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Why upgrade to MS Office 2010?

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rssapphire:
Some background. I've used MS Office for years, starting with Word 2.0 for Windows in the early 1990s -- before that, I'd used DOS Wordperfect. Moving to the 32 bit world, I used Office 97 then Office 2000. I never saw much need to upgrade beyond that as Office 2000 seemed pretty feature-complete for my needs in the programs I use most (Word, Excel, and to a lesser extent, Access). However, in 2004 I had a chance to pick up the 3-license Home/Student edition for half price ($80 or so) and did. I've used Word 2003 and Excel 2003 since then -- although I can't see that they are much better than their 2000 editions. As I don't use Access much, I just use Access 2000 when I need it.

I decided that I really should think about upgrading as my current versions are 6 to 10 years old. I noticed that the Office 2010 beta version was available for free, so downloaded and installed the Professional edition beta early in the week. It looks nice, functions well, and the ribbon is okay -- I have other programs that use it and it doesn't bother me as it does some, but it doesn't strike me as a must have improvement either.  However, it doesn't seem to offer me much more than my 2003 edition functionality-wise.

Hence, this thread. I don't live in Office like some people do, so I'd like to hear from those who do what is new and truly useful in Office 2010. What should I look at over the next 6 or 7 months before I have to decide to spend money on Office 2010 or just stay with Office 2003? (I'm in a SOHO environment so corporate/enterprise improvements are not compelling reasons to fork over a few hundred dollars.)

Josh:
I would also like to hear this as well. I am deployed and cannot download this on the machines I work on. Would be nice to hear some of the new things. I know with each new version of office thus far my productivity goes up quite a bit due to the addition of features many of the users I support, including myself, are asking for. The ribbon was a huge jump, in my opinion, to opening up many features that most users forgot or never knew existed. I have shown users how to be quicker by using the shortcut keys which appear when hitting ALT inside of an office application. Yes, this was do-able before via the menu system, but most things were hidden. And now, you can easily access your most common commands via shortcut keys you learn as you go. The less a user has to take their hands from the keyboard to use the mouse, the quicker they are from my experience.

I can't wait to see what o2k10 offers.

Curt:
An academic Office 2010 Professional is "again" merely $80, for students.  :up:
Now if only I could turn back time...

http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-us/default.aspx


Why upgrade to MS Office 2010?







for students only http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-us/default.aspx

steeladept:
An academic Office 2010 Professional is "again" merely $80, for students.  :up:
Now if only I could turn back time...
-Curt (June 22, 2010, 12:51 PM)
--- End quote ---
You could always take a course and become eligible.  Make it a continuing education credits type of thing....Alternatively, you could get paid by being an instructor at a qualified college and become eligible that way as well.  Just a few thoughts.

As to the OP - I found 2000/3 the first compelling version after Office 95 for my purposes (I never used the Hyperlinks much and found many of the features of 97 to be bloat for my uses).  2000 was very functional and the only reason I upgraded to 2003 was because it was free.  I saw no significant additions to it except in Excel where some truly massive spreadsheets could actually become more massive (I worked around that by having different workbooks, but 2003 made it longer between starting new ones).  The only reason I even found that limitation was because of the number of formatted cells rather than the actual size of the spreadsheets themselves.  And yes, before anyone asks, I did suggest they be in a database instead, but too many people knew Excel and not Access (or SQL Server, or Oracle - our company used all 3 at the time) and so I got overruled.  Since then, we have not upgraded, but I did on a personal level at home to 2007.  The biggest difference I see is in usability.  How you use it is very different and some find it easier (some don't).  I can go either way (regarding the ribbon) - I don't care, keyboard shortcuts are the same either way.  From version 2010, I don't see any major differences except the ribbon is easier to use for some people.

Curt:
Offer Eligibility:
This offer is available only to eligible students who attend an educational institution geographically located in the United States. This offer is non-transferable.

The following conditions serve to define student eligibility for the Promotion:

    1. .edu: Individual must possess a valid e-mail address at a U.S. educational institution which contains the domain suffix .edu; OR
    Pre-Approved School List: Enrolled in a U.S. educational institution included on the pre-approved school list; OR
    Submission of school enrollment: Submit verifiable school enrollment via the validation process; AND

    2. Individual must be a student at a U.S. educational institution and must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request.

Microsoft or an appointed vendor may contact you to verify that you are a current student. If documentation is not provided indicating that you are a current student, you will be liable to reimburse Microsoft for the difference between what you paid and the estimated retail price of the software.

Microsoft, in its sole discretion, may accept other forms of validation to determine eligibility in lieu of a valid e-mail address when one is not available.
--- End quote ---

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