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Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?

By | March 11, 2010, 7:56am PST

Microsoft plans to release Office 2010 to manufacturing next month, with availability to business customers in May and in retail channels in June. (Full disclosure: I’m currently working on Office 2010 Inside Out, to be published this summer by Microsoft Press and distributed by O’Reilly Media.)

I’ve put together a poll to help me determine how I cover the product, and specifically which alternative products I use for comparison purposes.

Poll

Are you using an Office suite? If so, which one?

If you’ve made your choice for a specific reason, please feel free to leave details in the Talkback section. Also, I’m interested in feedback from anyone who is currently using the Office 2010 betas. Likes? Dislikes? Based on your experience, will you upgrade to the final version when it’s released?

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Topics

Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Ed Bott

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.

Disclosure

Ed Bott

Ed Bott is a freelance technical journalist and book author. All work that Ed does is on a contractual basis.

Since 1994, Ed has written more than 25 books about Microsoft Windows and Office. Along with various co-authors, Ed is completely responsible for the content of the books he writes. As a key part of his contractual relationship with publishers, he gives them permission to print and distribute the content he writes and to pay him a royalty based on the actual sales of those books. Ed's books written prior to fall 2011 have been distributed by Que Publishing (a division of Pearson Education) and by Microsoft Press. As of November 2011, Ed is a partner in the independent publishing company Fair Trade Digital Exchange, which exclusively publishes his books.

On occasion, Ed accepts consulting assignments. In recent years, he has worked as an expert witness in cases where his experience and knowledge of Microsoft and Microsoft Windows have been useful. In each such case, his compensation is on an hourly basis, and he is hired as a witness, not an advocate.

Ed does not own stock or have any other financial interest in Microsoft or any other software company. He owns 500 shares of stock in EMC Corporation, which was purchased before the company's acquisition of VMware. In addition, he owns 350 shares of stock in Intel Corporation, purchased more than two years ago. All stocks are held in retirement accounts for long-term growth.

Ed does not accept gifts from companies he covers. All hardware products he writes about are purchased with his own funds or are review units covered under formal loan agreements and are returned after the review is complete.

Biography

Ed Bott

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. He's served as editor of the U.S. edition of PC Computing and managing editor of PC World; both publications had monthly paid circulation in excess of 1 million during his tenure. He is the author of more than 25 books on Microsoft Windows and Office, including the recently released Windows 7 Inside Out.

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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
JACOBSONR 14th Oct
Good day to confirm this comment I would appreciate T h e b e s t o f Z D N e t d e l i v e r e d your website very nice to everyone Yes, Oracle is the only one with shared-disk architecture, but that is there advantage. It means you can add or remove nodes and the database lives on. In a shared nothing architecture, if you lose a node, you lose the system. I'm sure Oracle appreciates EMC highlighting their advantage.I also desire to signal in your RSS feeds. Thank you as soon as once again and maintain up the great operate Awesome post! Thank you very much || thanks for nice content this is really benefit to me.
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0 Votes
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Contributr
Are you using the Office 2010 beta?
Ed Bott 11th Mar 2010
Reply to this comment with your feedback. Likes? Dislikes? Based on your experience, will you upgrade?
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RE: Are you using the Office 2010 beta
Kerry from BC 11th Mar 2010
I like Outlook 2010's ability to connect to more than one Exchange server. Outlook 2010 also seems to take less horsepower than previous versions. On my somewht aging laptop (Athlon TK-55, 4 GB, win7 x64) I saw noticeable pauses and slowdowns when either Outlook 2003 or 2007 were sending/receiving or updating folders with a Exchange server. I don't see this other than at startup with 2010. I don't use the rest of the suite enough to comment on the other apps other than to say they work fine.
0 Votes
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I have the beta on one of my computers
bobiroc 11th Mar 2010
and I like it. I am not sure of my organizations plans to upgrade (at least on a large scale) from 2007 but Office 2010 runs faster overall and seems to address some of the user interface issues some people complained about. We may upgrade to Exchange 2010 if budget and time allows us to because there are many new enhancements in that and I have a feeling we will get our hands on at least a few copies of Office 2010 and seeing as I am a member of the senior Technology staff I would use one of those licenses. Of course in the past I have gone to Microsoft Technology showcases and instructional seminars and have always gotten free copies of Office and Windows. One of the perks of working in the trade I guess.
0 Votes
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Best piece of software I've ever used?
baerwb Updated - 11th Mar 2010
Honestly, it is excellent, I love OneNote 2010
most of all though. Little updates like the option
for Subpages, better OCR, etc. show that Microsoft
was really listening. It and Outlook 2010 are
excellent for GTD.
0 Votes
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MSFT Office by a light year
LBiege 11th Mar 2010
The only problem is the price tag.
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Office 2010 beta x64
curtis18 11th Mar 2010
Would like to test the 64-bit version but Outlook doesn't work with Sync Center. Had to switch to the 32-bit version to sync my contacts and calendar with my phone.
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Hopefully they won't ship that broken.
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 11th Mar 2010
nt.
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Yep. x64
Cylon Centurion 11th Mar 2010
I love it. I'm happy to see the Ribbon has finally made its way into OneNote. That alone will get me to upgrade.
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Office 2010 beta
Airplane idiot 11th Mar 2010
One word: OneNote.

