There’s a good amount of Microsoft Office 2010 news coverage today thanks to Microsoft’s announcement that Office 2010 has reached the “technical preview engineering milestone.” Beginning today, thousands of individuals will be invited to test drive Office and Visio as part of the Technical Preview program.

Some of the new features found in Office 2010 include (courtesy of their press release):

• “Work anywhere with Office Web applications — the lightweight Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote — that provide access to documents from virtually anywhere and preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device.
• Collaborate better with co-authoring in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft OneNote 2010, and advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Microsoft Outlook 2010, including the option for users to ”ignore” unwanted threads.
• Bring ideas to life with video and picture editing, broadcast capability in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, easy document preparation through the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, and new Sparklines in Microsoft Excel 2010 to visualize data and spot trends more quickly. “

In addition, Microsoft is simplifying our lives by reducing the number of Office Editions from eight to five. (Yeah.. that’s still 4 too many if you ask me).

Office Web Applications will be available in three different ways:

• Through Windows Live
• On-premises for all Office volume licensing customers
• Microsoft Online Services

For more in-depth coverage on Office 2010, check out the following links:

• “Microsoft releases Office 2010 details, test code” at CNET
• “Hands On: Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview” at PC Mag
• “Office 2010: Most innovations are online” at PC World

Expect Office 2010 and related products to hit store shelves sometime during the first half of 2010.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2010 Technical Preview

*shakes head*..

In an effort to drum up buzz for next year’s release of Office 2010, Microsoft has decided to do something a bit different. They’ve launched a new movie teaser website called “Office 2010 The Movie”. Now of course, they don’t take any of this seriously (just watch the Microsoft Office Backstage Interview for example) but it’s still interesting to see Microsoft go this route to help promote the next version of Office. Heck – they even make fun of the leaked version of Office 2010 which has surfaced across the web in recent weeks (including a version that has a virus embedded too) Here’s what the “lead actor” had to say about that leaked version with the virus:

“Imagine my face but as a program without the makeup, with a virus.. a virus all over my face.. I mean that can’t be good right?”

But hey… if you do want to try Office 2010, you can sign up for the Technical Preview on their website.

[Check it out via News.com]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2010 The Movie

LaptopMag has published a review of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition here on their website. Special Media Edition is one of three different Office 2008 versions. The other two versions are Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition and Office 2008 for Mac. The basic differences are as follows. Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage. Office 2008 for Mac adds Microsoft Server Exchange Support and Automator Actions for Workflows in Microsoft Office. Finally, Special Media Edition adds Microsoft Expression Media tot the mix. Here’s what LaptopMag thinks of the new edition for the Mac platform:

Office for Mac 2008 Special Media Edition is an excellent work suite geared toward power users who will delve into every feature and explore every nook and cranny of the robust package. Casual users who don’t want to shell out $499 could make do with the $149 Student and Home Edition or the very capable (and more wallet-friendly) $79 iWork ‘08. We are left wondering, though, why Microsoft doesn’t make such a fun and visually appealing suite for Windows users.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition, Mac, Microsoft, LaptopMag, Review