Office 2010 tech preview - your Good, Bad & Ugly

[Colonel Travis]

Many changes between 2007 and 2010 - I've read elsewhere that there's not much, but that's not correct. Here's my list, curious what others have found:

Good
1.) Each program launches almost instantly. In the grand scheme of the universe, what's a couple seconds? But now when you open a program and - boom - it's up, I must say I like that. Also like the little colored swirly stuff in the splash page.

2.) Ribbon - had no problem with it in 2007, but I know people who hated it and it wasn't consistent with all the programs. Making it customizable is a gigantic improvement.

3.) Backstage page - At first I didn't know what to think, but now I like the organization it brings. Much better than that dumb gleaming dot.

4.) OneNote - I use this almost every second of my waking life, I can't believe MS in the past has relegated this thing to the low end of the totem pole. Finally, a full visual upgrade. Linked notes - excellent. Search is improved. Page/subpage sidebar is easier to read, and I like how you can close and open all the subpages under a page. Draw mode much more user friendly.

5.) Word - Drag and drop. What the hell took so long? Easier to work with photos, charts, etc. Most likely never edit photos in Word because I've used Photoshop for the past gazillion years. But I must admit, for bare bones stuff, this is sufficient.

6.) Outlook- much better organization. This might be more drastic for me than most because I stopped using it for a few years. Setting up your account used to be a pain in the butt. Not difficult, just annoying. Total piece of cake now - this may have been the case with 2007 but I never used it. Very much like the Quick Steps box and the clean-up feature for conversations.

7.) SharePoint - no need for it in my case but at least it doesn't have a dumb name Groove.

8.) Excel - saying this up front: I hate spreadsheets. Do I understand their value? Of course. But I will only use it at gunpoint or if my job absolutely requires it. I assume the newer features are cool. If they aren't, not my fault. I defer to the spreadsheet people.


Bad
1.) My biggest ribbon criticism is that you can't change what's inside the various sections. For example, the Styles box in the Home tab in Word is too huge, wish I could change the stuff in there. Oh well, now I can just get rid of it, couldn't do that in 2007.

Also, I still think the ribbon in general needs some design tweaks with icons and content. Won't get into details - saving for a big note to MS feedback that will be ignored.

2.) When you fire up OneNote, the ribbon is always closed by default. Why?

3.) I'd like to be able to right click the mouse and get an option in the context menu to insert a photo or video or some other kind of file. Drives me nuts you can't do that.

4.) Can't customize colors and text of pages and subpages in the OneNote page sidebar. At least the two are different shades now. You can customize section colors - but I've been wanting to customize the actual pages in that sidebar.

5.) Right-click highlighted text in Word and the context menus are way too small. Even cuts off the name of some fonts.

6.) Word & Excel still have the converting problem. Not sure how you could ever fix that, other than waiting until you start seeing Office 97 documents on Antiques Roadshow because no one uses them any more. Not a fan of the .doc, docx, .docm, .dotm, .xla, .xls, .xlxs, etc.

7.) Word spell checker still has a custom word problem. You add one to the dictionary, but it still says plurals and possessives of that custom word are spelled wrong. Again, this might be unfixable - better to be safe with mystery words than sorry and totally freak out the dictionary I guess. Nonetheless, maybe have an tick box in options or something?

Ugly
1.) What's the point of Publisher? Seriously. I used to be in publishing for many years. Is it possible to merge key features into Word? Too unwieldy. Not sure.

2.) Word's word count icon in the ribbon is horrible. What is this, a salute to ColecoVision?

N/A
Access - never used it, never will.

 

[Capella]

well said
I just got accepted to the technical preview program in connect. the new office has a TON of awesome features. However, Some of the programs sometimes just stop working for some reason.... hope they fix that in the public beta D:
I like the fact that they didn't change the file formats.
Also, i really like the 64 bit editions (finally!!!!)

 

[fireman604]

2010 64 bit can not easily be uninstalled

I was accepted into the 2010 preview program. Before I installed RTM for 7 gave it a try. I had to install the 32 flavor because of Office 2007. I also had to uninstall outlook 2007, only one outlook. I did use it sucessfully for a couple of days. The RTM for 7 Technet subscription downloaded finally very slow. I went for it and installed windows 7 ultimate and Office 2010 64 bit. Out look 2010 insatalled and crashed no way to correct but to reinstall from beginning. I have left 2010 out this time Office 7 again. I have been at it all day finally getting updates , yes you have to update office 2007. I am going to wait until some one braver than me tells me office 2010 can be uninstalled with out starting from the beginning. I have to recreate my address books, not a happy camper, think I have back up on other computer. One thing at a time.

 

[toastpaint]

I've been accepted a while ago, and am running in on my 7100RC Laptop, and it's brilliant. Especially OneNote.

I have to laugh though, a friend of mine who blamed Windows 7 for his computer dying, installed 2010, and he lost an assignment. I love karma

 

[LifeForJing]

downloading Windows Office 2010 Beta now.

 

[Colonel Travis]

downloading Windows Office 2010 Beta now.

lucky duck, I'll check that one out.