Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Available Now

Don Bonaddio — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:23:56 +0000

Office 2010

Microsoft just announced the beta version of Office 2010 – now available free for download. Just make your way over to the download page and in a few minutes you’ll be downloading a 700 megabyte install file.

You have your choice of either the Developer or IT Professional version. I chose IT Professional – I haven’t yet explored the differences in the Developer version.

Getting the goods:

You’re then led to a page of important details about this beta. Not the least of which is that you must uninstall any previous versions of MS Office currently installed on your computer. The rest is self-explanatory – system requirements, 32-bit v 64-bit, etc.

Clicking the “Get Started” button brings you to a MSN, Hotmail, Live Sign in. Sign in or sign up and then sign in. The next page contains a form asking you to describe yourself as a beta tester. Easy enough.

The Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta Product Key presents itself next prompting you to “Print This Page” Do what is says or at least write down the MAK key somewhere safe. You’ll need it to activate Office later.

Then pick your download of choice (32-bit or 64-bit) from the bottom of the page. Since the download is on the large side, Microsoft provides you with a Download Manager tool allowing you to pause and restart the download as needed. Depending on your broadband speed the download could take anywhere from several minutes to more than an hour. Budget your time accordingly.

The Install

The Office 2010 Install is not unlike previous Office installs. Double click the downloaded file and wait a few moments for it to uncompress and start the install process. I’d suggest you chose the “Custom” install. If for no other reason you’ll be able to see what and where things are going to be installed. I’d recommend choosing “Run All from my Computer”. This guarantees that all the features are installed on your hard drive. After specifying these few options the install then proceeds quietly, taking several minutes. Near the end of the install the program will automatically check for updates and install them if available. The Thank You screen is displayed below.

A Quick look

This Professional Edition of Outlook 2010 contains virtually everything Office has to offer – Access, Excel, InfoPath Designer and Filler, Outlook, OneNote, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word, and SharePoint Workspace. Also included in the tools folder are the Digital Certificate for VBA Project, Clip Organizer, Language Support, Upload Center, Picture Manager and Send-a-Smile

Send-a-Smile is the Microsoft Office feedback tool. Parked in the task-bar are ”Smile” and “Frown” cons.

Click on either and it instantly takes a screenshot and embeds it in a dialog box allowing you to add comments clarifying the accolade or bug report.

The interface is easy to use which makes it more likely to be used by beta testers. I found the “Smile” side of what’s ostensibly a bug reporting mechanism. However, once you think about it, the positive feedback is also valuable.

Starting with Word

Starting up Microsoft Word allows you access to the “Backstage” as they put it by clicking on the “File” tab. Here you’re presented with several options along the left column. Many are familiar, like “Save”, “Save As”, “Recent” and even “New”. However “New” now presents a much more intuitive interface allowing one to click on a template in the middle area and have a sample presented in a small window on the right. The templates can be either local or available via Office.com.

Social. No program or suite of programs is complete without some sharing ability these days. Click on the Share option in the left column and you’re presented with several choices to Share using Email, Save to SkyDrive, Save to SharePoint, or Publish as Blog Post.

Try it for yourself

We’ve only scratched the surface on the comprehensive suite of office tools that is Microsoft Office 2010. From our initial testing, things seem very stable, especially in flagship apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Oh yeah, Outlook now has an option allowing you to configure Text Messaging. The release of this beta for Office reminds me of another beta from Microsoft – oh right Windows 7. Let’s hope this works out half as well. Looks good so far.

Let us know what you think.