ie8 fix
Click Here

All About Microsoft

Mary-Jo Foley
Home / News & Blogs / All About Microsoft

Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010

By | July 13, 2009, 5:16am PDT

On July 13, Microsoft is slated to make available a limited technical test build of its Office 2010 suite to select testers via the company’s Connect download site.

The new build is not a public beta. A public beta of Office 2010 is slated for later this year, as company officials have said previously. The promised July test build, which will be downloadable starting today, is of Office 2010 Professional — one of the five planned Office 2010 SKUs — only.

(Is today’s tech preview build the same, except for being officialy sanctioned, as the Office 2010 build that leaked in May? That May build was numbered 14.0.4006.1010.  Today’s Office 2010 tech preview build — based on a new leak — seems to be 14.0.4302.1000. So today’s build is newer.)

Microsoft also is making available to select testers this week invitation-only tech previews of Visio 2010, Project 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010, officials said. The tech preview of the Office Web Apps –the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — is slated to be available to select testers some time in August, not this week.

Microsoft officials are planning to announce the availability of the tech beta at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), which kicks off in New Orleans today. The conference is for 5,000 or so of the company’s reseller partners.

All WPC attendees will have access to the invitation-only technical preview program and will receive an e-mail invitation to the program, according to Office officials.

Also on July 13, Microsoft officials are unveiling the five planned Office 2010 SKUs the company plans to make available in the first half of 2010. The current version of Office, Office 2007, is packaged as eight different SKUs. Microsoft officials said they are reducing the number of SKUs to reduce complexity.

Microsoft is not sharing Office 2010 pricing yet, officials said.

The five Office 2010 SKUs will be:

* Office Professional Plus 2010 (available only via volume licensing)
* Office Professional 2010
* Office Home and Business 2010 (the new SMB SKU)
* Offie Standard 2010 (only available via volume licensing)
* Office Home and Student 2010

All five SKUs will include OneNote, Microsoft’s note-taking application. SharePoint Workspace — the renamed and updated Groove offline/online synchronization app, is part of the Professional Plus SKU only. The Ofice Web Applications will be part of the Professional Plus and Office Standard SKUs, but not the other three. However, Microsoft has plans to make the Web-centric Office Web Applications available to a broader set of XP, Vista and Office 2010 users. (See this post on Office Web apps for more details.)

For more details about what is part of each Office 2010 SKU, check out my ZDNet colleague Ed Bott’s post.

Microsoft has scrapped plans for an Office for Sales SKU. The Office 2010 Enterprise SKU, which was listed in an internal slide presentation earlier this year, also has been scrapped, or possibly replaced by another SKU. Microsoft officials wouldn’t say more about either of these SKUs when I asked.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “All About Microsoft”

Topics

Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
Ask a Question Start a Discussion
51
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
Guy, great blog site web page submit. In which china nfl jerseys by stands out since the website's RSS feed?
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Too Complicated
trance2tec 13th Jul 2009
Having used the May version of the 2010 Preview. I can say that they are really over complicating Office.

You can only type up a Word document so many ways. They need to focus on other directions for Office if it's going to succeed, but 2010 will fail- it's just way too much for what it's supposed to do.
0 Votes
+ -
Too complicated? How?
de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 13th Jul 2009
I'm interested in your experience of using the May Office2010 preview.

What did you find too confusing?
0 Votes
+ -
Office IS complicated
Patanjali Updated - 29th Jul 2009
Because it IS meant to be used in ways that Wordpad can't.

The problem was that people did not see the functionality and so did not take advantage of it, effectively bypassing 99% if it.

However, I have NOT used 2010 nor had much experience with 2007. I am a Tech Writer and most customers, being enterprises, are still on 2003, largely because Office apps are deeply embedded in many business processes and would require lots of due diligence to determine the changover development costs.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
deowll 13th Jul 2009
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

They might add a video editing/publishing program to the Office package but by and large more change is about as welcome as hemorrhoids.

