Product Description

Microsoft Office 2010 gives you powerful new tools to express your ideas, solve problems, and connect with people.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 79G-02144
• Released on: 2010-06-15
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 7
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.10" h x 5.40" w x 7.50" l, .30 pounds

Features

• Rich and powerful new ways to deliver your work on your computer, Windows Mobile-based smart phone or a web browser
• Easy-to-use Tools, customizable templates, color schemes, and photo-editing capabilities
• Work with people from different places at the same time with the new co-authoring experience
• More ways to access your files from almost anywhere, Office 2010 puts you in control of getting things done according to your schedule
• Simplifies your tasks and creates amazing results

Amazon.com Product Description
With Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010, you and your kids can create great schoolwork and home projects from multi-page bibliographies to multimedia presentations. Capture ideas and set them apart with video-editing features and dynamic text effects. Then easily collaborate with classmates without being face-to-face thanks to new Web Apps tools. The results go well beyond expectations with a little inspiration, a lot of creativity and Office Home and Student 2010.

Traditional Disc Version

This version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 includes the software on disc, with a product key. It is licensed for installation on three PCs in the same household.

For customers buying a PC who need Office for their new PC only, and don't need to upgrade other home PCs, a Product Key Card provides another way to purchase Office with a PC.

Capture Ideas and Set Them Apart Enjoy Flexibility Now you can easily post your Office documents online and access, share and edit them with Office Web Apps. It's an ideal way to extend your Office 2010 experience to the Web. Work Together Brainstorm ideas, share notes and work on documents with others simultaneously thanks to the new co-authoring tool in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. Find It on New Backstage View Replaces the traditional File menu to give you one go-to spot to conveniently save, open and print documents. Customize the tab commands to fit your individual needs so you can navigate tasks effortlessly. Programs You Rely On Microsoft Office 2010 is an industry standard offering our latest, innovative tools to make your documents richer and more informative.

Included Programs

Enjoy the same great features you know and love with Office and get some new ones when you upgrade to Office 2010.

	Word 2010 School fundraisers and neighborhood events come together efficiently when you use Word 2010. Create documents using new photo-editing features, lively text effects, then easily share them online and invite others to collaborate. Get more new features with Word 2010: Add impact to your document with new picture-editing tools. Better illustrate your ideas with diagrams by turning bullet-point lists into compelling SmartArt graphics. Apply new formatting effects to your text such as shadow, bevel, glow and reflection. Capture and insert screenshots directly into your document. Communicate with ease in many languages with improved translation tools.
	Excel 2010 Saving for retirement, changing homes, cutting expenses--all are important financial decisions. Excel® 2010 offers useful direction with simple templates to help you build budgets and track expenses so you can focus on financial goals. Get more new tools with Excel 2010: Highlight data trends by creating data charts in a single cell with new Sparklines. Find the right data quickly with new filter enhancement in PivotTable views. Analyze data quickly. Highlight specific data with new and improved Conditional Formatting options. Display data in a dynamic and interactive way with PivotChart views. Spend less time sifting through data--use the new search filter to narrow down pertinent data to display.
	PowerPoint 2010 Pressed for time on a major assignment? Get ideas down fast with ready-made templates, new photo- and video-editing features and eye-catching transitions all with Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. Get more new features including: Embed and edit video files directly in your presentation. Set videos to fade in and out and apply a variety of video styles and formats. Broadcast your presentation online with new Broadcast Slide Show. Captivate your audience with new transitions and improved animations. Use slide sections to navigate, organize and print your presentation.
	OneNote 2010 Gather a wealth of information and resources all in one spot with OneNote 2010. Post, share and edit notes for group projects online so everyone can work at the same time with real-time updates. Get more new features with OneNote 2010: Use quick filing to organize notebooks, ideal when you're working on multiple projects. Apply styles and formatting to selected text to another paragraph with the new Format Painter. See results as you type with improved Search functionality and view a prioritized list of Search results. Easily organize and jump between your notebooks with the improved notebook Navigation Bar. Take notes while working in Word, PowerPoint or in Internet Explorer and automatically link them.

Looking to stay connected?
Step up to Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010 and you'll get another helpful program--Outlook 2010. Now you can access projects, people and plans wherever your work takes you. Use efficient new email, calendar and social networking tools to manage your world from your PC, mobile phone or online.

