Office 2010 Preview in July, Beta Later
Microsoft is gearing up to release an invitation-only "technical preview" of Office 2010 (aka Office 14) this July, followed by a full-blown Office 2010 beta for general consumption sometime during the second half of 2009. According to the company, the beta will come in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and will run on Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, and the upcoming Windows 7 operating system.
In addition to the preview and beta announcement, Microsoft's Reed Shaffner also added that end-users will not need to upgrade hardware that currently runs Office 2007, however many older hardware and OS configurations may require an upgrade to run server and client products. "Like Windows 7 has demonstrated, we realize that taking advantage of the hardware you already own is just as important as supporting all the new technology coming out," he said over on the Office 2010 IT Blog.
For consumers who can't wait for the beta, Microsoft has launched this website that allows eager users to sign up for the technical preview. Invited participants will have access to Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Access 2010, InfoPath 2010, and Publisher 2010. Microsoft said that attendees of its annual TechEd event, held here in the US, will comprise the first batch of the limited Technical Preview program; additional applicants will probably be added later. At this point, it's unknown if the following beta will contain the same feature set as July's technical preview.
For now, Microsoft remains tight lipped in regards to Office 2010 pricing and technical details and the company hasn't offered any information in regards to the variants planned for its Office suite. With OpenOffice.org providing a compatible suite for free, Microsoft will need to "go all out" with this latest version of Office in order to convince end-users to dish out loads of cash.
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office 07 was great, i just got lost sometimes, or it was hard to find certian features
hope they make a search or something
I love 07, it just annoys me that they didn't upgrade publisher/access/onenote as dramatically (if at all). Publisher & OneNote could really benefit from the ribbon and smartart. If they do as well with 10 as with 07, I'll definitely upgrade.
openoffice is free and they say the best things are free. ms really needs to make some dramatic changes with the new version to drive consumers back to msoffice
bring back .doc please.
i use open office, can't stand Microsoft's anymore
Isn't XP supposed to be dead?
I use Office 2007 but I wouldn't spend money on Office if it didn't come with my computer. The .docx has caused so many problems when I save something and then can't use it on someone else's computer, why doesn't it just save it as a .doc so it's compatible with everything? I don't see any point to changing the filetype.
One just needs to save it in compatibility mode. It's as easy as setting the default save mode as such.
I don't expect the "invitation only" version to remain that way for long. It'll be all over Bittorrent sites. We don't really have to wait for the Beta.
Isn't XP supposed to be dead?
Lot of people are and still will be using it. And to get more sales they probably should support XP with Office 10. It wouldn't make sense to not support it when your a business trying to make money.
I use Office 2007 but I wouldn't spend money on Office if it didn't come with my computer. The .docx has caused so many problems when I save something and then can't use it on someone else's computer, why doesn't it just save it as a .doc so it's compatible with everything? I don't see any point to changing the filetype.
The new OOXML file types are open source and XML based. Generally speaking, the filetypes are smaller due to compression and quicker to open than the old binary filetypes. If you want to see what I am talking about, just rename one of them to .zip and open it up to take a look. OOXML is Microsofts response to the long held criticism that it needs to support more Open Source standards. While there was a lot of controversy and debate on whether or not OOXML was a true Open Source standard, it did pass ISO certification last year. Whether or not you like OOXML, I think we should all be able to agree that Microsoft shouldn't stick with the old proprietary binary formats forever.
Office 2007 is what finally drove me to switch to OpenOffice. They re-arranged all of the settings, so when I had Office2007 forced on me at work, my productivity took a huge hit that it never really recovered from. Not to mention an unacceptable amount of bugs/crashes from Outlook2007...
Great software until it's freeware.
hopefully 2010 will be less of a hardware whore than 07 (sorry for the language)
brilliant programs - they make life SO much easier (and they make me a decent amount of money) - but they just hold down the OS.
of course this could just be me (with an E8400 and 4gb ddr2 800, i think less likely, but maybe). still - microsoft seems to be on a roll - and i like seeing companies do things right!
I moved from Open Office 2.x to Office 2007. I wouldn't want to go back. I still have to give Open Office 3.x a proper run though.
That's great, but I'm currently adjusting to the recently released MS office, the office 2007.. i used to work using MS office 2003 that's why office 2007 is very complicated for me..