Some people may enjoy playing treasure hunt with new user interfaces but I just want to use the program.
0 Votes
+ -
I agree 100%
agohige 13th Jul 2009
Why learn a new GUI? If my people have to learn one it will be OpenOffice.
0 Votes
+ -
how large? whats new?
googlewatcher 13th Jul 2009
Go on and surprise me by telling me that this is
not just bloatware providing nothing new but an opportunity to charge people for something 'new'
that they don't need? Are we to get all breathless
over the even tighter integration with the
microsoft server software. Yawn.
0 Votes
+ -
For enterprises, document management is significant
Patanjali 29th Jul 2009
For most home consumers, such considertions are irrelevant, but to an enterprise, being able to include more enterprise document managment in small steps without going to a major ECM application like Documentum and its consequent massive implementation costs, IS worthy of consideration.

And contrary to what you may believe, some readers may be interested in such capabilities, even if they are not in such large enterprises.

Many businesses use SharePoint. We even used it to store all the documents of a Documentum implementation project. It was easy to incrementally use in more sophisticated ways. Documentum and the like need lots of up front effort to make sure the implemention will be right. Far from 'perfect' though, but then useful things often are.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
west1234 13th Jul 2009
You MSFT haters need to get over yourselves. Bring it on Microsoft, I've done well with you since 1989 - and currently running Office, Bing and IE8 with great ease. Signed: a self-taught non-IT hack from Boston.
0 Votes
+ -
Word still deficient in basics
glnz 13th Jul 2009
Every upgrade of Word has ignored basic flaws that make my life as an attorney harder, not easier. A few examples from a very long list:

- Styles. Styles are BAD for documents longer than a page. No law firm uses the same styles as another, and styles are too complicated for 99% of secretaries to modify or re-do. Indeed, with every new version of Word, it has become harder, not easier, to even find the Styles modification box. At the most basic level, you can't even see complete style names in that little window in the upper left. When lawyers give up -- very understandably -- in fixing their style problems, their documents look terrible and become hard to edit. Styles are an unmitigated burden in my world and should be SCRAPPED. (I do so miss WordPerfect's format codes and Reveal Codes.)

- Macros in Word documents? Are you kidding? I am relatively good with the computer, and I can't begin to figure out how to edit a Word macro. It was a snap in WordPerfect, and it's an incomprehensible mess in Word. But who cares anyway? Word had the idiotic idea of embedding the macro in the document, not somewhere else on your hard drive. So if I had macros, they would be embedded in every document, thereby greatly increasing its size and making it harder - not easier - for the next secretary to edit. Useless.

- Something basic - Change Case to Title Case: Word's Title Case is just wrong. In titles or captions, the articles, prepositions and conjunctions should be lower case, but Word capitalizes them. That's just incorrect. This is something else that WordPerfect got right, starting in 1994.

I could go on. (And not only about Word: In Outlook, for example, upgrades made it harder to save Searches, so I have prevented my IT group from upgrading me past Outlook 2000.) But I know that Word will not be addressing these and many other basic, underlying flaws in its next update to Office. I shall certainly not recommend the expense of upgrading to my partners.

0 Votes
+ -
Word still deficient in Basics - You are so right glnz
High Altitude 13th Jul 2009
You are so right glnz.

Word Perfect in 1994 was better than Word 2007. Changing anything basic in Word 2007 is so complicated compared to 2003 or 1995-1997 version...

Now, Office 2010 is coming?? No thanks. Never.
0 Votes
+ -
Burned out
pcguy777 13th Jul 2009
I started getting pretty good with office 2000, then on to the ribbon with 2007, im just getting comfortable with that a year or two down the road (the suite), and now a whole new system?

i dont want to learn new things when it comes to word processing. ive had enough. thanks.
0 Votes
+ -
Lame 4 Long Documents & Adv Users 2
T_Black 13th Jul 2009
Yes, styles are incomprehensibly broken in Word 2007, and past service packs and patches have changed the functionality for advanced style capabilities without any warning.

A "smart" title case option is an excellent example of a broad range of things that have always been inadequate with Word and remain so.

SO HAPPY to a new version of Word before anyone has time to adapt to the last one. What don't they understand about even the very name of the software suite called OFFICE? I've often wondered what Microsoft uses for a word processor. They clearly don't use Word, otherwise you'd think they'd understand a few things about it.

