The “elusive” Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition

Ed Bott of ZDNet blogs about the “elusive” Office Starter Edition 2010, which most people haven’t heard about. Microsoft has allowed OEMs to pre-install Office Starter Edition 2010 on brand new computers that have Windows 7.

This Starter edition of Office 2010 only comes with Excel and Word and comes with the programs basic features. However, the Starter edition does include some ads though the ads aren’t as bad as people may think they are.

Of course, if you want to remove the “ads” in the Starter edition or get advanced features of Excel & Word, you will have to purchase a full version of Microsoft Office 2010.

Fortunately, Office Starter 2010 never expires. You can use it as long as you own your computer.

Office 2010’s Ribbon a definite improvement over Office 2007

I’ve had a chance to play with it for a few months, and I can say categorically that the Ribbon in Office 2010 is better than the one in Office 2007.

That’s called damning with faint praise.

Details on my InfoWorld blog.

Office 2010 hits store shelves today

Office 2010 is out. Officially.

If you have an order in with Amazon, it should arrive today.

I’ll have an article in Windows Secrets Newsletter tomorrow that talks about the cheapest ways to buy Office 2010. You might want to wait…

A peek at Office 15

You’re worried about Office 2010, and Microsoft’s already hard at work on Office 2013, a.k.a. Office 15.

Details on my InfoWorld blog.

Get Office 2010 cheap – but you have to act NOW

This just posted on my InfoWorld blog:

Save money on Office 2010 by first upgrading to 2007

If you have Office 2003 Ultimate and you want to upgrade to Office 2010 Pro, there’s a trick that’ll save you two hundred bucks – but you need to do it now, while the boxes are still available. Well worth reading.

The real story behind 64-bit Office 2010

I just posted a story that tells the whole truth about 64-bit Office 2010, over on the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog.

New PowerPoint Viewer

Microsoft doesn’t give any details as to what has changed, but there’s a new PowerPoint viewer available on the MS download site.

I recommend that you download and install the viewer on any Windows XP that doesn’t have PowerPoint installed. And it’s not a bad idea to install it on any Win PC with older versions of PowerPoint – 2007, 2003, XP – just to ensure compatibility with all of the PowerPoint features, up to and including PowerPoint 2010.

Pres Gralla gives Office 2010 two thumbs up

Preston Gralla knows his stuff. He says that Office 2010 “will truly make a difference in the way that I work.”

The main attraction, as far as I’m concerned, is the Outlook makeover that makes it far easier to cut through e-mail overload and keep up with your ever-expanding group of contacts on social networking sites.

I’m not as impressed as Pres with the Outlook improvements, but they are considerable – just as Outlook 2007 was a considerable improvement over Outlook 2003. I haven’t yet swallowed the Kool-Aid and changed to Office 2010 full-time, but I may. And if I do, there’s only one reason why: Outlook.

Ed Bott has a detailed look at how to get Office 2010 cheap. Ed’s absolutely right – if Windows 7 taught us anything, it’s that people who buy the new product early get the best prices. Nuff said.

Oh. For those of you who have asked, Ed and I are NOT doing a Special Edition Using Office 2010. I may dip my toe back in the Office writing milieu, but for now, there’s nothing firm.