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Customer Reviews

A whole lot of polishing make it an efficient, worhtwhile upgrade
I've had an opportunity to use Office 2010 Beta edition for a couple of months now and now that I see the full, final, edition I can say that this is a very worthwhile upgrade. First things first, I am not a techie. I am someone who uses Word, Excel and PowerPoint on a very regular basis, who really liked some of the changes in Office 2007 but who thought some things needed tweaking, so when given the opportunity for the beta edition I jumped on it and have not been disappointed. Office 2010 is to Office 2007 what Windows 7 was to Vista; that is, there are not many breakthrough, drastically different features, but a whole lot of polishing and cleanup to make it easier and more efficient. Overall, the program seems to run faster, incorporates many of the most commonly used options and makes them more accessible (eliminating many dialog boxes and tabs) and allows for more customization.

At first glance it looks very much like its predecessor, the ribbon is back and it is now also found on OneNote. There are plenty of sites that will give you a play-by-play on all the features available in this new version, so I'm just going to mention some of the biggest improvements that I've seen.
1) The biggest change is the addition of the web apps. It may not be a true direct competitor to google docs, but it allows for easier sharing of documents, as well as making your documents more accessible.
2) The ribbon is back and it now includes the "File" option and a new feature called "Backstage view." Backstage view incorporates the most commonly used actions in one place (yay! no more dialog boxes with tabs). You get the usual open, save and print, but you also get several templates for new documents, print layouts and ways to share your work, all without dialog boxes and tabs, everything is much more easily accessible.
3) Another new feature is that the ribbon is now customizable so you can organize it according to your needs.
4) There is a Paste Preview which lets you switch between paste options so you can make sure that your work will be formatted correctly.

Changes in PowerPoint.
You can now edit video directly on PowerPoint. You can trim a video, add effects, fades and even triggers for animations for the presentation. Another new feature is that you can add effects and edit images without the need for third party software.

Changes in Word.
One nifty new feature in Word is called "Navigation pane," which replaces the old document map. It incorporates minor changes in design that make big changes in productivity and ease of use. It allows you to quickly rearrange the document. Take for example a document with several headings/sections. The Navigation pane provides a list of all the headings. The headings are live, so you can drag them up or down, thus rearranging the document. It also incorporates most of the functions that used to be available in the "Find" dialog box but now they are all visible so you don't have to go digging through several menus to find the option that you need.

Changes in Excel.
Most of the changes in Excel deal with very large datasets. There is a new PowerPivot add-in which works great if you are dealing with a very large dataset that does not fit in one Excel spreadsheet. PowerPivot pulls the data from multiple sources (several Excel spreadsheets for instance) to analyze it.

Summary:
Overall this is one well planned and executed upgrade that essentially takes all the promises of Office 2007 and makes them a reality. Yes, some things are different, and it will take some getting used to; but, once you realize the improvement in efficiency you'll agree that the changes are mostly for the positive. The only thing that I truly wish had changed but didn't is that this version does not include Outlook. That is available in the Home and Business version.

Very worthwhile, but a word of caution on install.
This is a worthwhile upgrade for me. I debated whether to do it or not and what version to get. I finally decided on the Home and Student version. I was pleased to see the price actually drop upon shipping. For me the main deal was OneNote 2010 which allows me to print directly into OneNote. In December I bought a new laptop and it has Win7 Pro 64bit. I was very disappointed to find that OneNote 2007 did not include a driver to print directly into it. While MS did provide a work around this much better.

One word of caution when you are installing. My MS Office install is a bit of a collection. I'm using stand alone versions of Outlook and Publisher (both 2007) and Access (2003). I had decided to leave these as is. Upon installing 2010 I was presented with two buttons: "Upgrade" and "Customize". I picked curtain 1 (upgrade). My bad! The install then proceeded to remove Outlook, Publisher and Access. Since the program I was installing did not include these products I think it's pretty bogus for the install process to remove them. I don't know if the "Customize" button would have allowed them to stay. I reinstalled the 3 programs and everything was fine, but I should not have had to waste time doing this.

Better than Office 2007
First of all, I'm a long-time user of Office but I'm not a techie. I'm also not a professional secretary who knows and uses all of the secrets and capabilities of Office. I have been using Office 2010 Beta for several months. I have used Office 2007 for many years, as well as prior versions of Office. I've tried the word-processing and spreadsheets on Google docs and I have Open Office.