The other BIG problem with Office 2007 is that the help system is catastrophically broken. Full search capability was I think the plan to lighten the load associated with context-sensitive help, but even when you know exactly what you are looking for, you often cannot find it -- even using the online resource, which seems to make search results even more random than offline, to the extent that is possible.
0 Votes
+ -
Perhaps you should spend some time learning rather than ranting
de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 13th Jul 2009
Because your rant above does little to solidify your credibility.

Styles, if used properly are a fantastic feature, eliminating potentially thousands of individual formatting blocks and replacing them instead with a consistent document style that can be modified just by changing the style elements.

Just as when building web sites, one should create a document's content and then mark particular regions as being particular styles (e.g. headings, sub-headings, statements, quotes, etc).

This results in documents that are 1000's of times cleaner than those containing a gazillion individual markups, none of which are consistent, easy to find, modify and standardize.

If your users don't understand how to use styles, you should be teaching them how to, not complaining that Word does it wrong.

Can users screw things up by creating hundreds of styles? Sure. Should they be educated as to why it's bad to do so? YES. Is this a failing in the software? No - it's a tool and if you misuse a tool, you're likely to get hurt.
0 Votes
+ -
don't feed the troll.
magallanes 13th Jul 2009
NT.
0 Votes
+ -
Coudn't agree more
Henk de Boer Updated - 13th Jul 2009
Years ago I stopped using Word out of frustration - about styles and about the program trying to think for me in the wrong way. By example always starting with a capital upon using Enter. Software that expects me to conform to its idiocy is just bad software and this especially so when it changes and expands on its rules from year to year instead of resolving some really basic flaws. Extensive macro's that I made in WordPerfect for Dos still worked ok in WP for Windows. Macros for Word could not even be read in the next version. And indeed a lot of hidden stuff in the header of a document...
0 Votes
+ -
RE:Word still deficient in basics
richdave Updated - 14th Jul 2009
Woah! Yeah, the Word Perfect thing.
0 Votes
+ -
And Word is UNSTABLE
glnz 15th Jul 2009
To add to my rant above: Word styles are UNSTABLE, especially in automatic numbering. Have you noticed that sometimes the style associated with an auto-number level just flips out on you and suddenly indents all the paragraphs at that level? Have you noticed that sometimes it just adds tab sets for no reason? This means that the Word application has major programming bugs. I've used Word '97, Word XP, Word 2000 and Word 2003, and I've seen this problem in all those versions. Hey, out there, do you think this has been fixed in Word 2007 or Word 2010?

Also, why the hell did MS add ".docx"? Who needs that?
0 Votes
+ -
That IS bad design
Patanjali Updated - 29th Jul 2009
Yes, the indenting should have been left solely to the styles and the numbering separate, except to specify which styles are used for each level. That would make the scope of each mutually exclusive.

Making indenting settings in BOTH the numbering AND the styles IS asking for the types of problems that have occurred.

The .docx is for the XML format and, being a significantly different internal format, is probably different so that doc files don't accidently get clobbered.
0 Votes
+ -
You need to learn Word
jorgebraga 15th Jul 2009
Sorry to desagree with you but:

1 - Styles are very easy to use and if well constructed (i.e. not by a lawyer!) are great for formating docs. One thing i give to you Microsoft samples are usually crap. Secretarys should not edit styles for a company - thats not their job. Your company needs document consulting my friend and u need to learn Word!

2 - You do not know what a Macro is in word!! Macros no longer are the repition of a task .. they are much more and are not for the common user (they work .. the rec works but still ... )

3 - Build a Macro!!!





0 Votes
+ -
I agree with ginz
lehnerus2000 Updated - 17th Jul 2009
The styles are totally erratic!

I have experienced the same issues in Office 2000 & Office 2003 (I haven't bothered to try the ribbon-based styles of Office 2007).

I'll create a style and apply it to my document and later when I check it, I discover that Word has actually created 2 or more styles and then applied them randomly throughout the document.

I generally have more success if create a style and then use the Format Painter to transfer it.

I also have problems with Word randomly indenting when I want a tab and vice versa.

