Posted on November 18th, 2009 by Tim Danton

Microsoft Office 2010 screenshots

There were many good reasons why Microsoft Office 2007 earned a place on the PC Pro A List, but if we were to boil it down to one then it would be the Ribbon. While not everyone welcomed the new interface, it made it much easier for the vast majority of users to create professional-looking documents. And quickly. Microsoft Office 2010 would always struggle to have the same impact, but there are a number of nice new features that make this the best version of Office 2010 yet.

In this set of blogs, comprising a number of different articles, we’ve selected our highlights. We’ve only been using the beta for a few days, so no doubt there will be some key aspect that we’ve missed: feel free to let us know if you’d like extra information via the comments below. And if you’d like to try it yourself, note that the became available for download today.

Highlight #1: Backstage view

This is one of those clever tricks, where Microsoft has solved a problem that most of us didn’t even realise existed. Essentially, if you want to make any changes to a file – as opposed to the contents of the file – then Backstage view conveniently bundles them together. That includes printing, changing permissions, emailing, and even altering metadata.

Highlight #2: Recover unsaved items

We’ve all done it: worked on a file for 45 minutes but forgotten to keep on saving along the way, trusting in Autosave instead. And then when we came to close the document, instead of press Yes to save all the changes, we accidentally click no – and lose them all. Fortunately you can now rescue those autosaved versions of files, which Office 2010 keeps as drafts.

Highlight #3: Text effects in Word

Microsoft Word is no stranger to adding exotic effects to words; we’ve all suffered curved text with bevelled edges and drop shadow used in a way that drop shadow simply shouldn’t be used. While the all-new Text effects may well be abused in a similar manner in the future, we’d like to believe that the effects on offer are less open to abuse – and far easier to use.

Highlight #4: Outlook joining the fold

While most people loaded words of praise on Office 2007’s Ribbon interface, it was disappointing that Outlook 2007 was left behind. Now, like the poor relative being welcomed at last into the bosom of its rich extended family (as such), Outlook 2010 rejoins the fold with a Ribbon interface all of its own. It’s much easier to change settings now, for instance, and that comes courtesy once again of the Backstage view.

Highlight #5: Accessibility Checker

If you ever need to produce rich documents filled with pictures, web links and any sort of structure, it makes an awful lot of sense to use this unheralded tool: the Accessibility Checker. Available via the already much-praised Backstage view, this will highlight everything from missing Alt text on pictures to headers that are too long and rambling.

Tags: Microsoft, Office 2010

Posted in: Microsoft Office 2010, Software

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13 Responses to “ Microsoft Office 2010 screenshots ”

David Torrens Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Recover autosaved versions would be great – it is possible to do this now by setting up a back up program to keep copying them to somewhere else.
My experiance so far is that, although I have learned to like Word 2007 features, many many people I work with are still on 2003 and also its not clever to try to colaborate on a big document between 2007 and 2003 file formats. Have to stick with *.doc. So I don’t see a big rush to 2010 from all this “happy with 2003″ types.
jt10000 Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Yeah, I liked the overall changes in Office 2007 but learned to avoid using .docx, .xslx, etc to ensure compatibility with machines still running 2003. Not a problem.

I don’t think anyone should be rushing to 2010. 2007 is a good product, and 2003 was decent too.
Simon Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Office 2007 was the single biggest act of vandalism perpetrated on a product in the name of an upgrade. Removal of Menues drives a stake through the heart of WIMP the philosophy behind GUIs. If the ribbon is such a great idea why are we not given a choice? Enforcing it smacks of bullying.

I will give office 2010 a good go – it is downloading as we speak but experiences with windows 7 are already showing some cracks amid the hype.

Windows 7 won’t work with a Belkin Flip (KVM) switch because someone is not passing pnp info during the switch. Windows XP on the other half of the switch works fine and correctly displays a perfect 2048×1150 image.

Microsoft wants to dumb things down so much it blocks expert users from achieving what was previously not only possible but also relatively straight forward.

Scores so far- Windows 7 : Windows XP Pro a zillion!
Simon Jones Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
The compatibility pack has been arround since Office 2007 was released three years ago. This lets Office 2000, XP (2002) and 2003 users open and save the new file formats.

Less than 5% of users have versions of Office prior to 2000 so there is little reason to stick to the old binary file formats and lots of reasons (size, robustness, new features such as Smart Art) to switch to the new formats.
Craig Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
@Simon

“If the ribbon is such a great idea why are we not given a choice?”

Because it is such a great idea… You rather answered your own question there.

As for enforcing it, how else were they to keep adding new features? The menus were old, outdatded and what they contained had simply outgrown them as a method of displaying it.

Think about tabbed browsers for a moment. 5 or 6 years ago we used the web a lot less, we were not as connected and so we maybe only had a couple of pages open at anyone time. Now in these more connected times where everyone is using multiple sites all the time tabs make sense. Myself I have the best part of 70 tabs spread over 4 or 5 windows at any one time, I can’t imagine using single windows for this, it simple wouldn’t not be possible.
Jeff Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
There’s nothing that makes me want to go back to Office 2003 more than that 2007 Ribbon. It presents me with thousands of options I will never, ever want to use whilst hiding things I need to use daily beneath layers of dross. It slows down my usage and requires MORE clicks to achieve what I want to do. I hate it passionately.
eion macdonald Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I concur! I concur!
November 19th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

” whilst hiding things I need to use daily beneath layers of dross. It slows down my usage and requires MORE clicks to achieve what I want to do. I hate it passionately.”
Simon Jones Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Jeff & Eion
You’ll both be pleased to know that Office 2010 allows you to customise the Ribbon without the need to buy or install a third party tool (of which several were available for Office 2007 – some are even free).
Thus you will be able to hide those tools you don’t think you need but please remember not to complain to Microsoft when you can’t find a tool you want but have hidden.

One of the reasons the Ribbon was invented was that 75% of feature requests received by Microsoft were for features that were already available in Office but users couldn’t find them.
Darkhairedlord Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Yet more fluff added to office. Most of this won’t get used because it doesn’t convert well to office 97-2003 *.doc format. Look at the smart art rubbish! beautiful in orifice 2007 but unfortunately like a badly scanned pile of crap once converted to *.doc format.
specious Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Will it have native support for importing .pcx files?
Will it bring back animated text.
Without these there seems little point.
Simon Jones Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Darkhairedlord
I have to disagree. SmartArt works great when viewed in earlier versions of Office. You see it exactly as it left the originator. It has to be a static picture in previous versions because they don’t have the features necessary to edit it. But it round-trips without any problems becomming editable once again when you open it in Office 2007 or 2010.
Simon Jones Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
specious
PCX file format is ancient and there are far better formats nowadays.
Word 2010 can import pictures in 14 different image formats.

Animated Text was very little used, made reading the text difficult and could cause problems for some people with epilepsy. It was rightly withdrawn.
Darkhairedlord Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Simon,
maybe your lsd is better than mine but it simply isn’t true!
I recently submitted a paper to a journal that looked great in 2007 and total sh…crap in *.doc format. text was blurry and unreadable.

but then again, at least half a dozen blogg posts extoling the virtues of one office suite tells its own story!