Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Microsoft Office 2010: What We Know So Far
Tuesday, August 04, 2009 by Michael Holley
As the much of the business world anxiously awaits the arrival
of Office 2010, scheduled for release early next year, Microsoft
has been happy to feed us little tidbits of information on features
along the way. For an exclusive invitation-only audience, however,
the official Office 2010 technical preview on July 13th marked the
end of the bread crumb trail and the beginning of a full scale
picnic, and the rest of us have been enjoying the table scraps.
I've asked my colleague, Aurora O'Bryan, to put together a feature
summary of what has been revealed so far:
"What we know so far is that Office 2010 is in fact
an update to the theme of its predecessor, Office 2007. Office 2010
does, however, plan to offer a significant amount of promising new
features to streamline efficiency and increase productivity.
The most significant feature addition, Office Web
Applications, is not yet available for technical preview. Office
Web Applications, clearly a response to the recent influx of free
online suites like Google Apps, is designed to allow users to edit
and collaborate on documents through a free, web-based version of
the software. As of now, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and OneNote are
expected to include an online version. This way documents can be
published to the browser via the desktop version, allowing for
collaboration and easy access on the move.
Other important new features:
- Outlook - Users will be able
access multiple email accounts using Outlook. Emails will be
arranged in the inbox in a "conversation view," similar to Gmail's
format. Users will be able to opt out of an email thread by
activating an "ignore" function, designed to help remove
unnecessary email clutter from inboxes. In addition, a ribbon user
face, similar to that in Word and Excel, has been added to Outlook.
- PowerPoint - PowerPoint will
offer new basic photo and video editing tools, similar to iMovie
and Photoshop.
- Excel - Excel will offer new data
analysis tools: i.e. a feature called Sparklines, which gives a
visual snapshot image of a data trend over time within a cell, like
a miniature graph.
- Word - Word will a live preview
of the paste function and advanced feature to create/insert
screenshots. The new cut and paste option allows users to "keep
text only", which pastes the content in the format you are already
using."
So far, Office 2010 is boasting some very compelling features,
and is positioning itself to be the catalyst for those still using
Office 2003 to finally make an update. We'll keep you posted as
more news is available.
Best,
Michael Holley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support
& Consulting
Rochester
IT Support & Consulting
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