I have seen these problems on multiple different PCs (age, brand and location).

lehnerus2000

What happened to my d?
0 Votes
+ -
Don't project YOUR failures onto the product
Patanjali Updated - 29th Jul 2009
Styles make document presentation much easier and more consistent, IF designed competantly AND steps are taken to minimise users trashing content formatting.

I have produced several 1000+ page Word documents (not for printing and generated programmatically from a database) and without styles it would be overly bloated with format codes.

Macros ARE used quite extensively by enterprises, though often due diligence is lacking. Basically, defensive programming techniques MUST be employed because user created documents are the most hostile environment to which to program.
Macros DO NOT have to be in every document - that is what templates were originally for, though including macros in the document does make them more portable.

Just because you cannot understand macros, does not automatically make them useless, just beyond your capacity to use them directly. However, I bet that some judiciously designed templates and some minor automation (compared to whole of process replacement) could really improve your business processes without breaking your bank account nor feeling like you have sold your soul to the IT dragon in the back room.

Like most technology, if you don't use it for what it is designed, it becomes a dog. Use it properly, put in the upfront design effort and it saves a lot of time, improves consistency and reduces frustration.

You CANNOT treat a complex product with plenty of useful facilities as if those facilities did not exist. They are part of the design to SAVE time, IF advantage is taken of them. Otherwise, stick with WordPad and just clone, edit, and Save As - for you, that would probably work better. For others, there are distinct advantages to Word.

That is not to say Word does not have its problems. I don't know if Word 2007 finally fixed the numbering quirks (suddenly every page number in the TOC is 0), or the confusing interaction between styles and munbering formats, or the sudden impulse of styles to change their indenting. But these are faults with the implementation, not the facilities themselves.


Years ago, I worked for a computer shop that was trying to get one of its lawyer clients to change from MultiMate to Word 2 for Windows. The problem was that the secretaries could open, edit and save documents faster on their Amstrads with Multimate than it took Word to load up on a faster machine. That's why I say WordPad would work better for you, if your usage is no more sophisticated (not being derogatory here) than outlined in the above flashback. I don't believe in having technology that is too far above what is actually required. Trouble is that many businesses get Office, but most of their usage is no more complicated than Works can handle. However, they must also cater for the potential uses, and that many of their clients DO use Office extensively. I often use Word's inbuilt drawing for simple diagrams in preference to Visio, just because it IS easier, everybody with Word can edit it, AND it is less bloating.

Years later, having recommended Framemaker to a previous client (its styles were more robust than Words then), I was shocked when it had become so bloated than on one client's fast machines, Framemaker took 45 seconds to load compared to Word's two seconds. Guess which I ended up using. Speed beats facilities any day!


By the way, I am a Tech Writer by profession, but also use VBA programmed Office products as functional building blocks to automate business processes, or extract and present information from multiple sources, including online databases. Doing things this way (self-contained blocks) often bypasses setting up major programming projects with all their management overhead and often disappointing results, and produces tangible improvements in managed steps.
0 Votes
+ -
Disagree with Patanjali
glnz 30th Jul 2009
Mr. Patanjali - With respect, you're missing the point. I am relatively good with Word, including Styles, auto numbering, etc. The problem is that many others are NOT so good, and also that even the few others who ARE good will have their OWN styles, etc. This makes it VERY HARD for active lawyers or their secretaries to revise other firms' documents or even to keep their OWN documents in clean condition. As successive revisions of documents get emailed around, problems accumulate like dust. (Even the NAMES of the styles get corrupted.) You may be a top honcho with all this stuff, but the rest of the world is not, and Word has inflicted erratic, unstable, error-prone nonsense on the rest of the world. From my perspective as a hands-on typist who is GOOD with Word, Word today is FAR WORSE than WordPerfect was in 1994!!
0 Votes
+ -
No thanks M$ ...Got 2007 and liked 2003 better
High Altitude 13th Jul 2009
No thanks M$. I got Office 2007 but liked the 2003 Word better. Office 2007 still needs some improvement and now, we'll get this 2010?? No thanks. Don't need it, don't want it.
0 Votes
+ -
A big "so what?"
bblackmoor@... 13th Jul 2009
It's nine years into the 21st freaking century, and people are still using Microsoft Office?! WAKE UP!

