Test drive Office 2010

Robert Hallock 12 May, 2009 at 10:16am ET Article published in Tech

If, for some reason, you are a person that’s excited by the very thought of a new version of Office, now is your chance to give Microsoft’s next version a whirl… Maybe. Beginning in early July, Microsoft has opened signups to be considered for the technical preview program in advance of the 2010 release.

The Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview is a limited, invitation only program which will provide you with the opportunity to experience early, pre-release versions of Office 2010 which will include the following applications: Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Communicator 2010, Access 2010, InfoPath 2010 and Publisher 2010.

By registering you are signing up to be considered for the Technical Preview Program, you will be waitlisted for consideration to be invited into the Technical Preview Program. We will notify invitees in early to mid July.

Comments

12 May 2009 ~ 10:24am jgardner04 Thanks for the update. I just signed up for the wait list. Is there a way for MS partners to get an early look before this?
12 May 2009 ~ 10:38am Thrax Not that I am aware of, though MSDN/Technet subscribers may get a crack at Office '10 around the same time (speculation).
12 May 2009 ~ 10:44am Linc The UI looks like the biggest goddamn clusterfuck ever dreamed up by Microsoft, and that's saying something.
12 May 2009 ~ 7:48pm drasnor

Lincoln wrote:

The UI looks like the biggest goddamn clusterfuck ever dreamed up by Microsoft, and that's saying something.

That's impressive, Office 2007 set the bar for "Worst UI in a professional application ever" for me. Can Office 2010 top it?

I've switched to OpenOffice on all my machines now, except for one that also has Office 2003 with the 2007 compatibility patch.

-drasnor
12 May 2009 ~ 7:56pm Linc

drasnor wrote:

Can Office 2010 top it?

http://lifehacker.com/5231478/office-2010-screenshots-preview-whats-to-come
12 May 2009 ~ 9:24pm NiGHTS Baaawwwwww, it doesn't have 2003's menu system!!!!!
13 May 2009 ~ 4:51pm Nomad I just love how Microsoft Office handles fonts. One huge menu I can't scroll through is just... So convenient! And at work, I just love fielding phone calls about the difference between .doc and .docx nearly two years later!
14 May 2009 ~ 5:22pm Insight-Driver When it gets down to it, at this point, what can a new version possibly have that would improve the suite? I mean, I type, so Word is the application. For that matter, my typing dose not change when I use notepad. I type using Outlook when writing or replying to an email. My typing dose change there, either. When it gets down to it, there is no added functionality to the applications that would improve my typing. So what is the point of the update? Before MS buried the leading word processor years ago, I preferred it over the early version of MS word.
14 May 2009 ~ 5:43pm Thrax Yeah. Office 2003 does everything I need, so I've never had a need to switch. It types, it formats documents. The end.
14 May 2009 ~ 9:00pm NiGHTS And it doesn't have that new UI mirite?
14 May 2009 ~ 10:09pm Thrax Not really. There are several plugins for Office 2007 that revert the UI, so it's a non-issue (even though I think it's really ridiculous).
14 Jul 2009 ~ 2:50pm Butters I got my Office 2010 Technical Preview invitation email. Who else got theres? I'm not sure if it was the result of this link or since I'm already a Microsoft Connect subscriber, but I now have access.
14 Jul 2009 ~ 8:48pm Kwitko I was "fortunate" enough to get the technical preview invite. I downloaded but did not yet install. I am going to install a virtual XP box and test drive it.
14 Jul 2009 ~ 9:18pm Linc Switched to Open Office a couple years back, and now I've stopped even installing that. Google Docs, the end.
23 Jul 2009 ~ 3:34am ardichoke I'm with you there Linc. I don't have any need for the advanced features offered by OOo or MS Office. Google Docs has everything I need for the limited word processing and spreadsheet type things that I do. That coupled with the fact that my documents are available anywhere I can get online makes the traditional office suites obsolete IMO.