I use Word for a *lot* of basic word processing - writing reports & articles with foot-notes, head-notes, & tables of contents, not to mention personal stuff. I rarely use mail-merge. I use Excel for simple spreadsheets - including calculations and such. I often sort etc. I don't usually use charts & graphs. I use Power Point once in awhile but I don't do anything fancy with it. I have been perfectly happy with Word 2007 about 98% of the time.

I'm waiting for Google docs to get it together, but their word-processing program is missing a number of critical features and is *not* ready for prime time. As to their spreadsheet, you can't even merge cells vertically. In other words,
Google's programs are completely useless at this stage of development, though they're getting better. Google is also trying to build in the ability to use Word & (I think) Excel online, which is great. Google will get there. It's not currently an alternative to Word 2010.

Open Office is basic and is probably adequate for simple home computing. It would take some time to learn how to use it with Bibus & other freeware, though I imagine a techie could cobble together something pretty good. It's free and worthy of consideration. For many I'm sure that it's good enough, and low-end users should think hard about their needs, but Open Office just does not rise to the level of Office 2010.

Office 2010:

1. You cannot edit Office 2010 documents online (yet), whatever MS says. (Watch their wording.)

2. I haven't had any technical problems with Win 2010 Beta running on either Win XP, Win 7 SE, or Win 7 Home Premium systems. It's on par with Win 2007 in that regard.

3. Surprisingly, the ability to "pin" your most-used documents to the "File" screen of your applications is very useful feature. No more "most recent documents" list that is usurped every time you use Photoshop or something. Exceeds expectations, & one of my favorite features.

4. Organizing all of the functions by separate ribbons/menus is a great idea, especially since you can create your own ribbon with your most used commands. I did have problems locating some commands b/c they have been moved to different locations. In Word this was quite aggravating at first, but it's not an issue now that I know where things are & how to locate commands that I use less frequently.

5. Having your open windows at the bottom of the screen is handy, though it can be annoying until you learn to not accidentally roll your mouse over them. A so-so improvement. (This is a Win 7 and Office 2010 combined feature.)

6. Snap is a nifty feature that allows you to line up 2 pages from your apps side-by-side using the full screen. This has been very useful for me and already gets regular use. Drawbacks: Sometimes the text is too small or, if you enlarge it, doesn't always fit on the page. Still, Snap is definitely worthwhile. (Another Win 7/Office 2010 feature; IME Snap doesn't work with many non-Office applications.)

7. It's so easy and fun to use the different color swatches to brighten up my Excel spreadsheets. This is not trivial for me as I like to use color to emphasize different kinds of data. People find the spreadsheets easier to read that way. YMMV. You could do this in Office 2007, of course, but the procedure is much more cumbersome.

8. Excel is configured in much the same way as Word, with ribbons at the top for different menus. The ribbons are mostly pretty good, but more so than in Word, some basic commands are located in counter-intuitive places. For example, to copy or move a page, you have to go into Home/Format Cells/Organize Sheets/Move or Copy Sheet. The "format cells" menu is in a tiny font and located at the right of the sheet. There is a certain logic to the location, but the command for this simple task should, IMO, be right on the ribbon. (It's on my personal ribbon now that I found it.) Likewise, the Tables menu doesn't show the most simple and complete way to create borders - you have to go to a sub-menu of the Tables submenu to get to the old XP Format Cells menu where you can find number, alignment, tables, etc. One of those submenus is below the page & is easily missed. Don't be fooled; not all commands are on the ribbons or in the same menus as XP & you'll have to ferret some of them out. Oh, and so far I've found 3 "Format Cells" menus, and they're not all the same.

Minus 1/2 star for hiding the Excel commands ('cause I'll learn them but that was stupid) & round up.

You get the general idea. Office 2007 is significantly different from Office 2010. IME, Word and Excel, and to a lesser degree Power Point, are easier and more efficient to use. There are some minor annoyances and there is a learning curve, but it should be relatively easy to switch from Office 2007 to Office 2010. I wouldn't advise anyone to rush out and buy Office 2010 right this minute, but it's definitely a good product and worth consideration - when you're ready.

Did MS get it right this time???

And no, I don't work for MS.


Update 12-09-2010:
I decided to stick to the free Open Office for a couple of months and it was more than adequate for my purposes. Most importantly, documents were compatible *enough* with Office when sent via email (no recipients complained). Then I had to prepare and submit some legal documents. Legal IT systems hate non-MS documents, and many of them still prefer Works to Word. Go figure. Anyway, I'm now using Office 2010 exclusively on my workhorse computer but I still use Open Office for quirky extras such as decent flashcards.