Paying for Microsoft Office in 2009 is like paying for Internet Explorer in 2004: it's software that shouldn't even be used if it were *free*.

For the benefit of people who have been asleep for the last ten years, here is what you need to install:

* OpenOffice
* Firefox
* Thunderbird (with the Lightning plug-in)
* Notepad++

0 Votes
+ -
Here's what.
crazydanr@... 13th Jul 2009
I'm working on a small list - just off the top of my head, of things OO and Thunderbird don't do (yet).

Create diagrams of systems or applications that pull information from data sources such as a DBs, web services, or XML in real time

Simple and powerful electronic form creation and publishing with validation, branching, and conditional formatting

The ability to publish charts, tables, and reports to a web portal so users throughout an organization can use that data to make informed decisions

The ability to create a data connection file that can be used by anyone with permission to access information without having to know connection strings

Integrated contacts and presence across your entire enterprise, with each user having the ability to build their own custom site

Being able to view and analyze information in disparate systems on one, unified page

A simple and straightforward project management application integrated with all the other data in the company

How about a flexible note taking application that can capture from almost any content source to organize and share ideas

An online version of applications to allow users to create, edit, and save documents without the need to install the office suite

A WYSIWYG CSS , Html, and ASP.NET editor that can customize the branding of the office backend portal and allow users to create custom forms and composite applications

A web-based portal backend with versioning, workflows, custom templates, form and diagram publishing, and metadata integration with the office applications

An industry leading development platform for custom macros and scripts to provide on-the-fly office solutions

I can go with you on firefox - excellent browser and platform independent to boot.

But unless you're doing nothing but basic office stuff, all 4 apps still don't stack up to MS Office. There's a lot in there that most people don't know about - I would argue MS biggest fault with Office is lack of documentation and tutorials.
0 Votes
+ -
So I have two questions for you
914four Updated - 14th Jul 2009
How many people do you think use those tools with Word today?

How much of that works if you don't have a Windows server infrastructure?

The fact is, the bulk of Office users would be satisfied with WordPad if it had a decent spellchecker and thesaurus, and not everyone wants their document to go out and poll a hundred data sources every time they open a document. I'm not saying those things are useless, there are many who can profit from them, but there are many more who want something that just works.

There's an old saying, "A complex system that doesn't work invariably evolved from a simple system that worked well."

As to my other question, how much of that functionality do you get if you are working in a library that doesn't have wireless?
0 Votes
+ -
Business vs. Personal
crazydanr@... 14th Jul 2009
If a decent sized company (>10 people) is looking to improve the way they do business (collaboration, business intelligence, process management, etc), the Office & SharePoint combo is one of the most flexible and cost effective solutions you can find.

As for not having wireless.. Well, Google docs is useless, and MS Office comes with several tools I use all the time that OO has no equivalent of : OneNote, Visio, and Project. They don't need an internet connection at all.

For very small businesses and home/personal use, most people would feel that Google docs or OO is sufficient. But how would you draw a diagram? How do you manage tasks? How do you take notes? Even small business requires more than just word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software, and drawing software, no?

As for simplicity - find me another suite that allows business users to build composite applications with no code as quickly and easily of Office and I'll eat my hat.
0 Votes
+ -
I guess the question is
914four Updated - 14th Jul 2009
how many business users will actually use it?

The company I work for has standardized on MacBooks, having migrated from Windows Based Toshibas. There were some grumbles at first (myself one of the loudest) but now everyone who has received their MacBook Pro would not not go back (including me). We use a combination of StarOffice and Thunderbird/Lightning, and we have many internal Wikis. The thing is, both Mac users and Windows users can share the same tools. Even the UNIX users access the same collaborative tools, and it all works. If there were a sharepoint server, how well would that work in our environment?

I tried to access the HCL on Microsoft's website the other day, it was nigh impossible because I wasn't running Explorer. What I had to do was start xVM and XP and then I was able to proceed.

I used to be a big believer in Microsoft and have long promoted their offerings, but it's things like that that have disillusioned me. You can have it any colour you like as long as it's black. Well, black doesn't cut it for everyone anymore.

