First look: Microsoft Office 2010 review

Word also gains Text Effects, which gives Outline, Shadow, Reflection, Glow and Bevel effects to standard text in a document without having to resort to embedded WordArt objects. Used sparingly, these effects could make headings and important words really stand out.

One of the bugbears of many power users in Office 2007 was the inability to customise the Ribbon. Without resorting to third-party add-ins or complex programming, ordinary users were limited to adding buttons they used often to the small Quick Access Toolbar which lived in the left of the title area of the application's window.

Microsoft always maintained this was by design as only a tiny fraction of a percentage of users intentionally customised the old menus and toolbars but many people did it accidentally and anyway they were trying to ensure that Office looked the same after two years as it did on installation.

Well, they have relented, somewhat.

Anyone can now customise the Ribbon in any application but only through the Backstage View Options dialog and then only within certain limits. You can move and remove tabs and groups and you can add your own tabs, groups and commands but you cannot rearrange, add to or delete commands from built-in groups on existing tabs.

You don't get any control over the sizing of the buttons, you seem to get what you are given, but perhaps that will come later. If you need to delete a command or two from an existing group, the only way to do it is to create a custom group, add all the commands to that, missing out the ones you don't want and then remove the original group. You can also export and import your customisations or reset one or all tabs back to the default.

Conclusion

There's a lot more to Office 2010 than just a cosmetic overhaul of the applications left out of the Ribbon UI revolution in 2007.

There's still a long way to go in terms of fit and finish before its scheduled release in the first half of next year and we do have some niggles and quibbles about the way some features work but there's time to fix or explain those better.

Generally, however, Microsoft has made good strides in increasing usability, cohesiveness and collaboration.

Author: Simon Jones