Microsoft Office Suite 2010 – Is It For You?
Nancy DeMarte
Sarasota PC User Group

This summer, Microsoft’s newest suite, Office 2010, was released and is being hailed by some as the final, must-have update to Office 2007. Since I had moved to Office 2007 a few years ago, I decided to download the trial Home and Student version and test this claim. I was wondering if this new version would be different enough from the 2007 suite to make it worth the purchase price and another learning curve. The big learning curve, of course, had come when I made the move from Office 2003 to 2007, as anyone who has tried that would realize. Now that I am nearing the last slope of that curve and appreciate the new features of Office 2007, I feel ready to make a comparison.  
Office 2010 does have some important upgrades which need to be acknowledged. Here are a few:
1.	The “ribbon” in 2010 can be customized. Unlike Office 2007, I can add, delete or rearrange buttons on the ribbon-like display of commands which are now part of all Office programs. For an experienced Office user, it really is a big advantage to put your favorite commands right at your fingertips. But I am still getting used to where the commands are located on the Office 2007 ribbon. Maybe someday I will be so adept that I’d want to move them around, but not yet. I can always pin my favorites to the Quick Access toolbar. 

2.	When I work with graphics within Office 2010, such as inserting photos into Word documents or video clips into PowerPoint presentations, I find that now I can do limited editing of these things within the Office programs themselves. This saves numerous steps, such as opening another editing program, saving the changes, and importing the graphics back into Office. A person in advertising or graphic design might be interested in this concept, but a home user like me, who does occasional work with graphics in Office, would probably not find these new features valuable enough to purchase the suite. 

3.	Microsoft has succeeded in increasing and adding style to file sharing among users in Office 2010. PowerPoint users can create a slide show and broadcast it over the Internet from inside a browser, rather than having to attach it to an email. This allows associates to experience the presentation at the same time in remote locations. While corporations might find this to be a cost-saver, I probably would underuse this feature. Excel spreadsheet creators can more easily communicate trend data through the use of Sparklines, new mini-charts created in single cells that represent the numerical data in nearby cells. Although corporate boards will benefit from this display enhancement, I would be unlikely to use Sparklines in my home finance spreadsheets.

4.	One of the most heralded features of Office 2010 is the new concept of web applications or Web Apps, which are abbreviated, online versions of four of the Office programs. With Word 2010 and a free Windows Live account, I can use my computer, another computer, or a smart phone to create a document on the Internet using the Word Web Application. I can edit it either on the web with the Web App’s limited Word commands or on my home computer with the full range of commands. Then I can share the edited document on Sky Drive, Microsoft’s free, password-protected online storage area. Although a few other companies have already introduced these sorts of “cloud” applications, such as Google Docs, none yet has the support of the powerful tools in Office. The most intriguing part of the Web Apps feature to me is document sharing. I have been uploading Word 2007 documents to an online site called Windows Live Spaces and sharing them for several months. Recently Microsoft announced that Sky Drive with its 25 GB of web storage is available to Office 2007 users with Windows Live accounts.

So what did I decide? Office 2010 has many valuable upgrades and some excellent new features which will enhance the business community. The home user would probably find these features interesting, but not vital to their daily computer tasks. However, if I were still using Office 2003, I would strongly consider purchasing Office 2010. It contains the best features in Office 2007 with some improvements.  Plus, the cost of Office 2010 is less than Office 2007 was when it came out, although there is no upgrade version. The Home and Student version, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and One Note, costs $149.99 (or less at Amazon.com) for a retail CD version with permission for installation on three computers. In a new computer with Office 2010 loaded, the non-CD suite cost is only $119.99. I have decided that I will pass on 2010 for now and continue to marvel at what can be done with 2007.  It has all the features I need and more.