***added***
Oh, just wanted to add that your argument certainly makes sense for a small company with >10 employees, but what about a large company with >10,000 employees that has a serious ERP in place? Microsoft's ERP solutions do not scale well into that realm, does the company have to have a parallel Microsoft infrastructure for collaborative tools? (The answer is yes, several of my clients do. Are they happy about it? Doubtful.)
0 Votes
+ -
Use what works in your situation
Patanjali 29th Jul 2009
But don't project that your requirements are universal.

Yes, most do not need the capabilities of Word and WordPAd IS very capable for them.

But it is often the potentiality that guides enterprise standardisation. MS Office Standard ticks most of the enterprise boxes, without having to worry about whether they can handle 99% of situations, which is more than can be said of WordPad, which doesn't even support templates, a basic requirement of enterprises, though there are simple ways around that.

The main problem is that businesses assume that staff do not need to be trained to use it properly, nor to get templates properly designed (but no more complex than is necessary).

AS a Technical Writer, I have used far more facilities in Word and Excel than most will come across, but there are many areas of which I know little. I have used VBA to get Word to programatically build documents from various information. I am writing this as Word is building a document as part of the documenting of an existing system.

However, I know that many of the capabilities are only available if I know about them. I believe MS has known that is one of the major issues for proper use of Office and so has put in effort to make its features more visible, but that is always at the risk of appearing complex.

It really depends upon what type of personality you have. Some prefer to see what is available (in a well ordered way, such as with Win 7), but others prefer to not see what is not immediately of relevance to them. The risk with the latter, as MS has found out, is that users forget to, or don't bother to, explore to help themselves, and so blame the product for apparent shortcomings (as opposed to its actual shortcomings), or for not behaving as they expect, mainly because they haven't learned what to expect.

Basically, if you don't want complexity, don't buy or use a complex product, but don't blame the product for being complex. Manage your own expectations properly. And at least have the grace to admit that some do need the complexity.
0 Votes
+ -
If you live in a business vacuum
Patanjali 29th Jul 2009
All very useful if yu have NO clients that are using MS Office.

Functional compatibility is NOT the same as actual compatibility.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
Chameleon81 13th Jul 2009
Are you 10 years old or what? I really dont understand why people feel very "smart" when they you use free and/or open source software. I like MS Office and I LOVE office 2007. I'm on apple computer now. Tried to use iwork, Open Office ( on both Mac & Windows ) I would not even compare them with Office - especially iWork.
0 Votes
+ -
Completely wrong
EmperorDarius 13th Jul 2009
I'm sorry but you're saying complete BS.
iWork is not in any way less capable than Microsoft Office. Pages in on Par with Word, Keynote is much, much better than PowerPoint, and Numbers is pretty close to Excel.

The only difference is that iWork isn't a big bloated, buggy traditional Microsoft piece of crap.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
dheady@... 13th Jul 2009
I use both iWork and Office. While they may appear to be
the 'same' suite of tools they are really quite different. If I
want to quickly write an article or do a draft of a
newsletter I run to Pages. If I want to write or edit a novel I
open Word as it's got a much bigger set of tools geared
more toward the pro. To use Office for all things I prefer
not as it's like using a thermonuclear device to swat a fly.
To attempt to use iWork for all things I prefer not as it's
like using a pistol when you need a cannon. I use the tool
that works. A question begs is now that Apple and MS are
back at each other's throats will MS kill the Mac version of
Office?
0 Votes
+ -
It was the Apple version of MS Office that killed Apple in the enterprise
Patanjali 29th Jul 2009
Basically, once the apps are the same (and that is what most businesses were using computers for), why pay for more expensive hardware. Result, Apple out and almost dowm until MS invested to bail them out (to keep one of its markets viable).

This says nothing about the merits of the OS per se, just that they were relatively unimportant from a lot of businesses standapoint.
0 Votes
+ -
I Could Not Care Less
bgavin 13th Jul 2009
Yawn. YAU (yet another upgrade) to generate cash flow.

Microsoft can't get it right, so they release more products instead of fixing the ones they have.