I'm using Office 2010 beta and will buy it when released.
0 Votes
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I downloaded it, and played with it a little
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 11th Mar 2010
A few changes to the ribbon, but in my opinion nothing to be terribly excited about. May bug a few users, but it really functions the same as the ribbon in 2007, so not much of a learning curve there.

Outlook 2010 is probably for me the only thing of interest, since I am the e-mail admin for our organization, and people will likely be coming to me for answers about it.

If anything I am looking forward to their web version of office, and how it will stack up to the other hosted solutions offered by Google and Zoho.
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Yes, and loving it!
GoodThings2Life 11th Mar 2010
But then it doesn't take a genius to know that I would, given my typical posts here.

I'm using the x64 edition and not only do I find the ribbon consistency (and customization) much better than in 2007, but the general performance of the software is greatly improved as well.

Neither I, nor my users, use any plugins to Office, so I'm not worried so much about compatibility of the x64 version as I am about maintaining performance. I've already noticed that several of my users' biggest Excel sheets load much quicker than in previous versions, so that's going to be a big plus once I can roll out the final version to them.
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Not yet
bmonsterman 11th Mar 2010
I might put it on a virtual box instance...no hurry.
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Using WordPerfect Office instead
TimothyMcGowan 13th Mar 2010
Ed:

Still vastly prefer WordPerfect Office over Microsoft Office. Don't have to touch the mouse for anything in the word processor. Annoyed, naturally that WordPerfect Office doesn't appear as a choice above -- and resigned to the fact too, alas.

-- Tim
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
beijing2008 14th Sep
good job, i loving it! Hermes Lindy Bags
0 Votes
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I am testing Office 2010 (Office 14) beta and love it.
No_Ax_to_Grind 11th Mar 2010
To be blunt, no other Office Suite offers the functions and features of the latest version of MS office. And yes, I too was one that hated the "ribbon" but after a couple years I've gotten used to it and in 2010 I can customize it to suit me and how I work.

There are Suites that go into the also ran catagory, some of them cheaper, some of them for free but in the end I own a computer and software to get work done in the minimum time possible and for that, none of the others comes close to MS Office 2010. Trying to save a couple hundred bucks up front then fighting with an application and its limitations for years is just foolish IMHO.

Throw in the expanded object modle (coding) for all the Office apps. and automation across all the apps. is a snap compared to any competing Suite.
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The ribbon
j.m.galvin 11th Mar 2010
We use an older version of office at work and I use that some old
version at home so I don't have actual experience with the ribbon.

When I've seen screenshots of it, it seems to take up a whole lot of
vertical space - leaving little viewing space for the actual document -
when you have a number of the ribbons showing. It looks like MS did
not take advantage of the extra side space in flat panel displays.

Adobe includes an option for "workspace" where you can pick your
most used palettes and place them where you want. On your normal
wide aspect flat screen, that means to the side of the document.

I think, if MS included something like that, they would free up screen
real estate and reduce the amount of clicking a user must do to
show/hide various ribbons and still see his document.
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Ribbon size
CarlS 11th Mar 2010
When I've seen screenshots of [the ribbon], it seems to take up a whole lot of vertical space - leaving little viewing space for the actual document - when you have a number of the ribbons showing.

The ribbon in Office 2010 is 87 pixels high--not much at today's typical screen resolutions. That's a bit more than the height of 2 rows of toolbars in Office 2003.

Only one ribbon appears at any time; to switch between them you click the tab label (comparable to clicking a menu name in O2003).

