Microsoft Office 2010 has been released and is now available from the Microsoft website as well as retailers across the world. And while we give Microsoft Office 2010 a thumbs up, you may be wondering if upgrading is the right move for you! There are many reason to upgrade and we wanted to provide you with a few to help you make an informed decision.

            The Beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 was made available in November of 2009, with a June 15, 2010 release date for all editions of the full version. Whether you have used it for a while now, are considering the purchase of one or more programs or fall somewhere in between, there are many Microsoft Office 2010 tips from which you can benefit. Learn what you will need to start using Microsoft Office 2010 and some of the exciting new features you can try.

            Before you purchase a Microsoft Office 2010 suite, take the time to learn about thedifferent editions available. Unlike Microsoft Office 2007, which offered eight unique editions, there are four Office 2010 suites from which you can choose. Each suite includes a different group of applications and corresponding price tag so you can base your decision on your needs as well as your budget.

            When you are ready to install Office 2010 on your computer, how you do so depends on whether you are installing Office for the first time or are upgrading to Office 2010 from a previous version. When you install the software, you will have the option to upgrade or perform a custom installation. If you would like to retain Office 2003 or 2007 and use Office 2010 as well, choose the Custom option, as this allows the suites to run parallel to one another. One important tip is that multiple versions of Outlook cannot co-exist on a system, so if you select this option your previous version of Outlook will be replaced by Outlook 2010.

‘TIPS AND RESOURCES OF MICROSOFT OFFICE 2010'

            At first, you may have some trouble finding resources, such as Microsoft Office 2010 templates. As the Office 2010 suite becomes more commonly used, however, helpful resources such as templates, tutorials and application tricks and tips will be much more abundant and easier to find.

            In addition, you can look forward to using Microsoft Office 2010 online, if you are not already doing so. Part of the Office 2010 rollout includes Microsoft Office 2010 web apps, making your favorite Office programs accessible to you no matter where you go!

NEW AND IMPROVE FEATURES OF MICROSOFT OFFICE 2010

·         New and improved cloud application support. The Microsoft Office 2010 applications integrate better than ever with SharePoint and Microsoft Live Services. And not only do the Microsoft Office 2010 applications work better online, but they also now have ever better offline support, for those times when you don’t have a direct connection to the internet. Office 2010 provides online integration that is otherwise unmatched in the industry.

·         Continues to be the standard for desktop business productivity. Ever tried to use other Microsoft Office competitors? Ever notice that those products say they are 100% compatible with Office, but there are a 1000 little quirks, or maybe even your favorite Office feature isn’t supported! The Microsoft Office 2010 applications provide unparalleled features and product support.

·         The Office 2010 Backstage. New to the Microsoft Office 2010 suite of applications is the Backstage. The Backstage is your one-stop shop for much of the main program functionality. Best of all, the Office 2010 Backstage is fully customizable, just as with the Ribbon and provides a host of controls and functionality for building robust Office solutions.

·         The New Ribbon Builder dialog. The Microsoft Office 2010 applications make it extremely easy to customize, or even build your own custom, Ribbons using the program Options dialog.

·         Unsaved Lost Document Recovery. Ever closed a document without saving it accidentally? Ever wanted to shoot yourself in the head because of that mistake? You definitely are not the first person to make it (I myself have done it more times than I care to remember)! Well, losing unsaved documents is a thing of the past in Word 2010. With the new improvements to the document recovery pane in Word 2010, you can restore files that were purposefully closed and not saved!

·         Upgraded E-mail and Internet Security. The Microsoft Office 2010 applications  now have an improved Protected View mode to protects against view malicious e-mail, internet files, and online Office documents.

·         Better Application Integration. The Microsoft Office 2010 suite of applications provides ever more integration between each of the products. For most applications, there have been massive improvements to integration SharePoint and many of the applications now have a sever version included with SharePoint Server 2010. And all of these features are in addition to the already existing integration between the applications, which is already unparalleled by any other product available in the world!

·         Excel’s new Sparkline charting features. Microsoft Excel 2010′s new Sparkline charting features allow the user to quickly generate mini charts with just a few mouse clicks. Building quality charts has always been one of the strongest features of Excel and now it is even more powerful and easy to use in Excel 2010!

