 2007 at work. Do not want. Will never buy. Will never recommend. No insult to the ridiculously over-simplified and cumbersome user interface of Office 2007 can be overstated.

[Jeremy Chappell]

Well the Menu system in Office has been broken for a LONG time. The little "reveal" arrows were always a bad sign: "This UI is too damn complicated - here is a half-hearted attempt to simplify it".<br /><br />Of course, hiding parts of the menu that you don't often use wasn't the answer. If you use something all the time, well (unless you're an idiot) you know where it is, so not displaying stuff the user uses infrequently means that it is only the stuff the user doesn't know the location of that's not displayed! Hardly a work of UI genius is it?<br /><br />However the Ribbon has problems of it's own (and many of them) firstly where Menus need height in the display, the Ribbon needs width - which seemed like a good play given the PCs move toward "widescreen", but now looks bad given how many people use laptops or worse (NetBooks). The other huge problem is the graphical nature of the ribbon, it's fine for operations like "italic" not so good for operations like: "Save As". It also occupies a lot more visual space when not being actively used than the Menu Bar it replaced - again this is bad on a laptop. There is no space to display keyboard shortcuts. If you're used to the Menus well the Ribbon seems like change (and evil change at that) for change sake. The ribbon is also harder to manipulate with the keyboard, and harder for makers of screen readers (which might not matter to most people but is very important to some). It is good though that the Ribbon is now consistent across all the programs (some will like it, and if you're going to learn it you might as well have some reward).<br /><br />If Microsoft have brought back the Menu in some kind of "classic mode" then that alone will help many users make the jump from Office 2003 to Office 2010 (and skip 2007). <br /><br />So on balance I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic abut Office 2010.

[The_happy_switcher]

OT: Highly recommended reading:<br />http://blogs.computerworld.com/14510/its_time_to_get_rid_of_windows

[kojacked]

Great read! I liked the first comment. <br /> <br />"Uneducated comments from trolls always make for entertaining reading, but I wonder what such drivel is doing as an *article* in Computerworld? <br /> <br />Before blaming Windows, THINK. Which piece of junk OS was hosting Twitter when it crashed? <br /> <br />Anyway, we all know Computerworld keeps Nichols around because sub-moronic writing attracts comments and visitors like flies and they earn from the page views." <br /> <br />Keep the hate coming THS. I'm sure you'll win the world over from Microsoft someday. Maybe they'll even erect a statue for you

[Vegaman_Dan]

THS got 'kojacked'.

[lazycat202]

llol!!<br />Apple die-hard fans will line up and chan "Where's my Office 20010? Where's my Office 20010?Where's my Office 20010?" all over the places

[EvanSei]

I want the technical review but the MS website says they are currently not distributing the technical review due to high demand, so I signed up for the news letter and I will see what happens (hopefully they start back up again)

[lennythespider]

I can't stand people who have nothing better to do than pick at the grammar used in an article. Yes, there may be mistakes, but geez, if you understood the point of the article, mission accomplished. Get off your high horse, folks! Are you paying for the content you just viewed? I didn't think so. <br /> <br />I have a hard time with the ribbon in 2007. I use Word and Excel all the time and I still find myself searching for the correct tab with the correct button that will do what I need to do. I just don't understand the organization of it all. It is much more confusing to me than when there were pull-down menus.

[YankeePoodle]

Getting the grammar right is part of the journalistic responsibility. Because in this profession words are the raw-material and the final product.Since I am not proficient in English, I am not picky about it, that does not mean they are doing the right thing. If you are picking grammar in the comments then probably some one is just taking it too much seriously. But it is valid to point out and linguistic deficiencies in the main article.

[moonbeard]

I'm not a grammer cop, however, whether it's a post or article, poor grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and bad spelling don't do one's credibility any favors. And no, I'm not paying for content, however, I bet the writer is being paid to produce it. <br /> <br />Spidey, you hit the nail on the head. If you used previous versions of Excel, the organization of the ribbon makes very sense. Aside from a few new cool, badly-needed features, everyone I know using 2007 thinks it's a POS.

[ThatIsWhatSheSaid]

Why make the freaking dog food so prominent? It hardly illustrates anything.