Office 2010: The Technologizer First Look

Microsoft is starting to let folks in on the Webbiest, most collaborative Office ever. But it's not all there yet.

By  |  Monday, July 13, 2009 at 9:06 am

Office 2010 First LookToday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Microsoft is announcing that it’s distributing a Technical Preview version of its upcoming Office 2010 suite to tens of thousands of testers. It won’t be a public beta that’s open to everyone who wants a sneak peek; that will come later this year, and the final version of Office 2010 isn’t due until some time during the first half of next year. But for the first time since it demoed some features last October, Microsoft is showing off the new Office and providing more information about its plans. And it’s briefed reporters and provided them with early access to the Technical Preview (including me).

Office 2010 will be the first version of the suite to reflect the era in which upstarts such as Google Docs and Zoho are delivering Office-like features in the browser, and charging little or no money for them. Microsoft’s response to the new challengers is multifaceted. On one hand, it’s introducing the first Web-based versions of the major Office apps. But it’s also stuffing scads of ambitious new features into the traditional versions of the applications, as if to prove its oft-stated (and accurate) contention that local software can still do lots of things that Web services can’t. And it intends to make the traditional and Web versions of the apps into a powerful team that’s more useful and versatile than either standalone software or a purely browser-based suite can be.

Unfortunately, using the current version of the Technical Preview doesn’t tell us enough to come to even a preliminary verdict about whether the final version of Office 2010 will be a no-brainer upgrade. That’s because Microsoft isn’t providing access to the Web applications or an array of new collaboration tools yet–and it’s the online and collaborative stuff that’s the biggest, boldest change planned for Office 2010. Moreover, the Technical Preview, unlike an almost-finished piece of software such as the Windows 7 Release Candidate, is still subject to meaningful revision before it goes out the door. It’s rough around the edges in spots, and Microsoft says it’s still looking for input from testers. So all I can say is that I’m cautiously optimistic about Office 2010 based on what I’ve seen so far.

Okay, that’s not all I can say–read on for my hands-on impressions of the Technical Preview, plus some information on the features that Microsoft isn’t ready to let outsiders try just yet. There’s a lot to chew on, so I’ll focus on the features thagt impress and/or intrigue me most.

Ribbon Redux

Office 2010 RibbonBy far the most notable thing about Office 2007 was its all-new interface, which (mostly) dumped traditional menus in favor of the Ribbon, a tabbed übertoolbar that aimed to make it easier to find more of Office’s multitude of features. I liked the Ribbon a lot, and Microsoft says it met with approval from a high percentage of Office users. But it was a radical departure from Office 2003 and earlier versions,  and not everybody was a fan.

If you didn’t care for the Ribbon in Office 2007, will you find its 2010 incarnation more appealing? Possibly, in part because you might be able to fix things you don’t like about it–Office 2010’s Ribbon, unlike 2007, lets you add, delete, and rearrange features, just as old versions of Office always let you do with menus. You can even create new tabs.

Office 2010 Ribbon Customization

As a Ribbon enthusiast, the main thing I didn’t like about the Office 2007 Ribbon was that there wasn’t enough of it–Outlook’s interface wasn’t completely Ribbonized, and second-string apps such as Visio and Publisher still had old-style menus. In Office 2010, the Ribbon is universal, showing up everywhere you’d expect it to be.

Backstage: Interesting, But…

Office 2010’s one major suite-wide interface change is Backstage View, a reworking of multiple fundamental pieces of functionality that’s debuting in all the Office apps. Flashy name aside, it’s the successor to the old File menu, which was the one menu that survived more or less intact in Office 2007, even though it was renamed the Office Button and hung off a little Office logo rather than the word “File.”

Backstage View is where you go to perform tasks such as opening, saving, and printing files, as well as tweaking an app’s options–most of the things you do in Office that don’t involve document editing. It does away with many of the dialog boxes associated with the old File menu in favor of a full-screen window that replaces your document view. What it provides, mostly, is enough elbow room to show you lots of related functionality at once–for instance, the Print section incorporates a preview, so you always see how your settings will affect output without having to detour into a separate Print Preview mode.

Office 2010 Backstage View

Backstage View does indeed streamline some Office processes, although launching it on the two computers I’ve used the Office 2010 Technical Preview feels less swift than simply opening the old File menu; it sometimes takes as much as a second before it responds to my click. (Microsoft may still be optimizing the feature, which was the only aspect of Office that struck me as sluggish.)

