Microsoft Office 2010 — review
Microsoft Office 2010(beta) is an improvised version of Microsoft Office 2007, just as MS Office 2003 was to MS Office XP. The ribbon interface is retained. Its visual appeal has been improved much, rather than feature enhancement. I have used MS Word 2010(beta) to show some of the enhancements that are made in MS Office 2010(beta). The splash screen has been changed into an animated one with minimize, close and cancel options, moreover the process currently running and its status is also shown.
Microsoft Word 2007
Microsoft Word 2010(beta)
The blue interface has been shifted to grey coloured one. Just have a look at MS Word 2007 and 2010(beta).
Microsoft Word 2007
Microsoft Word 2010(beta)
At first sight you can spot three major difference in the visual interface, as below:
- Navigation column
- Title bar
- File button
The new feature called the Navigation has been introduced in MS Office 2010(beta). It enables navigation through the document via three way, they are
- Headings
- Pages
- Searches
The title bar has been made in such a way to suit Windows 7 and Aero theme. The distinctive clear title bar of MS Office 2007 has been replaced with a fused, smoking, less transparent one.
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2010(beta)
The file button is placed instead of the MS Office symbol button. The icon of the application is also placed in the top left corner as it usually be for the rest of the applications which was not present in Microsoft Office 2007 applications.
MS Office 2007 MS Office 2010(beta)
There are further more number of changes that have been done to make the software more visually appealing. The changes include conversion of file menu the pops-up when the Office symbol button is clicked into a File page. This page provides more information about the document and also integrates more functionalities in it with ease of use visuals. The file page takes over all the features provided by menus and more, in a single convenient page.
This page also elaborates the details of Recent with recently worked documents, New with all the templates and document types available, Print with print options including preview, Share gives options to share your document over web as blog or put as pdf file and the like, and Help with the related options.
Also there is a change in icon that is used to represent the application. The new icon is more clear to identify and recognise. It has a big ‘W’ letter which is more visible and clear than the 2007 icon.
2007’s 
2010’s 
More importance is given to visual fidelity. The colours use in 2007 is more optimized and used in 2010 so that it is made easy to identify it. The ‘picture tools’ and ‘table tools’ ribbon, which appear at the time of usage is given below as example.
2007’s 
2010’s 
The visual enhancement not just stops here, the developers moved one step further and made color integration with the applications i.e. each application in the Office Suite is blended with a specific color eg: Word—Blue, Excel—Green, Powerpoint—ReddishOrange, Access—Pink, etc. These colors are taken from the color of their icons to which we familiar for over a decade.
The Microsoft Office 2010 will probably be only a slight improvement over its predecessor 2007 in aspects of features, but in terms of user interface it has more to offer for ease of use of the revolutionary ribbon interface introduced in Microsoft Office 2007.
Stay Hungry..! Stay Foolish..! 