And if you find that the 87 px takes too much space (or is too distracting), click the arrow at the right to hide the ribbon. You then access the ribbon commands exactly the way you would in O2003: you click the tab label/menu name.
0 Votes
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Don't know
j.m.galvin 11th Mar 2010
As I said I've only seen screen shots - mostly of the earlier version,
with the first ribbon I saw a lot of things displayed and they took up a
lot of vertical space. I don't know if they changed that with the new
version.

The Adobe "save workspace" thing is really nice. You can stash all
sorts of commonly used palettes on the side of the screen so that you
do not have to click to open them. when you launch the app, you have
all your commonly used palettes waiting for you.

I don't think that MS is the only company not to take advantage of all
the side space on wide screens and I think it would be helpful for
many users if more used that space. I work mostly with Adobe stuff
and find the use of the side space very helpful. I'm guessing that it
would not be too helpful if you work with spreadsheets with tons of
columns, but we never have to.
0 Votes
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Give me a break...
Use_More_OIL_NOW 11th Mar 2010
If you are so technically inept then you should
be pushing carts or mowing lawns.

That has to be the biggest LOAD of garbage
saying you are more production with Office.

Lack of skill sets and people who took MS
bubble tests with Excel and Word...

Good grief.
0 Votes
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You seem rather childish
j.m.galvin 11th Mar 2010
I certainly hope you're in your teens at most. If not, your immature
ranting does not exactly make you look like an adult.

Everybody is entitled to their likes and dislikes without having some child
ranting and raving about how "bad" their choice is.

I must confess that I prefer diet Coke over diet Pepsi and Coors regular
as a beer. I assume that you will call that "stupid" also if you don't
agree.
0 Votes
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Not garbage
Cylon Centurion 11th Mar 2010
I too am more productive with the ribbon.


What I think is garbage is that you have to attack others who prefer something else over what you do. If digging around in menus is what fits you best, then stick with that.
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
kevingamin 11th Mar 2010
I've been using the 2010 beta 32-bit on my netbook and
the 64-bit on my laptop. I've been very happy with the
performance on both. I'm glad they finally Ribonized the
rest of the suite as I like that interface better than
the old menu/toolbar method. I'm looking forward to
getting certified on the 2010 apps so I can teach other
users about the new suite when it's released.
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
DaveN_MVP 11th Mar 2010
We are using Office 2003 because we upgraded everyone from Office XP at considerable expense. Users did not have any feature needs that would have justified the cost and learning curve to go to Office 2007, and the 2003 licenses were transferable if we upgraded PCs.

Having skipped Office 2007, we will be evaluating upgrading to Office 2010, primarily because we don't want to be on a version that's at or near the end of its support lifetime. If this works out as planned, we'll consider it to have been a good financial decision to skip 2007.
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I agree
croberts Updated - 11th Mar 2010
We are currently running 80% open office, 20% office XP.

While OO is reasonably good, we like MS Office and we purposely skipped Office 2007 as a money saving tactic.

I also agree that there have not been any compelling features in Office for SMBs since Office 2000 came out. How many times can the same product be repackaged and resold?
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More times than I could care to count
Cylon Centurion 11th Mar 2010
2000, XP, and 2003 are seemed the same deal to me as well.
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
John Baxter 11th Mar 2010
I use iWork as first choice, Office 2010 Beta as second
choice. I like Office 2010 beta, and will upgrade (from
2007 Home and Student, probably to 2010 Home and
Student). Also use Office Mac 2008 as third choice.

[A poll with both "Other" and, later, "None of the
above". Seems to me that "None" would be right final
choice. But you were probably trapped by the software.]
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Contributr
Oops
Ed Bott Updated - 11th Mar 2010
I actually meant None. Since no one had voted for that option yet, I went ahead and changed it.

Thanks for pointing it out.
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
spivonious Updated - 11th Mar 2010
We're on a mix of Office 97 and Office 2003 at work, and I use Office 2000 at home.

Honestly, we just have no reason to upgrade. 97 is required by some other software that we are hugely dependent on, so no chance of upgrading there. I'm not in the decision process for IT but I've heard that we stay on 2003 because most of our clients are still using it and switching to 2007 wouldn't be good for business relations.

