Last week Microsoft pushed the envelope to get its new public beta Office 2010 ready for download to test audiences just in time for Kurt del Bene to announce this important development at the PDC Conference. So, less than a week later, let’s take a look and see if your preview time is worth it. The actual commercial release is expected some time in the first half of 2010.
First, let me caution you - this beta release should be loaded onto a test machine! That means you should not be expecting to replace your current 2007 apps with this beta release! If you’re like a lot of casual users, you’ll never make it to the end of most articles that provide that important instruction at the end of their reviews. Unfortunately, given the time allotment and attention span of most folks, you won’t get to that crucial bit of info until it’s too late. Since most of us don’t have a spare piece of hardware lying around to utilize as a test environment, it should let most folks out of the picture for previewing this beta. Hopefully, I’ll satisfy your curiosity, at least a little bit, with the rest of this column.
Second, my overall comment is; don’t get too excited. After reading more than 10 reviews around the web, this new Public Beta is not exactly full of ground shaking developments. Foremost is the safe conclusion that MS is using the Beta version as a hawk for SharePoint. When you consider the change comparisons between desktop/client and web apps, there are some obvious advantages to using SharePoint. But then, if you read last weeks columns or saw the keynotes at PDC you already know MS’s ongoing strategy for making Microsoft products work best with other Microsoft products. It’s been like that for about 20 years now, so the new product strategy should come as a surprise to no one. The Technical Preview of Office Web Apps was made available over the weekend, and the interoperability between the web and 2010 software are keys to the hoped-for enhanced experience with all things “2010.”
Overall, the new beta does give you a nice feel for how, eventually, the web apps and the enterprise or commercial versions of Office will work together. Unfortunately, unlike Google Docs, Microsoft does not synchronize files between web and desktop files. Why not is a good question, but maybe one we’re not yet supposed to ask. In other words, that means it’s possible to have differing versions of a document on the web, on your hard drive, and on other’s. Yikes.
One-up on Google Docs is the appearance of the online apps as they now appear and work with 2010. Microsoft’s web versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook actually look like the desktop versions, and that is a big comfort if you’ve already experienced the Google Docs visual roadblocks. We can hope that the Microsoft functionality will also catch up, but today, the beta version still leave a lot to the imagination, and a lot to the imagination of future developments. It’s kind of like driving by a newly built yet unleased shopping center - the stores are built, but there aren’t any actual retail shops in them. Gee, the lighting fixtures and the carpet look great! What’s missing from the beta? On example is with the Excel app (although it is supposed to be “feature complete”); you can’t add charts to a document, but if you’ve added a chart on the client version, you can display and edit it on the web. Another example: “Click to Run, much touted over the summer, is still unavailable. This feature will allow you to install and use Office via download through a virtual environment that frees up time and space over traditional download processes.
Another example, and one that is tied to one of the truly cool new developments in 2010, is the let-down experience with the “Social Connector” capability in Outlook. Like the new store with no clothes, this new tool will eventually allow you to exchange info with social networking sites (see PDC Day 2 column) without visiting multiple sites, but there aren’t any services yet developed. If you could hang a sign over your application, it would read, “Coming Soon.” Hopefully the developers who attended PDC will be motivated enough to get to work on those in the very near future.
So, what’s actually “new and improved?” One of these days, Outlook will be substantially more powerful in and on the market than it currently is. Once the new social networking features are in full bloom, you’ll be able to save a lot of time finding and accessing contact-centric information and files. For those of us who have gotten over the learning curve with the Ribbons UI, you’ll see the familiar icons and functionality all over the face of every new Microsoft product. A few of the Office Button and Ribbon features have tightened up a bit, accompanied by a new crop of online templates and services to slowly lure you away from your hard drive dependency. A new “Backstage” brings many features from several button and ribbon locations into one decently thought-out spot. Backstage has nice extensibility - enterprise customers can build customized add-ins that make for nice business-specific use. Finally, I haven’t tested it yet, but apparently there is improved pasting functionality, and one can assume this means more choices about storing and selecting paste data.
Comments
My experience is very different than yours. I can't use the online or Sharepoint features, and don't use Outlook, so the things you concentrated on don't impact me.
On the other hand, you didn't test the "pasting" ... and that seemingly trivial matter is REALLY a big deal for some of us.
I am a "power" PowerPoint user, a big user of Word and pretty strong at Excel. To me, Office 2010 is to Office 2007 as Windows 7 is to Vista - they got it right this time.
The change in the Ribbon (customization, bringing back the File menu item) and the Screencap, graphics and video capabilities will make a big difference in my work day; the Backstage makes saving and printing easier; the "sections" in PPT and the Navigation pane in Word will make working with larger documents more efficient; the SDI in PowerPoint will get rid of a long-standing frustration when working with multiple presentations simultaneously.
To coin a phrase, I HAD to move to Office 2007, I WANT to move to Office 20
Wow - I'm impressed, Xmeister - most "power" users don't have access to test environments! How'd you get such a detailed look? Still, some of the things you talk about arent actually working on the beta - they're just promised and ready for developers to get to work.
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