Stranger still, Microsoft hasn’t brought the Backstage approach to everything that used to be in the File menu. If you want to open a file, for instance, you enter Backstage View–then immediately leave it for a traditional File Open dialog box. It’s disorienting and inefficient, and feels like discovering that someone’s inexplicably built a room in between your living room and kitchen. I’m not sure why Microsoft hadn’t applied Backstage’s no-dialog-box approach to all of the old File functions, since it would work well for all of them and would be a heck of a lot more seamless than the Technical Preview’s implementation.

Working the Web, Working Together

After several confusing years of offering online services that bore the Office moniker without actually being online versions of Office, Microsoft is finally putting Office online. Office 2010 will be accompanied by browser-based editions of Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word; Microsoft will offer them for free to consumers, and will include them in corporate licenses for the Office 2010 desktop suite. (Unlike Google, Microsoft isn’t going to offer a Web-only suite aimed at businesses–not surprisingly, it contends that businesses still need a full-strength office suite.) Integration between Office’s software and service incarnations will officially be done through Windows Live accounts for consumers and via Microsoft’s SharePoint intranet software for businesses; I assume that some small businesses will opt for the free, simple Windows Live option.

Microsoft’s Web Apps will bring the Ribbon interface to the browser, and will work in multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari) on multiple operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux). They’ll let you store files online so they’re available on any computer, but will also let you shuttle documents to and from the full suite. Microsoft says they provide “lightweight editing,” which appears to be shorthand for “not nearly as many features as in the standard versions of the apps, so please continue to pay us for Office.” But judging from the demonstrations the company gave me, they aren’t too basic, either.

Here’s the Excel Web app, which looks a lot like its traditional counterpart and offers relatively fancy features like filtering and conditional formatting.

Office Excel Web App

Google adds features to Google Docs at a fast clip, without warning, and Zoho is even more industrious; Microsoft, however, told me that it intends to treat the Web Apps more like traditional software releases than constantly-evolving Web services. It intends to do relatively few, relatively meaty updates. (It says that’s what businesses prefer.)

A few months ago, an intriguing rumor had it that Microsoft was working on an iPhone edition of Office. If so, it’s not telling anybody. But it is planning to introduce some basic Web-based Office functionality for smartphones–iPhones and otherwise–by introducing the ability to view Office documents stored online in your phone’s browser. You won’t be able to edit them, but it’s a start.

The Web Apps and smartphone document viewers aren’t included in the current version of the Technical Preview, but Microsoft plans to roll out test versions in August. It’s dangerous to form opinions about services that I’ve only seen in brief demos, so stay tuned.

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15 Comments For This Post

  1. Paw Hellegaard Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 10:03 am

    Thanks for sharing, great article!

  2. Josh Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 10:51 am

    It’s nice to see Microsoft finally acknowledging the web. Maybe we can put SharePoint in our past… forever.

    I’m guessing that Office 2010 won’t work with Firefox or Safari and that this will become just another extension of the monopoly’s attempt to circle the wagons rather than to innovate and provide value for its customers. We’ll see.

    It’s a real shame that Google only half-heartedly exploited Microsoft’s recent weaknesses. Google Docs got a great start — and people noticed — but as Google Gears floundered, Docs never evolved into something more useful. Meanwhile, Zoho over-evovled and became a clumsy overstuffed suite of applications, trying to be all things to all people.

  3. Harry McCracken Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 10:54 am

    Josh–Thanks for the thoughts. Microsoft specifically says that the Web apps will work in Safari and Firefox…

    –Harry

  4. Marc Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    I hope they speed up Outlook. I’m amazed at how my iPhone can be so fast when accessing Exchange and IMAP accounts, yet on my high spec XP box at work, Outlook regularly freezes momentary, just enough to annoy me, when browsing mailboxes.

  5. Tom Reestman Says:
    July 13th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

    This might be a better write up on the newest office than even Paul Thurrott’s (and that’s saying something).

    It really looks like Microsoft has paid attention in this release. Not only to weaknesses in the otherwise promising Ribbon interface, but also to some of the slicker features in Apple’s iWork.

    As near as I can tell, the biggest problems in Office now will be that the days of very expensive office suites are numbered (I’m just not sure I’ll take the plunge this time), and there are too many freakin’ versions (five, thankfully down from eight).

  6. Rufus T. Firefly Says:
    July 14th, 2009 at 9:53 am

    Godfrey Daniel! I’ve just begun struggling with making sense out ofr Office 2007.

