Posted 11/18/09 at 07:54:36 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft today announced the (official) launch of the Office 2010 beta. The official launch has come a week after the beta was leaked onto torrent sites. Microsoft first announced the beta on its website and Kurt DelBene, Office unit senior vice president at Microsoft, later confirmed the launch at the ongoing Professional Developers Conference (PDC). The beta can be downloaded from the official Office 2010 website.

The beta of Office Mobile 2010 is also now available from the Windows Mobile Marketplace. However, it is only meant for Windows Mobile 6.5. The consumer version of Office Web Apps – the online version of Office - is yet to bid adieu to the technical preview stage, however, the enterprise version has safely reached beta.

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Posted 11/16/09 at 04:21:52 PM by Bart Salisbury

For a lucky few the Office 2010 beta, along with Office Web Applications, are now ready for download from the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) and Microsoft’s TechNet Plus. The rest of us lowly souls will have to wait until November 18th to get a crack at guinea pig status.

Redmond Pie reports the big changes in this third beta build to be “the new installation procedure for test versions of Office 2010 SKUs, Upload Center, modified version of Backstage view and new refreshed icons for all Office products.”

Office 2010 Beta will be offered in both 32 and 64-bit versions.

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Posted 11/13/09 at 08:42:58 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Is a week just too long to wait to get your hands on the beta of Office 2010? If so, you can head on over to you friendly neighborhood torrent site and grab the code. While we don’t necessarily recommend doing this, you certainly could. Microsoft is neither confirming nor denying anything saying, “We have not officially released the beta code of Office (2010)… We recommend that people do not download code from unauthorized sources."

Microsoft is expected to officially release the Office 2010 beta at the Professional Developer Conference next week. A tech preview was released in July, but was still lacking some features and polish. The Redmond software giant is also making a bit of a departure by offering browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. So, interested?

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Posted 10/20/09 at 03:24:01 PM by Bart Salisbury

Microsoft appears to be in a beta-state of mind. Hot on the heels of the announcement that Visual Studio’s beta 2 release, Microsoft has announced that an Office 2010 public beta will be available in November.

Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer is reporting that Steve Ballmer, in his keynote address to kick off Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas, said the Office 2010 beta would be forthcoming, and that anyone will be eligible to give it a try. Up to now Office 2010 beta testing has been confined to a technical preview to a select few thousand.

Office 2010 is a bit of a hybridization, having computer, web browser (Office Web Apps), and smartphone (Office Mobile) components. Up to now only the Office Web Apps have been available for review, and only on Windows Live.

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Posted 10/08/09 at 09:18:26 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If you buy a Windows 7 PC in the future, you might not be getting that copy of Microsoft Works nobody uses. Instead it will come with a completely free version of Office 2010. Oh… Office 2010 Starter Edition, that is. It will be a limited functionality version of Office supported by Ads. The nature of the ads was not made clear.

According to Microsoft, the Office Starter Edition will have, “a simple path to upgrade to a fully featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product.” This is probably an effort to get customers used to Office features in the hopes that they will purchase the full version. Microsoft will have to walk a fine line to make the ads annoying enough that people will want to get rid of them, but not so annoying that they don’t even use Office.

The new PCs will already have the full version of Office 2010 installed on the hard drive. Customers will simply have to purchase a card from a retailer with the unlock code. The card will apparently be sold through some “major electronic retail outlets”. Microsoft hasn’t detailed which OEMs would be installing the Office Starter Edition software. Try to contain yourself waiting for this one.

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Posted 07/13/09 at 05:53:20 PM by Andy Salisbury

Along with the latest build of Windows 7 (build 7600), it would appear that the Technical Preview of Office 2010 has made its way to the public realm of the Internet as well.

Office 2010 is reported to come in 32 and 64-bit flavors (possibly with both on one DVD). Both of these can be found online, so you can snag the version that best suits your needs. The leaked version of Office 2010 comes with Access 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Project 2010, Publisher 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010, Visio 2010, and Word 2010.

Admittedly, the version of Office 2010 is a leak, so you’ll have to find a download all on your own. After all, we can’t in all good consciousness condone such activity.

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Posted 07/10/09 at 04:49:15 PM by Andy Salisbury

 

Microsoft’s adverts have been getting stranger and stranger, and their offering for Office 2010 is no different.

The advert comes packaged as a trailer for the action flick, “Office 2010: The Movie.” The basis for the film is simple, there’s a rogue font on the loose that causes anyone reading it to fall into a state of hypnosis and believe everything that they read. It’s then up to a mentally scarred agent to save everyone, despite the recent loss of his partner (Clippy). The trailer is filled with enough special effects to be a Michael Bay movie, and comes with nerd humor all along the way. So, if you’re interested in checking it out, you can do so here.

As for actual information about Office 2010, Microsoft will be offering a technical preview later in the month. If you’re interested, you can find additional information on their site.

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Posted 06/28/09 at 06:52:45 PM by Justin Kerr

For those of you who found yourselves breathless with anticipation after watching the Office 2010 Movie Trailers, you might just be the perfect candidate for the technical preview. Currently Microsoft is looking beta testers who fall into the home, or student category, and are willing to fill out a short survey via the connect website. The survey will ask for basic information about your PC, your OS, and what you currently use for an office suite, nothing overly personal. You will need a free Windows Live account (or Hotmail), and it sounds like they are looking for plenty of volunteers.

People with Office 2007 probably won’t notice much of a difference, but I highly encourage curious users with older versions of Office, as well as Open Office, to give the new ribbon UI a try. It takes some getting used to, but does a pretty good job of exposing functionality that was previously hidden to novice or casual users.

Hit the jump to watch one of the official Office 2010 Movie Teasers.

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