·         PowerPoint’s new broadcasting features. Microsoft PowerPoint 2010′s new Broadcast feature allows the user to transmit their presentation over the internet, in real time. You do not need to purchase a server or have some paid service to use this feature either. Simply send an e-mail request to all the people you want to view your presentation and send it off.  Users will be able to watch your PowerPoint 2010 presentation from their browser over the internet!

·         Cheaper than Office 2007?! So let me get this straight…you get all of the features with the previous versions of Office, plus all of the new features included with Office 2010, and all for a cheaper price than ever before! Now that one is truly hard to believe, especially in this struggling economy!  It seems that Microsoft Office 2010 would be the way to go.

MICROSOFT POWER POINT 2010

DEFINITION:

Power point  is intended for users who are new to Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and interested in learning the concepts of creating and designing presentations by using PowerPoint 2010.

It is ideal for current or aspiring Sales or Pre-Sales executives, Business Analysts, Managers and other professionals that need to create, update, manage and modify effective presentations using Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

NEW FEATURES:

NEW EMBED VIDEO FROM FILES

To insert a video from your files, on the Insert tab, in the media group click video and then click video from tour file.

·         NEW AUDIO EDITING

Select an audio object in your presentation. The audio tools format and playback tabs appear automatically whenever an audio object is selected.

·         NEW MULTI- WINDOW SUPPORT (SDI)

This capability is available automatically for example with more than one presentation open, on the view  tab, in the window group, click arrange all.

·         NEW LINKED NOTES

Open or save a new power point 2010 presentation, Then, on the review tab in the one note group click linked notes.

·         NEW BROADCAST SLIDE SHOW

On the slide show tab in the start slide show group click broadcast slide show.

IMPROVED FEATURES:

·         IMPROVED STREAMLINED COMMUNICATIONS

Wherever you see presence information for other editors, point to the person’s name for a contact card from which you can initiate a conversation.

·         IMPROVED INKING

To start inking, just move your stylus in range of a tablet enable device (such as a tablet PC) or on the review tab, click start inking. The ink tools peers tab appear automatically.

·         IMPROVED RECORD SLIDE SHOW

On the slide show tab in the set up group just click record slide show.

·         IMPROVED NOTE PRINTING

Click the file tab to the open backstage view and then click print. Under settings click full page slides and then under print layout option click notes page.

·         IMPROVED ADDITIONAL SMART ART GRAPHICS

 On the insert tab in the illustration group click smart art the smart art tools design and format tabs appear automatically when your insertion point is in   

 COMPARISON

          recently upgraded office 2007 to office 2010 but have both on a new machine FAST (quad core i7 6 gig ram Gamer video cards ) all with the latest drives.  Especially in Slide sort mode PowerPoint 2010 is SUBSTANTIALLY slower (we have large presentation 400-500 slides) almost to the point of non usability. Even with 50 slide presentation the performance is noticeable. We have tried this upgrade on older machines (1-2 years) and the same thing.  These are new machines which otherwise are VERY fast. All MS updates, antivirus firewalls are up to date and functioning properly.  All run Win 7 (some 32 bit some 64) and all are running 32 bit Office (which is a requirement when running 32 bit Office 2007)

ISSUE:

     Some new power point features are only compatible with presentation that use the .pptx file name extention.

New features in Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011, such as embedded media and sections, can be saved only with the .pptx file name extension. If you try to save it in the earlier .ppt format after you add new PowerPoint features to your presentation, you will likely encounter errors.

Use the .pptx file extension to take advantage of new features in PowerPoint 2011 and cross-compatibility with other Office for Mac 2011 applications. You can also download and install the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.2. or an update that enables PowerPoint 2004 to open files that have the .pptx file name extension.

 REFLECTION:

The following advantage of Power Point 2010

Can easily input images,Templates are built in for different appearances,Can add notes pages,Can easily add media and recordings,More exciting than a simple word document or hand written presentation,Master slides make presentations consistent

 

The following Dis advantage of Power Point 2010

 Some features such as animations and backgrounds can distract the audience from the actual information in the presentation,File size can become quite large on medium to large presentations ,Some of the features can be quite complicated to use and even the simple features require some getting used to,When at work, you cant rely on someone else's computer or laptop to run your presentation, there are too many software conflicts and disk space barriers,Takes quite a bit of time to create a complete presentation.

