Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected

CWmike notes a review by Preston Gralla of the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Office 2010. "I review plenty of software packages throughout the course of a year, and it's rare that I come across one that I believe will truly make a difference in the way that I work or use my computer. With Office 2010, which recently hit RTM status, it is one of those times. The main attraction, as far as I'm concerned, is the Outlook makeover that makes it far easier to cut through e-mail overload and keep up with your ever-expanding group of contacts on social networking sites. There's also an improved Ribbon that now works across all Office applications, and some very useful new PowerPoint tools for giving Internet-based presentations and handling video. Question is: Is Office 2010 good enough to stop the defection to Google Apps? Some large enterprises are seriously considering jumping from Exchange to Gmail, or already have, reports Robert Mitchell. The final version of Microsoft Office Web Apps, the Web-based version of Office, isn't yet available but is expected before summer."

Comments

Is there a classic mode?

[Anonymous Coward]

"There's also an improved Ribbon that now works across all Office applications"

I don't care, unless there's a "classic" menu mode I'll stay with OpenOffice or older MS Office versions. I know some people like the ribbon, but I really, really hate it.

I'm neither for or against Microsoft, but as a CTO

[Assmasher]

...I can simply relate what things I believe and the things I hear from other CTO/CIOs regarding Google Apps and using Google Mail in a corporate environment. Everyone I know is adamantly against the idea. It isn't because there are technical shortcomings, it's simply because of liability and privacy. That's it, plain and simple.

The idea that our company would place our mail and documents, and the mail and documents of people communicating with us into the hands of another company who are not tightly bound by laws regarding retention and usage? Makes my skin crawl.

I wonder who the first company to be bought by Google will be using Google mail and apps while negotiations are ongoing? ;)

Thanks, but I'd rather only have to worry about the ISP, not the ISP and the Cloud. It's unfortunate because I have no interest in running mail servers, exchange servers, file servers, I just want to make software.

Well...

[msauve]

as long as Outlook continues to encourage top-posting and HTML formatted content, and discourage quoted reply trimming, it will still suck.

Re:Well...

[ottothecow]

I used to agree with this...but now that I have spent more time in a business setting, I can say that there are very real reasons why top posting and html email make sense.

Hell, while I usually leave it in the default html mode, there are times when I switch it to RTF mode so I can control things like where attachments show up in the email (like you can do on internal network emails in lotus notes). Sure, I know not to send formatted stuff like that to unknown email clients outside the company, but 95% of my emails never leave our exchange server so I know for a fact that every feature is supported.

\

Re:Well...

[moosesocks]

as long as Outlook continues to encourage top-posting and HTML formatted content, and discourage quoted reply trimming, it will still suck.

Jesus Christ. 10 years later, and we're still having this argument?

Give it up, dude. Usenet is dead, top-posting is the norm, and everything supports HTML. Only a select few chose to trim their bottom-posts, which usually just meant lots of scrolling.

(In any event, threaded conversations a la GMail are clearly the way forward)

Re:I'm neither for or against Microsoft, but as a

[L4t3r4lu5]

It's a reference to D&D, apparently. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1592034&cid=31595704

Re:Massive innovation; return of 'file' menu optio

[ngrier]

And you'll notice that they've also reverted to letting you customize the ribbon. So really we're largely back where we were in 2003 except that they've cleaned up a few things and made 'big icons' so that folks who don't get menus have a better idea of what they're doing (not that half the icons make any sense or that their organization helps anything - have you tried working with tables, for example, where half the tools are on one menu and the other are on the next?!)

Here's hoping they've also fixed some of the inconsistencies in the ribbon as well - it's incredibly frustrating that you can adjust some formatting in one application but not in another - you'd think they share the same codebase. Are they just trying to protect us from having too much control over our documents?!

Re:Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected

[Ironhandx]

Am I the only one left that hasn't been eaten by the "If we force it and make them look at it often enough they'll eventually like it, no matter how bad" syndrome that seems to be affecting everyone with regards to that stupid ribbon?

Re:Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected

[GF678]

Am I the only one left that hasn't been eaten by the "If we force it and make them look at it often enough they'll eventually like it, no matter how bad" syndrome that seems to be affecting everyone with regards to that stupid ribbon?

You're appear to be stuck in a logical fallacy where you're unable to comprehend the idea that people might actually like the ribbon based on their use and experiences with it, and the clear benefits it provides, rather than for any other reason.

In other words, you think no-one can like the ribbon, so if people do, there must be a negative reason. For goodness sakes, Microsoft are making good products these days; open your mind a tiny bit.

Re:Microsoft Office 2010, Dissected

[MBGMorden]

I have to agree with you. I'll admit that it took some getting used to, but after an adjustment period, there really is nothing wrong with the ribbon. It works pretty well.

I've never understood the people who praise KDE for doing absolutely batty things with their UI because they're "innovating", but when Microsoft does something a bit different they proceed to excrete a brick because they're "messing with established ui standards".

IMHO, the ribbon is only a bad thing to someone intimately familiar with the products already. If you're a new or basic user, it does a VERY good job of getting useful functions in a more accessible location rather than buried 7 levels deep in a menu structure.