I use 2000 at home because it's what I bought for college and I really don't use it at all anymore. Why spend $150 to get something I use maybe three times a year?
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
John Baxter 11th Mar 2010
I once encountered a test question with answers
a ...
b ...
c ...
d None of the above
e All of the above

in which All of the above would have been correct had
None of the above not been there. What to do? (Prof
gave credit for All of the above.)
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
jctierney 11th Mar 2010
I initially started using Office 2010 when I was accepted into the Technical Preview program. Now I use this software exclusively on all of my computers. For a beta version its very refined and I have had no issues with it yet. Office 2010 seems to be faster, refined, and a much more beautiful version of Office 2007.

There are a number of little changes that were made in Office 2010 that just make it so much better and easier to use than 2007. One of my more favorite features of Word 2010 is the search pane. This little feature makes editing papers so much easier. Right now there is really nothing that I "dislike" about Office 2010.

I'll probably upgrade to 2010 when it's available.

Good luck with Office 2010 Inside Out.
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
Loverock Davidson 11th Mar 2010
Awesome, according to the poll 75% of the people are using Microsoft Office in one form or another. I think that number should be a higher, but given the ABM'ers on this site they would never admit to using it anyway.
0 Votes
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That's odd!
Great Kahuna 11th Mar 2010
I have yet to see an ABMer (by definition they A lways B uy Microsoft) who isn't using MS Office.
0 Votes
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ABM stands for
rtk 11th Mar 2010
Anything But Microsoft, but I'm quite sure you know this already
0 Votes
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How you doing, -3?
Hallowed are the Ori 11th Mar 2010
Why the name change?
0 Votes
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Why?
j.m.galvin 11th Mar 2010
Office is the standard in the business world. Odds are you're going to be
using it at work if your work involves office type software.

Office also has little competition. There are certainly not many
alternatives. You can get OpenOffice for free, but that involves a whole
new interface to learn.

Lastly, if you need it at home, the cost for the home version is not that
much. You certainly don't need every update of the suite at home, so
one version can last for many years.
0 Votes
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Go back to Dos then
Use_More_OIL_NOW 11th Mar 2010
If you cannot LEARN a new skill then you need
to be FIRED PERIOD. I tell ya, people are
so LAZY nowadays, I have to spend $500 on
a BLOATED Office POS that Open_Office does
ALL for free and it is 100 times more
secure.
Outlook is a VIRUS/Worm magnet, it is funny
but companies want people who can implement
in-house solutions without spending tens
of thousands of software that is not
needed.

Let me guess if it is not MS you don't look
at it, sorry but Linux/Unix distro's power
every network device on the planet.

RHCE is the hottest certification NOT some
Windows MCSE bubble test....

wink
0 Votes
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Actually
j.m.galvin 11th Mar 2010
The vast majority of my work involves Adobe Creative Suite on a Mac
- with the vast majority of that being print design. We don't have any
Windows machines where I work and we don't have any at home. I'm
the guy "in charge" of the machines at work but, frankly, I don't have
to do anything. Everything works fine.

Our machine have a version called Office X. I don't know how old it is,
but it seems to work on Intel macs with 10.4, our newest machines,
OK so we keep it.

Yes, people are lazy about learning new interfaces. As long as
something is not breaking your back with costs, it might not be worth
it to waste a bunch of time with learning something.
0 Votes
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Mis-mash case
JB King 11th Mar 2010
Where I work we seem to have a bit of a combination of Office versions. Outlook and Communicator is 2007, while the rest appears to be 2003 for things like Excel, Word, and Powerpoint. I wonder if this is common in enterprise for large software programs like Office.
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2007 (RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?)
ColinABQ 11th Mar 2010
I'm using Office 2007 on my main, personal workstation - but only because I upgraded it from XP SP3 to Win 7 and thought it wise to make that move at the same time. In retrospect, I think I'd rather have stayed with Office 2003 because I like those versions of both Outlook and Excel better.
0 Votes
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
FeralUrchin 11th Mar 2010
My wife and I are home/home office computer users. I mainly use Linux, she mainly uses XP. OpenOffice runs on each, meets all our needs, and at zero cost.

I realize IT shops have legacy apps that have tended to lock them into using MS Office, and that MS Office may have specific features that are attractive to businesses. So the popularity of MS Office in businesses is understandable.

On the other hand, I can't see much incentive for the large majority of home/home office computer users to pay for MS Office. My neighbor (also a home computer user) paid hundreds of dollars for a copy of MS Office to go with Vista on his new computer--mainly, I think, because he had never heard of OpenOffice. Obviously the retailer where he bought the computer, and who also sells MS products, wasn't going to inform him about OpenOffice.