My business clients are perfectly happy using Office 2003. It has a (somewhat) intuitive interface rather than the Office 2007 obfuscation.

My people don't care about web enabled apps, etc. They just want to run their businesses with the computer being a tool, not an impediment.
0 Votes
+ -
Office 2010 will be rubbish
martin23 13th Jul 2009
Office 2010 will not really be rubbish but only because they are moving it the cloud.

Inside the guts of the product it is still due for a radical shake-up. Many of the usability tools are still extremely superficial and simplistic whilst those tools designed primarily for expert users are either having to be too generalised or too overly complex for the majority of tasks.

Office software needs a radical rethink. Almsost all suppliers products (of which Office is by far and away the most functional) still seem mainly stuck in the 1990's. The overwheliming majoriy of users still produced badly formatted inconsistent documents. Getting two users to produce a consistently tabbed indented and numbered document still seems beyond most corporations.

As for spreadsheets and presentations they have even more to change particularly as most users now know what the standard corporate powerpoint bad news template looks like.





0 Votes
+ -
Improve something this time
ceh4702 13th Jul 2009
Between the 2003 version and the 2007 version they managed to complicate how the merge program in word works and how the default Data Extract program works in Excel. It was a major pain that the data extract program would not allow for simple saving of a one sheet excell spreadsheet. This makes saving a setup for a database extract and Word Merge into a saved format that can be used over and over. So now you have to keep running the stupid merge wizard over and over.

They also changed the Merge preview so that it does not work properly when you want to see how it works on a one sheet set of 3 X 10 labels. It just will not preview anymore.

These stupid changes they made last time overcomplicated the merge process. Microsoft just can not fix stupid!
0 Votes
+ -
just skip it and wait for office 2012.
magallanes 13th Jul 2009
Office 2012 will be the same office 2010 but with all bug and features fixed.


0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
bobfox321@... 13th Jul 2009
Why pay the exorbitant office software prices when 99% of computer people and companies can suffice with the FREE OpenOffice suite? The advanced features that M$ offers are used by very few users. OO has more features that most of us do not need nor use.

M$ is very angry and nervous about Google's new and upcoming OS in addition to FREE anything.

My associates and I are close to getting 95% of what we need from Ubuntu for an acceptable OS, OpenOffice for our word processor, spreadsheet, slide maker needs. We use Thunderbird for all our Email needs.

Competition is a marvelous ingredient. Sweat on M$.
0 Votes
+ -
What about the other 5%?
crazydanr@... 13th Jul 2009
I agree, competition is always a good thing.

The Office team is probably more worried about how to provide enough value to justify the cost of the product in an economic downturn.

Considering they sold probably over 100 million copies of Office 2007 and enjoy a wide margin of corporate users, I would say they aren't sweating it too much.

My guess is they know a lot of people are using OO for free for home and small business, and are focusing more on the market sector that demands the high end features and are willing to pay for them.
0 Votes
+ -
It won't affect our company
fernande-zdnet 13th Jul 2009
Our officialy supported version from the IT department is Office 2000.

For better or worse, this version does everything we need to do.

I agree with the comment that if you learn to use a tool properly, you can do magic with it. However, 99% of users don't care or have the time to learn to use the tool. Hence, they use badly set up templates and produce mediocre documents and presentations.

The main problem I see is that people don't care about how their documents and presentations look. Most don't even care about the content. You will have a hard time trying to change that.

Honestly, I am not even sure how to "dumb down" styles or templates so that "common" users would produce consistent output. Some learning is needed and is not really happening.

