The Office 2010 release date has been confirmed as June 2010, with the beta release available now. It has interface changes, bug fixes, one secret new feature – and although it's still a long way from being finished, it shows much more clearly than the technical preview what you'll be waiting for.
Like Windows 7, the Office line-up has gone on a diet; instead of six different versions, there are just three (for home users).
Office Home and Student 2007 sold a copy on Amazon every 90 seconds at its peak last year; the 2010 version has the same apps (Word, Excel, PowerPointand the under-rated OneNote) and the new Home and Business version has those apps, plus Outlook.
Office Professional 2010 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. There's a free version of Office that you'll only get on new PCs called Office Starter. This replaces the ageing Microsoft Works and gives you versions of Excel and Word without all the business features, plus a small ad for Office on the task pane (that doesn't go away).
NEW ICONS: Office 2010 intros a new interface, new icons – and a secret new feature in Outlook
There are also new ways of buying Office; you can buy a "product card" with a licence key to unlock a trial copy of Office on a new PC (particularly useful for PCs with no optical drive) or you can install a streamed version called Click-to-Run.
We tested the business version, Office Professional Plus 2010 which has Access, Excel, SharePoint Workspace (the Groove replacement with added SharePoint features), OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word and InfoPath (Visio and Project are still separate apps).
Some of the changes from the technical preview are small; others are more significant.
HOME AND PRO: The beta is the full Office Professional Plus version, but most home users will want Office Home and Student, Office Home and Business – or the free Office Starter on new PCs
We also looked at the Windows Mobile apps, and the business versions of the Office Web apps.
The Windows Live Office Web apps aren't in the beta but Microsoft tells us that the Excel and PowerPoint Web apps available now are feature complete and the Word and OneNote Web apps will have the same functionality as the business versions.
The rest of the web apps will be finished with the rest of Office 2010, in the first half of next year.
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
nickwilcock
April 18th 2010
4. Office 2007 has a MAJOR software bug which prevents the Outlook Express spell checker working in any language except French.
Will this ridiculous bug be fixed in Office 2010?
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bradavon
March 10th 2010
3. I used to use OneNote but time and time again I just find the old fashioned pen and notepad more useful for jotting notes down and writing lists etc...
For writing quick thoughts/notes, it just comes more naturally.
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bradavon
March 10th 2010
2. Outlook alone makes it look worth the upgrade. Being able to view Facebook updates and messages from "within Outlook" would be so incredibly useful.
Right now I have Outlook + Facebook Messages which is really annoying.
Office Web Apps also fills me with excite. I can use Office Desktop whilst using my laptop and then when I'm away from it Office Web Apps to carry on working. I hope it integrates with Office better than Office Live/Workspace because that's rubbish, adding a noticeable delay clicking on File/Open.
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vandy
January 9th 2010
1. Outlook seems to be the most important part of Office 2010. I couldn't explain otherwise why everyone around me is so fascinated by the new version. Yes the people pane is very interesting, yes the social connector saves time and is very interactive. But also yes the search is still not the best one. The search of Outlook 2010 finally convinced me to buy lookeen, a search tool I was using for 14-days but was reluctant to pay money for it after the free trial. But without the prospect of a better future I decided to buy it to save time and energy.
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