[Review] What’s New in Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview?

Just finished installing “Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview“. Its available on Microsoft Connect so if you applied for it, check your Inbox or Connect account and it should be available for download.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available. The available version’s build number is 4006.1110

File size of 32-bit version is 535.87 MB and 64-bit version is 598.58 MB.

Following applications are included in this Technical Preview:

• Microsoft Office Professional 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access)
• Microsoft InfoPath 2010
• Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 (formerly Microsoft Office Groove)
• Microsoft Visio 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 is quite similar to Office 2007 in first look but there are many advanced features and changes which we’ll discuss in this topic.

System Requirements:

CPU: 500 MHz processor or higher

RAM: 256 MB or higher

HDD: 2 GB

OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista SP1, Server 2003 R2 SP2, Server 2008 SP1, Windows 7

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Setup:

First we’ll talk about the Setup. Its almost same as Office 2007 setup. Once you run the setup, it asks for the Product key. After that you need to accept the EULA. Then it asks whether you want to upgrade existing Office version or want to customize the installation option. We selected “Customize” option and it showed following options to choose from:

That’s all. The setup started installing Office 2010. It took a few minutes to install the Office suite.

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Screenshots:

Once you launch any Office 2010 application, it shows an awesome animated splash screen containing minimize and close buttons at top along with Cancel button at bottom:

All Office applications now contain more glass in the header. So if you have Aero enabled in Windows Vista or 7, you can enjoy the extended glass in the ribbon interface.

Also the toolbar buttons no longer contain any border which makes the interface more simple and clean.

Following are screenshots of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook 2010 in action:

Microsoft Word 2010:

Microsoft Excel 2010:

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010:

Microsoft Access 2010:

Microsoft Outlook 2010:

Microsoft has removed the Office ORB (big round button) from top-left area. Instead they have changed it to a rectangle Office button which shows a totally revamped Task Pane upon clicking:

Here you can Save, Open, Close, Create documents.

One more interesting thing is “Send-a-Smile” application which has been included in this Technical Preview to send the feedback. It sits in the system tray and allows you to send your feedback about Office 2010:

Click on the desired smiley and it’ll allow you to type your comment. You can also send your current Desktop screenshot along with your E-mail ID while submitting the feedback.

After using it for a few minutes, we didn’t find any issue. The performance is quite impressive. No doubt, Microsoft is working very hard to make its products perfect as we have seen in case of Windows 7 and now its turn of Office 2010. Good going MS…