It does not matter if the tool is free or not. "Garbage in = Garbage out."
0 Votes
+ -
Well said!
914four 14th Jul 2009
And good point about the GIGO queue! happy
0 Votes
+ -
It's still bad
comp_indiana 13th Jul 2009
Wow, who would have guessed?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
trm1945 13th Jul 2009
ZDnet has just performed a service between
Microsoft and its users by printing user feedback.
ZDnet could do more along this line and Office
might improve to everyone's satisfaction. Or not.
0 Votes
+ -
The "new" every 3 years SW business model is broken
Tfixer 13th Jul 2009
Back in the 80's we looked forward to new software and hardware upgrades because we wanted the major improvements -- such as using a mouse for moving around and editing instead of using keystrokes, and getting real WYSIWYG, and fonts other than the built-in font on the (monochrome, 80 characters per line) monitor. Sometime around the turn of the century, the major improvements for the non-specialized user seem to have been made and it became a merchandising game of convincing the hoi polloi that this "feature" or that was something they really needed. For me and my non-specialized home-user computer clients, moving from Office 97 to 2003 was necessary only because we needed to get the supposed future file compatibility. Most of us didn't use more than perhaps 25% of the capabilities of programs like Word, and far less for Excel or PowerPoint. When many of us did/do want to learn how to use some capability, we ran smack into the singularly unhelpful Help, most of which seems to be written by programmers for programmers. If I want to learn how to use styles, I don't want to spend a week learning, I want to spend a few minutes, beginning with a definition of exactly what styles are and what they might be used for. For myself, Office 2003 is as far as I want to go as it offers far more than I will ever use. I advise my clients to avoid 2007 and beyond if at all possible unless they enjoy relearning how to do what should come easily. I say the old software business model is extinct, "new upGRADES" every few years aren't necessary for us users and seem only to relate to corporate profits -- the software vendors' profits.

End of rant.

Tom
0 Votes
+ -
Agreed - but...
naibeeru 13th Jul 2009
There seem to be plenty of people out there who seem to think that the new toys and bells and whistles ARE necessary. Like you, I use only a small fraction of the power of Office 2003: maybe as little as 10% (I only use Word, Excel & Outlook). And many of my customers, even those in the SMB space, are in the same boat.

I wonder, though, is part of the reluctance on the part of those of us "happy where we are" because we haven't been shown the practical benefits of the new versions and haven't been trained? I've had zero official training on the Office 2003 suite: I've just transferred the general methodology and understanding of Word Pefect (!) and whatever the DOS spreadsheet I was trained on 10 years ago across. Hardly the best way, but then I can't think of any reason to spend money to be trained how to do stuff that I don't know I can do and may not even use! I mean, who even does mail merges that often these days except in very specific instances? And I spend more time writing e-mails than I ever do Word docs.

Anyway, I still agree with your point in large measure, as it seems to me that many people only use Office to a very basic level. Still, we must keep moving forward: it's easy for us who remember WordPerfect et al to say "thanks, we've got enough". But for those who grew up with the Windows 95/98 boom, perhaps more stuff in Office IS relevant to them? Just a thought...
0 Votes
+ -
I can relate, but...
Thunderbuck 13th Jul 2009
I can sort of agree with a lot of your points about Microsoft's business model. The fact that they practically give Office away in some markets like education is a good sign that they don't make the profits that they used to.

I also know that a lot of long-time Office users were put off by the ribbon, but when you look at why the ribbon was developed, it makes some sense. Microsoft is constantly receiving suggestions for new features for the Office apps, especially Word and Excel. Several years ago, they found that most such user requests were for features that were already there.

That sort of forced the issue; Office needed a new UI. I have to say that aside from that new UI, and some new collaboration features, there wasn't much else to Office 07.

For Office 2010, the new web features ARE a big deal. You can't get the same range of features and flexibility from Google Docs.
0 Votes
+ -
Office 2010. Hmmmm.
richdave 14th Jul 2009
Don"t think so. Office 2K still working good here.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
bkseitz 27th Jul 2009
MS Access 2010 looks good, new workflow promises to make development easier still
0 Votes
+ -
When are we going to get an integrated app
Patanjali Updated - 29th Jul 2009
Instead of the artificial separate apps.

I would like to have documents where tables were exactly like spreadsheets but formulae could used named text or cells from anywhere in the document. Then choose a presentation format for it. Embedding does not work properly.

Really, Office alternatives are just peddling the same structure and so are helping to maintain the MS Office dominance rather than offer a quantum leap that IS worth changing for.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Microsoft to deliver invitation-only tech preview build of Office 2010
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 10th Oct
Guy, great blog site web page submit. In which china nfl jerseys by stands out since the website's RSS feed?

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix