A complete walkthrough guide to Microsoft Office 2010

2009 was a year when all good things happened to Microsoft. It’s two major products, Windows 7 and Bing search engine got rave reviews on millions of blogs, forums and several technology conferences across the world. Now, Microsoft has something more to cheer about this year. The blogosphere has been abuzz with positive reviews of the latest MS Office 2010 package and have been calling it the ‘best of the lot’ among all earlier MS Office versions. Finally, the wait of millions of MS Office fans got over yesterday. You can now buy MS Office 2010 right over here (until two days back, it was available as a pre-order).

A comprehensive visual guide to Microsoft Office 2010

Q.1. Which new features are included in MS Office 2010?

The following are the top 10 new features in the latest MS Office 2010 package:

#1 An in-built PDF writer

All MS office 2010 programs are equipped with an in- built PDF writer. So, unlike Office 2007 version, you are not required to install a separate plugin to save your documents in PDF format right from your MS Office program.

#2 Convert your PPT into a video right from your MS Powerpoint 2010

With the new MS Powerpoint 2010, you can swiftly convert you powerpoint presentations into videos right from the Powerpoint “Share” option available under the newly designed ‘File’ menu and upload it on video hosting sites like youtube.com, metacafe.com, etc.

#3 MS office 2010 programs now come with a Screen Clipping Utility !

With Office 2010, you can now capture screenshots right from your Office 2010 program with just a few clicks. No need of third-party screen clipping softwares. This built-in utility will make easier for you to capture screenshots and insert them in to your MS Office program.

#4 Printing documents now becomes simpler with MS Office 2010

With an enhanced ribbon and a completely new file menu system, you can now preview the changes you make in “Print settings” or “Page setup” side by side.

#5 Now you can edit your videos and pictures right from Office 2010

With MS Office 2010, you can edit pictures and images right from the Office program itself. The editing tools offer a variety of features to make changes in to the videos or pictures. You won’t feel a need for third-party video editing or image editing softwares.

#6 Previewing “Paste Special” function

This is one of my favourite features. In MS Office 2010, you can preview the “Paste special” options with ‘Live Preview feature’. Unlike previous MS Office versions, In MS Office 2010, you are not required to try out each of the “Paste special” option to see which layout fits to your needs.

#7 Cloud computing made simpler !

With MS Office 2010, you can save your office documents directly in to the cloud and then access it on any computer right from the browser, no matter whether a system you then access has Office package installed on it or not. The documents are stored in your SkyDrive account. This feature will put MS office Web Apps directly in competition with Google Docs.

#8 Now broadcast your presentations live over internet !

MS Powerpoint 2010 offers you an option to broadcast your presentations over internet, which means you can give live presentations over internet or conduct webinars right through your Powerpoint 2010.

#9 MS Outlook 2010 too has a ribbon user interface now !

One thing that I always used to miss in my Outlook 2007 was an absence of a ribbon user interface similar to MS Word 2007, MS Excel or MS Powerpoint 2007. I guess MS has now responded to the demand of many like-minded MS Outlook users like me. Outlook 2010 now comes with a ribbon user interface making your mail related and other integrated tasks quite quicker and easier.

#10 Threaded Conversations similar to Gmail inbox – A more powerful Outlook 2010

Gmail’s innovative threaded conversation feature gained popularity among email users right from its launch. Now MS Outlook 2010 too comes with a similar feature, wherein mails relating to a similar subject line are threaded together making it easier for you to follow a conversation. No need to scout all your inbox to follow a particular conversation. Another interesting feature on Outlook 2010 which again takes its cue from Gmail is ‘Send & Archive’ feature. Through this feature you can perform two actions, sending a mail and archiving it, with just one click. In Outlook 2010, you can also create a set of rules and apply them to any outlook mail with just one click. “Send & Archive”, “Reply and Delete” are examples of these set of rules created through “Quick Steps” feature in Outlook 2010.

In addition to these, there are several other features which come with MS Office 2010:

• An innovative file (MS calls it Microsoft Office Backstage™ ) menu view for ease in performing print, save and publish functions.
• A new navigation pane for MS Word 2010 to browse through headings of text of a document. Page Navigation has been made simpler in MS Word 2010.
• MS Onenote 2010 now has additional features like automatic highlighting of recent changes, linked notes and page version tracker (log).

Q.2. I already have an Office package installed on my system. How can I remove an already installed MS Office package and install MS Office 2010?

If you already have an earlier version of MS Office package installed on your system and want to uninstall it completely (leaving behind no traces) before installing a fresh copy of MS Office 2010, you can use Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to remove it.

Q.3. I purchased MS Office 2007 a few days back and now I want to use MS Office 2010. How can I do that?

As announced by Microsoft, buyers who purchase MS Office 2007 between March 5, 2010 to September 30, 2010 are eligible for a free upgrade to MS office 2010.

If you are not sure about whether to go ahead and buy MS office 2010, don’t worry. Purchase a MS Office 2007 today/on or before September 30, 2010 and be eligible for a free upgrade to MS Office 2010.

You might also like to watch a special video created by a few Microsoft guys on why MS Office 2010 is the best productivity suite available in the markets today and how it can make you work more efficiently and effectively. Click here.