It may well be that the majority of consumers who purchase new computers are simply unaware of the OpenOffice alternative.

Also, in your poll and discussion of market share it might be informative to distinguish between business and home/home office users.
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iWork?
aep528 11th Mar 2010
Why not list iWork separately instead of grouping it
under other? I think it would be interesting to see if
people are really using it. I have Office 2007 at work
and on my home desktop, and iWork on my Mac laptop.

Oddly enough, iWork was the MORE expensive than Office
because I got Office 2007 Pro through the Home User
program at work.
0 Votes
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
glopez123 11th Mar 2010
NeoOffice for MacOS...
0 Votes
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i primarily use iWork
doh123 11th Mar 2010
iWork i use the most, its actually really nice.. I would have never tried it
out if it wasn't for a free trial.

NeoOffice is my old main and my second choice

Both are grouped under Other technically, but if you use NeoOffice you
should just answer OpenOffice since its built on OpenOffice
0 Votes
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
historypro 11th Mar 2010
I've been using Office 2010 since I received a pre-beta invite. I use Google Docs for quick notes,jotting down ideas, and collecting student exams and paper submissions (I'm an academic)but that's largely because I stay outside the University's network and use iGoogle as a organizational splash page.

2010 is an upgraded version of 2007, but I like the new UI, especially the Backstage feature and the small bar instead of the large circle as the central access point. Since I use three computers (home, office, netbook) regularly, server storage is essential. I use Dropbox as my primary storage point, but keep extra backup copies of articles and book chapters on Skydrive. The integration of Skydive with Office 2010 is a good feature, but I find that I can upload files faster from the web interface, so I seldom use this functionality. Lastly one of the most compelling features of 2010 for me is Office Apps which I will use extensively once full Word functionality is added. I definitely plan to upgrade to 2010 this summer--it's the only program to use for serious writing!
0 Votes
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OpenOffice
marionspd 11th Mar 2010
I have a Windows 7 machine and Linux Ubuntu 9.10 machine. I have MS Office 2007 on the Win 7 Machine and OpenOffice 3.2 on the Ubuntu 9.10 machine. I prefer OpenOffice, my kids prefer to use the OpenOffice machine, my wife prefers to use the OpenOffice machine. I prefer to use because of the cost (free). I'm not certain why my wife and kids gravitate to it, they just do. At work there are just too many complex Excel spreadsheets that don't translate nicely otherwise I would dump MS Office all together.
0 Votes
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Open_Office is secure
Use_More_OIL_NOW 11th Mar 2010
I have to say, MS Office is a put together
from companies MS purchased over the years.

They did NOT invent Office they bought out
companies and basardized it to the degree
it is now.

Open_Office is easier to use, does not require
WASTING $500 and does not float in viruses
via Outlook the biggest POS on earth.

The only ones saying Office from MS are
ones who have no skill set other than
wasting company money.
0 Votes
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I think
Cylon Centurion 11th Mar 2010
The only one displaying "No skill sets" here is you.
0 Votes
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If you prefer open office
bmonsterman 11th Mar 2010
Maybe you could include so specific reasons rather than insulting generalizations. It might lend more credibility to your posts.
0 Votes
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HA!
thereisnomonkey 13th Mar 2010
What credibility?

"---It might lend more credibility to your posts. --- "

???

I've noticed the guy's verbal diarrhea when reading through all the posts and it's pretty obvious you're giving this chump way too much credit. ;p
0 Votes
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RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
pdzdnet 11th Mar 2010
I choose OpenOffice! It's free! And, it's compatible with MS Office. I'm a Linux user. I only use MS Windows when I have to. I also develop software, and I'm all for open-source!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Poll: Which office software suite have you chosen?
JACOBSONR 14th Oct
Good day to confirm this comment I would appreciate T h e b e s t o f Z D N e t d e l i v e r e d your website very nice to everyone Yes, Oracle is the only one with shared-disk architecture, but that is there advantage. It means you can add or remove nodes and the database lives on. In a shared nothing architecture, if you lose a node, you lose the system. I'm sure Oracle appreciates EMC highlighting their advantage.I also desire to signal in your RSS feeds. Thank you as soon as once again and maintain up the great operate Awesome post! Thank you very much || thanks for nice content this is really benefit to me.

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