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The complete guide to Office 2010: Business

Posted on 24 Feb 2010 at 16:52

Discover the features that Microsoft's hoping will lure your business to the joys of Office 2010

Small-to-medium-sized businesses are one of the key markets for Microsoft, and it needs to ensure it has offerings to cover all the bases. Despite this, the number of different editions of the Office suite is reduced to six. Out go Ultimate, Enterprise, Small Business and Basic editions, in come Home & Business and Starter.

WHICH VERSION?

You can rule out the Starter and Home & Student choices for business. Starter edition will be free with new PCs but has cut-down versions of Word and Excel, while Home & Student is strictly for non-business use.

Home & Business edition has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook and sits below the Standard edition, which adds Publisher to the mix. Professional adds the Access database to the suite and is the top edition that will be available through retail channels. The Professional Plus edition is sold only through volume licensing, but curiously you can get any of the top four editions that way. All four are suitable for small businesses: which edition you choose will depend on your precise needs and which version of Office you’re currently running.

TRAINING NEEDS

The bigger the jump you make from a previous version to Office 2010, the more new features you’ll find, but the harder the change is to make. And not everyone likes change. The Ribbon interface put many people off the upgrade to Office 2007 when it was introduced to the main applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and, to a limited extent, Outlook. With Office 2010, the Ribbon is everywhere.

Microsoft believes that it makes complicated applications easier to use. In our experience, the majority of users who have tried Office 2007 agree, but it does take time to get used to.

Yes, most people report a small productivity dip when they first change over, but on average it takes only a couple of weeks to learn the new layout of the commands and the productivity dip turns into a gain. The customisable Ribbon is also a huge boon for businesses that need to give workers access to specific tools within the Office suite.