MICROSOFT WORD 2010

 DEFINITION

                Microsoft Word 2010 offers the best of all worlds: enhanced features to create professional-quality documents, easier ways to work together with people, and almost-anywhere access to your files.
Designed to give you the finest document-formatting tools, Word 2010 helps you organize and write your documents more efficiently. In addition, you can save documents online and access, edit, and share them from almost any Web browser.1 Your documents stay within reach so you can capture your best ideas whenever and wherever they occur.

               

NEW FEATURES:

·         NEW MICROSOFT WORD WEB APPLICATION

Edit documents in a Web browser when you’re away from your office, home, or school without compromising the quality of your viewing experience.

·         NEW ADD VISUAL EFFECTS TO TEXT

With Word 2010, you can apply formatting effects such as shadow, bevel, glow, and reflection to your document text as easily as applying bold or underline. You can spell-check text that uses visual effects, and add text effects to paragraph styles. Many of the same effects used for images are now available to both text and shapes, enabling you to seamlessly coordinate all of your content.

·         NEW Recover work you thought was lost.

After working on that document for awhile, did you accidentally close it without saving? No problem. Word 2010 lets you recover draft versions of recently edited files as easily as opening any file, even if you never saved the document.

·         Insert screenshots and handwriting into your documents.

Capture and insert screenshots directly from Word 2010 to quickly and easily incorporate visual illustrations into your work. When you use a tablet-enabled device such as a Tablet PC or Wacom tablet, you get improved tools for formatting ink as easily as you format shapes.

·         INSERT Turn your text into compelling diagrams.

Word 2010 offers you more options to add visual impact to your documents. Choose from dozens of additional SmartArt® Graphics to build impressive diagrams just by typing a bulleted list. Use SmartArt to transform basic, bullet-point text into compelling visuals that better illustrate your ideas.

IMPROVED FEATURES:

·         IMPROVED Microsoft Word Mobile 2010

Stay current and take immediate action using an enhanced mobile version of Word specifically suited to your smartphone (3).

Language Tools

You have now more flexibility to work as you choose. Simplify and customize your multilingual experience with separate language settings for editing, help, display, and screentips.




 

·         IMPROVED Word translation

Word 2010 helps you work and communicate across different languages. It translates a word, phrase, or document more easily than before. You can set separate language settings for ScreenTips, Help content, and displays. And, get additional assistance for English as a second language with English text-to-speech playback.

·         Image editing

New picture-editing tools in Word 2010 enable you to add special picture effects without additional photo-editing software. You can easily adjust pictures with colour saturation and temperature controls. You also get improved tools for easier and more precise cropping and image correction.

·         Improved search

With the new and improved Find experience, you can now view a summary of search results in a single pane, and click to access any individual result. The improved Navigation Pane provides you a visual outline of your document so you can browse, sort and find what you need

Comparison

Microsoft Word is the most widely utilized word-processing software program on the market. Despite providing the same basic word-processing functions, the 2007 and 2010 versions of the software have many differences. According to TechRepublic, the main advantages of Word 2010 over its predecessor are that it offers more stable performance and a more aesthetically-pleasing design.


ISSUE:
       Just installed Office 2010 and trying to stick with it, but Word keeps freezing after opening documents from Word2003. Yet to be able to get a Word 2003 document to open without hanging / not responding. Any knows tweaks to fix this yet? Is it just me?

REFLECTION:

In Office 2010, a total of seven versions, but in terms of volume licensing customers, Microsoft only provides a choice of two versions, namely Standard and Professional Plus version, the version number of Office 2007 is only half the reduction in the Ultimate and Enterprise Edition.

It is understood that, Office 2010 Professional Plus Edition will include OneNote, SharePoint Workspace and Office Web Apps, Office 2010 Standard Edition will include Publisher, OneNote, and Office Web Apps.

Reduce the volume license package will reduce the business user confusion, can help decision makers to choose the version according to organizational needs.

In addition, the agreement signed volume license Software Assurance customers can also in corporate firewall in a private cloud services, hosting Office Web Apps, enable employees to access Office applications through the Web. As a result, business users will be able to access the Office’s security and higher control.

MICROSOFT EXCEL 2010

 DEFINITION:

Software developed and manufactured by Microsoft Corporation that allows users to organize, format, and calculate data with formulas using a spreadsheet system broken up by rows and columns. Microsoft Excel usually comes bundled with Microsoft Office and is compatible with other applications offered in the suite of products. The first software program similar to Excel was released in 1982 and was called Multiplan.

