14 DAY TRIAL // The official availability deadline for the Office 2010 Community Technology Preview is July 1st, 2009. With the Technology Preview development milestone Microsoft marks the first step toward the RTM of the next iteration of the Office System, which is planned for the first half of 2010, along with GA (general availability). Between Technical Preview and RTM, the software giant will also release a public Beta of Office 2010, at an unspecified date later this year. But for the time being, even with the CTP of Office 2010 not offered to the Technical Preview limited testing pool, the bits are up for grabs in the wild, having been leaked to torrent trackers, just as the builds of Windows 7.
On May 19, Reed Shaffner, Office TPM, indicated that Microsoft was in no way ready to release the Technical Preview bits of Office 2010, and that the official CTP would include additional “details” in comparison to the leaked version. Furthermore, Shaffner warned that the software giant was monitoring the leaked copies of Office 2010 and that it had detected quite a few infected with malicious code. At the same time, some of the websites that had initially posted links to leaked copies of Office 2010 removed the content after being contacted by Microsoft.
Office 2010 is the next version of the Office System, and the successor of Office 2007, released at the end of January 2007 alongside Windows Vista. The suite was previously codenamed Office 14, even though office 2007 was the 12th version of the product, as the Redmond company chose to skip the unlucky “13.” Below you will be able to find no less than 173 screenshots of Office 2010 Technical Preview, but just the desktop-side. Office 2010 will also have a Cloud component, dubbed Office Web Applications. Planned to be launched in both a free, ad-based version, and a subscription-based variant, Office Web Applications are going against Google Docs and will feature lightweight equivalents to components such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, all accessible through a browser. No, Office Web Applications are not accessible at this point in time from the Office 2010 Technical Preview Bits available in the wild.
Office 2010 Installation
Installing Office 2010 no longer feels like the installation of a full operating system. The speed of the deployment process is impressive, especially if the underlying hardware configuration is tailored to Windows 7. Speaking of which, as you can see from the screenshots, I have installed Office 2010 CTP on top of Windows 7 Release Candidate Build 7100. The test computer's hardware specifications are not all that impressive; it manages to score just 3.0 with the Windows Experience Index, still it does have over 3 GB of RAM and an x64 AMD 2.0 GHz processor. Office 2010 installs fast and smooth in just a few minutes, even though it is just a Technology Preview. Immediately after the installation users will get a chance to send Microsoft either smiles or frowns along with screenshots, and their comments via the program's feedback mechanism.
Office 2010 graphical user interface
Back in 2007, some might remember, Microsoft marketed Office 2007 and Windows Vista under the slogan “better together.” With Windows 7 due in October 2009 and Office 2010 in H1 2010, a joint marketing effort for the two products might be a tad of a challenge, but even from the CTP it is clear that the next iteration of the Office System is tailored to the next version of Windows. For example, Windows 7 attempts to make the Ribbon/Fluent graphical user interface pervasive, and the GUI has spread to all Office 2010 programs.
Initially introduced with Office 2007, the Ribbon was leaped forward in terms of GUI design, and has now evolved to be more subtle, leaner, and better integrated with Windows 7. Users will also be able to notice that the Office Orb featured in the 2007 version of the suite has been replaced by buttons with the individual icon/logo for each specific solution. Color coded in accordance with the visuals of the Office 2010 applications (blue for Word, green for Excel, etc.), the buttons act like start menu for each program. Clicking them displays a menu window complete with a range of options from Save and Save as to New, Print and Options.
The Office 2010 heavyweights
I must confess that, although 173 screenshots of any solution seem like a lot, fact is that I barely scratched the surface of what Office 2010 has to offer. It would have taken me thousands of snapshots to bring to the surface even the most minute details of Office 2010. The successor of Office 2007 feels monstrously big. Microsoft needs to understand that there are users leveraging only a small subset of all that Office brings to the table, and the fact that the suite includes everything but the kitchen sink does little for them. A lightweight approach is in order, and maybe Office Web Applications will do the trick.
Office 2010 Professional Plus CTP comes to the table with Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, SharePoint, InfoPath, OneNote, Clip Organizer, Picture Manager, Synchronization Center, and some old components that have been rebranded. “Groove is getting a new name as of the coming release of Office 2010. Please welcome SharePoint Workspace 2010! The name makeover is in concert with the direction the product is going. SharePoint Workspace will provide easy access to SharePoint content (or content from any server that implements the publicly documented protocols) in an effort to provide a seamless online/offline experience,” revealed Microsoft's Jim McCoy.
When it comes down to the Office 2010 heavyweights, namely Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, while there are changes such as new content for Excel, in terms of graphics and charts, and new contextual menu options for Word, fact is that Outlook's evolution is by far the most consistent. With Office 2010 Outlook Microsoft has finally embraced the Ribbon/Fluent GUI for its email client. At the same time, there are new features present, including MailTips, Voice Mail Preview, Ignore Conversation, Conversation View and Call Answering Rules, which are shared by Exchange 2010, the public Beta of which is already available for download.
Office 2010 minus the heavyweights
There is much more to Office 2010 Professional Plus than Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. But of course that with applications such as SharePoint and Access, Microsoft is addressing corporate users first of all. And businesses will be able to take advantage of the evolution of the Office System even more, with Office 2010 focusing on driving productivity, streamlining collaboration, communication and sharing, but also providing tools for content and data management, and new Business Intelligence capabilities.
