The Redmond-based company has unveiled the public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 with an aim to incorporate the users’ feedback from the beta to come up with a more robust final product. The beta versions can be downloaded from the Microsoft site.
Key product features
The Office beta includes the upgraded versions of Word, excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace, and Communicator.
Microsoft claims that it will be easier and faster for users to search for results with an improved find and navigation tool in Word 2010. Users will be offered options like adding visual effects to the text like shadow, bevel, glow etc; turning text into diagrams; and adjusting pictures with color saturation and temperature controls among others.
The upgraded version of PowerPoint promises improved picture editing features and new, dynamic slide transitions and animation effects to add energy and visual impact to the presentation.
Recognizing the phenomenon of social networking fast catching up, Microsoft has added Outlook Social Connector to the Outlook 2010 application. This will allow users to check their emails, status updates, shared files and photos in a single view.
With Sparklines in Excel 2010, users will be able to create small charts in a single cell to quickly discover patterns in your data.
Users will be able to place OneNote adjacent to their screen to constantly take notes or references while researching online, reviewing document on Word 2010 or working on PowerPoint, thus helping save time by eliminating the need to regroup information after the fact.
Access 2010 will help users to build on database created by others or use prebuilt database templates to cater to specific needs.
Publisher 2010 will offer easily accessible preview and review features. Users will also be able to easily insert content from graphics and text or galleries of built-in and online building blocks like page stories, advertisements, calendars etc.
InfoPath will offer the ribbon interface to help users operate more efficiently. Instead of traditional tool bar, ribbon will display the command in tab form.
SharePoint Workspace will help users easily synchronize documents and lists offline to the server when user is back online.
With Communicator’s integration with Outlook 2010, users will be able to schedule meetings, maintain a conversation history, view e-mails etc more easily.
Though there are other features too, these seem to be the most compelling ones to upgrade to Office 2010 beta.
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