NEW FEATURES:

·         NEW NAMED SETS

            Named Sets support has been provided in Microsoft Excel 2010, this feature allows you to create your own named sets. Simply locate the  Fields, Items, & Sets button under the Ribbon, and it will allow you to define your own Named Sets.

·         NEW 64-BIT SUPPORT

            Microsoft provides 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2010. At first you might think it to be a common news, but there is one important advantage – now you can create a spreadsheet with a size  up to 4GB.

·         NEW SEARCH FILTER

            When you filter data in Excel tables, PivotTables, and PivotCharts, you can use a new search box, which helps you to find what you need in long lists. For example, to find a specific product in a catalog that stocks over 100,000 items, start by typing your search term, and relevant items instantly appear in the list. You can narrow the results further by deselecting the items you don't want to see.

·         NEW CHARTING LIMITS

            In Excel 2010, the limitation on the number of data points that can be created on a chart has been removed. The number of data points is limited only by available memory. This enables people—particularly those of you in the scientific community—to more effectively visualize and analyze large sets of data.

·         NEW SMART GRAPHICS LAYOUT

            With new picture layouts, you can tell your story with photographs. For example, use the Captioned Picture layout to show pictures with nice-looking captions underneath. 

IMPROVED FEATURES:

·         IMPROVED CONDITIONAL FORMATTING

Conditional formatting makes it easy to highlight interesting cells or ranges of cells, emphasize unusual values, and visualize data by using data bars, color scales, and icon sets. Excel 2010 includes even greater formatting flexibility:\

·         IMPROVED SOLVER ADD-IN

Excel 2010 includes a new version of the Solver add-in, which you can use to find optimal solutions in what-if analysis. Solver has an improved user interface, a new Evolutionary Solver, based on genetic algorithms, that handles models with any Excel functions, new global optimization options, better linear programming and nonlinear optimization methods, and new Linearity and Feasibility reports. In addition, the Solver add-in is now available in a 64-bit version.

·         IMPROVED FUNCTION ACCURACY

In response to feedback from the academic, engineering, and scientific communities, Excel 2010 now includes a set of more accurate statistical and other functions. Certain existing functions have also been renamed to better describe what they do.

·         IMPROVED FILTER CAPABILITIES

In addition to slicers, which are described earlier in this article, Excel 2010 comes with new features that make it easier to sort and filter data.

·         IMPROVED PICTURE-EDITING TOOLS

Communicating ideas in Excel 2010 isn't always about showing numbers or charts. If you want to use photos, drawings, or SmartArt to communicate visually, you can take advantage of the following features:

COMPARISON

              Excel Compare supports all versions of Microsoft Excel, and conveniently creates a difference report as a new Excel sheet. It supports comparing the sheets that contain database structures, and correctly processes data that does not have unique identifiers. Excel Compare treats inserted rows and columns in a correct manner, reporting that a row or column has been added or removed, without creating the visual clutter of multiple raw-to-raw or column-to-column changes. Updated cells will be highlighted, allowing you to synchronize changes between the two sheets of data.


ISSUE:

      I'll open an existing, or brand new, spreadsheet and make some changes. Then I click the save, or ctrl+s, and the document saves just fine. I then have to save the file to another location, so I do save as, which also goes smoothly. Now, if I happen to make more changes and try to save those changes, nothing happens. When I click save, it doesn't save. When I click save as, a dialog box doesn't even appear.
However, when I go to close out of Excel it'll still ask me if I want to save the changes. At which point it doesn't matter if I click save, or don't save, because the changes will not be saved no matter what.Does anybody have any ideas here?
I'm running 2010 Excel 32b on XP if that helps.


REFLECTION:

          Although I personally like EXCEL very much I'm going to stretch a bit and tell you what I feel are it's disadvantages. you don't need to debate with me about what I'm saying

I find it very frustrating to deal with printing a spreadsheet that is too wide for the paper - granted it can be done but not in a very intuitive way. Setting PRINT AREA's and FIT TO PAPER are not easily accessible.

I find that although it's very liberal in how it deals with datatypes of columns - it can truly make a mess of data.

Cutting, pasting, inserting and removing rows or columns could be stronger in the way that formula's might be stretched to include these new rows or columns. I find that it's painful now if you need to perform tasks like this in a complex spreadsheet.

It is such a huge and complex product - has so much functionality - that to become an expert in it's use is nearly a full time job. That's both an advantage and disadvantage.