  7. ediedi Says:
    July 14th, 2009 at 10:40 am

    I’m using office 2008 for mac – there’s no ribbon!
    Anyway, who needs another version of office? Almost nobody I know uses the latest verson anyway (.docx backwards incompatibility is really annoying).
    Won’t be upgrading anytime soon…

  8. Jess Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    Office 2010 sounds interesting, but why wait for it to come out when you can use a product like eXpresso which already exists. I use eXpresso for business and personal needs and I LOVE IT! eXpresso provides real-time collaboration and editing control for shared Microsoft Office files in the cloud. Check it out at http://www.expressocorp.com

  9. billige mobiler Says:
    August 13th, 2009 at 4:18 am

    very nice blog.. I like the design, its cool:-)

  10. billige mobiltelefoner Says:
    August 14th, 2009 at 2:44 am

    very nice wordpress block, i gust love the design.

  11. Tim F. Says:
    September 8th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    The problem with the ribbon is that the tabs are clickable rather than hoverable.

    It may expose some new functions to some limited users at opportune times, but for users who know what they want, being faced with: I can’t access that function without clicking a tab which changes the interface to select the same application menu option which is now a huge icon, click back on the other tab to go back to interface, interact with window, repeat…

    That just makes no sense in many situations. Before, I could access ALL functions by hovering the mouse through the application menu without leaving any particular interface or tab. How is only giving me a subset of functions at any given time better if I know what I am doing? For some apps where context specific actions may be common (building a table, etc…), it can be helpful… if you don’t need to quickly or frequently access functions of a different type, located in a different tab. But for many apps, it just isn’t helpful at all.

    Office was a fine suite of applications until 2007.

  12. boe Says:
    November 8th, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Nothing beneficial for most businesses – no reason to upgrade/purchase –

    Like Vista – all bling – no function.

    If they wanted to improve Office they SHOULD have –
    1. Made outlook open multiple e-mail accounts as full exchange -not an additional mailbox with some functionality or pop/imap with very limited functionality but two seperate exchange profiles simultaneously from multiple exchange servers.

    2. Full OLE support for pictures in access – umm wasn’t that functional with Office XP – why take that out? Why should someone have to code to add pictures to a personal database? Might was well use oracle or a real database if you are going to have to use code. Adding Office XP photo editor is the work around but why not just add photo editor back into office if that is the solution?

    3. Offer the old menu bar for people (most of my clients) who don’t want to learn the new menu bar. You can finally modify the ribbon to some extent in 2010 however my clients just want their old ribbon bar. Frankly I have no issue with the new menu bar but I’m one person and most of my clients don’t like it so prefer to stick with office 2003. MS could make money selling the new version if they just offered the old menu as a choice with the new ribbon.

  13. boe Says:
    November 9th, 2009 at 8:09 am

    Nothing beneficial for most businesses – no reason to upgrade/purchase –

    Like Vista – all bling – no function.

    If they wanted to improve Office they SHOULD have –
    1. Made outlook open multiple e-mail accounts as full exchange -not an additional mailbox with some functionality or pop/imap with very limited functionality but two seperate exchange profiles simultaneously from multiple exchange servers.

    2. Full OLE support for pictures in access – umm wasn’t that functional with Office XP – why take that out? Why should someone have to code to add pictures to a personal database? Might was well use oracle or a real database if you are going to have to use code. Adding Office XP photo editor is the work around but why not just add photo editor back into office if that is the solution?

    3. Offer the old menu bar for people (most of my clients) who don’t want to learn the new menu bar. You can finally modify the ribbon to some extent in 2010 however my clients just want their old ribbon bar. Frankly I have no issue with the new menu bar but I’m one person and most of my clients don’t like it so prefer to stick with office 2003. MS could make money selling the new version if they just offered the old menu as a choice with the new ribbon.

  14. Perry Says:
    March 17th, 2010 at 2:37 am

    Excuse me? Quick Step is only available for Outlook Exchange? This is one of the best maybe the best new feature in Outlook 2010, the search is well you know (but I haven’t expected something different) and something you can cope with as long as you have been smart enough to get yourself a third-party search tool like lookeen, but hey Microsoft what is going on, do you want to scare the rest of the Outlook users away to other e-mail-programs like Thunderbird?

  15. Jim Britt Says:
    September 30th, 2011 at 4:48 am

    The ribbons STINK! They are clunky and primative compared to the menu bar!

    Access 2010 is HORRIBLE; they took a good product and made it 100 times more complicated.

    IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT!

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