Today, I had the opportunity to head down to Microsoft Innovation Centre, Singapore because for the Microsoft Photo360 Award Ceremony.

Before the award ceremony begins, the participants were given the opportunity to get in touch with the new application developed by Microsoft which is the Microsoft Office 2010. Well, the application is in the beta phase. Before this seminar, I did an installation of Microsoft Office 2010 beta to my personal desktop computer.

Interface Colour of Microsoft Office 2010 applications

For your information, the interface colour in Microsoft Office 2010 applications are in gray and back colours which Microsoft Office 2007 is blue colour.

Installation

The installation to the beta version is pretty simple and straightforward and intuitive as well with the new user interface colour of white and yellowish-orange. Besides this, the installation provides also click to run technologies whereby upon installation of the Microsoft 2010 beta suite, the click to run will be installed as well. Because of the click to run technology, a Q virtual drive is “installed” to your computer, you will see this in your My Computer. Previously, I had the chance to install the Microsoft Office 2010 for small business version, all I have to do is to download a small file from Microsoft Office 2010 beta website, upon executing the file, the file will actually connects your computer to Microsoft server which contains the installer files. I believe that is what cloud computing is for. However as for the professional suite, there is a need to download a big installer file which happens that click to run was not implemented in the professional suite. Choose the appropriate versions for your needs. However, I do find the Q virtual drive as irritating because every time, I have to disk clean up my storage space in my hard disk (C Drive), the disk clean up program prompts me to select my drive for a disk clean up. But of cause the Q drive, no harm to your computer, it’s just a way how Microsoft works around with the click to run technology.

Executing the Microsoft Office 2010 beta applications

I would say that the execution of the each application is faster but of cause the click to run technology still run concurrently as well. In other words after u double click the application to run the program, a similar interface in yellow and white screen will appear which is pretty different from the Microsoft Office 2007 which I could say it is unique on its own. Microsoft well done!

Microsoft Powerpoint 2010

One unique feature I like about the powerpoint application is that it provides many new features that were not seen in Microsoft Powerpoint 2007.

I was impressed by the demo that was shown in the seminar by the speaker. The feature was embedding a video to the powerpoint and also able to edit the video to be showed in certain frame. Moreover, the video can be edited as well by changing the video colour. Besides the video editing within Microsoft Powerpoint 2010 Beta, photos can be edited as well such as changing from a colourful photo to a black and white photo to even a serpia photo. Moreover, you also able to edit the photo to remove the background as well. In such cases, you need not to use any third party software like Adobe Photoshop or Photoscape etc. What’s more, you can do quickly!

Microsoft Outlook 2010

Frankly speaking, comparing between Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Outlook 2010 Beta, I would say the 2010 version wins over 2007 version. As I’m a user of Microsoft Office 2007, I’m used to the ribbon used in Microsoft Office 2007 applications, the Outlook 2010 was my cup of tea. Moreover, the email settings using POP3, IMAP and Microsoft Exchange are easy too. Unlike I have to configure my outlook profile data storage on my Outlook 2007 which apparently there is a conflict between Microsoft Exchange account and other accounts. I would say thumbs up to the friendly user interface in Outlook 2007.

Microsoft Excel 2010

Microsoft Excel 2010 has one new feature which stuns me. It is the embedding of graph chart in each cell in the Excel worksheet. At one glance, you can review visual charts.

Above is my review on the new Microsoft Office 2010 Beta.

Taggies: Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

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