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With the release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Visio 2010, we finally see
the implementation of Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s mantra. We had
the opportunity to see an in-depth demo of the new suite of products from Microsoft’s
Group Product Manager for Office 2010, Chris Bryant. Here’s a complete breakdown of
all the functionality that has been added, including screenshots:
Most certainly a direct response to Google Apps, Microsoft is rolling out lightweight,
FREE, Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. All based in the
cloud, the web-based versions of these products have fewer features than their desktop
cousins but still give users basic tools to edit and change documents.
PowerPoint 2010
PowerPoint has been upgraded not only with a new browser version, but also a slew of
bells and whistles have been added to the desktop version. Users now have the
capability of editing video and images within PowerPoint with a basic video editing tool
(not so different from the capabilities of iMovie) and an image editing tool, which is like a
basic, simple version of Adobe Photoshop. Microsoft has also added the ability for users
to launch a WebEx-like live sharing feature with other users. So if you create a slideshow
in PowerPoint, you can share it with other people in real-time (which can be run on top
of Sharepoint).
To share a deck with other users, you send an email to individuals with a link. Once they
click the link, they will see the slideshow within the browser. This feature can also be
used on a mobile phone’s browser. You can also create a slideshow in the desktop
version and then publish it to the web version to access it via the browser. The browser
version of PowerPoint doesn’t include the video editing features, but most of the
functionality of 2008 is included in the browser version.
Excel 2010
Excel spreadsheets can now run in the browser, and similar to PowerPoint, spreadsheets
can be published to the browser via the desktop version. The browser version of Excel
has limited features, but offers more in-depth functionality than Google Spreadsheets.
Microsoft has added a particularly innovative feature called Sparklines, which gives a
visual snapshot image of a data trend over time within a cell. You can also share Excel
via the browser with other users and set special permissions on who can access the
document.
Word 2010
Bryant says that the number one piece of feedback from users producing documents on
Microsoft Word is that they want to preserve the look and feel of a document created in
the desktop version in the browser. Microsoft calls this “document fidelity” and created
the browser version of MS Word accordingly. In the browser, documents retain the same
look and feel as in the desktop. The browser version still has the “ribbon user interface,”
where you can change fonts, size, formatting, styles etc.
Microsoft has also updated the desktop version to have collaborative features so that
multiple users can be editing a document at once. This collaboration is not available in
the web version, unfortunately. Microsoft says that users don’t want this feature but this
might be a move to protect the Office revenue model.
When two people are editing the same document (in the desktop version) at the same
time, Word will notify each user when there are changes that need to be synced with
their document. The copy/paste function of the desktop version has also received an
upgrade, where you can see see a live preview for the paste function. The paste function
also has an advanced option to create and insert screenshots. To make moving around a
long document easier, Word now has a visual navigation pane and section header
breakdown which makes it easy to jump around different sections of a document.
Outlook 2010
Outlook 2010 now has a ribbon user interface, like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The UI
of email conversations has been upgraded to look almost like a message tree, allowing
users a more visual view of sent and incoming emails. Search functionality has been
improved as well, making it much easier to find content. Also, you can preview calendars
in emails and choose to ignore selective email conversations.
Sharepoint 2010
Like Outlook, Sharepoint now gets a ribbon UI, making the document-hosting product
more similar to Microsoft’s flagship products, like Word. You can tag authors of
documents now and can share documents and files more easily.
Microsoft says that its browser versions have been tested on all major browsers aside
from internet Explorer, including Firefox and Safari. Office 2010 is still being tested and
reworked to function on Chrome. Microsoft also announced that it is streamlining the
number of Office editions from eight to five. Office Web applications will be available in
three ways: through Windows Live, where consumers will have access to Office Web
applications at no cost; via on-premises versions; and via Microsoft Online Services,
where customers will be able to purchase a subscription of MS Office. Microsoft says
Office 2010 will be available in the first half of next year.
The key part of all of this news is the free, browser-based versions of Microsoft’s most
popular Office products. Bryant says that Microsoft expects the browser products to be
especially popular amongst student, but I think that the web-based applications will be
hugely popular in the enterprise space as well, as long as there are security precautions
taken to put documents in a secure part of the cloud.
But as more and more businesses are becoming comfortable with trusting cloud
environments, Microsoft’s move to the browser could pay off in a big way, especially
because it’s so easy to use both the desktop and browser versions of products
interchangeably. The more successful Microsoft is in its browser strategy, the more they
validate Google’s approach in the space, which will eventually put price pressure on
Office.
Responses
● Office 2010 to feature lightweight web-apps : TechVi: Technology matters.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:48 am
● meneame.net
July 13th, 2009 at 3:59 am
● Big Changes in Office 2010 « Komplett Ireland
July 13th, 2009 at 4:03 am
● Microsoft – surviving in the Cloud ? « Cloud IT evangelism
July 13th, 2009 at 4:05 am
● Il giorno di Office 2010
July 13th, 2009 at 4:21 am
● Microsoft anuncia versão online do Office 2010 | Google Discovery
July 13th, 2009 at 4:41 am
● The headlines: July 13th : TechVi: Technology matters.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:48 am
● DampfLog » Helle Wolken im Büro - Microsoft macht mit Office 2010 ernst mit
Cloud Computing
July 13th, 2009 at 4:55 am
● The Complete Guide To Microsoft’s Office 2010 « Netcrema - creme de la social
news via digg + delicious + stumpleupon + reddit
July 13th, 2009 at 5:10 am
● Will Microsoft Use Office 10 To Push Internet Explorer and Silverlight? | Deep Jive
Interests
July 13th, 2009 at 5:18 am
● popurls.com // popular today
July 13th, 2009 at 5:29 am
● Microsoft anuncia versão online do Office 2010
July 13th, 2009 at 5:54 am
● New Gadgets | Microsoft to release Office 2010 anyway. "Complete Guide…"
Comments
It looks like Microsoft is being serious this time. The improvements looks great. I suppose
having great competition in the marketplace does offer better value to customers.
Nevertheless, this is interesting news
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Yeah. This means Office 10 is not dead. I have a ton of videos of Office 10 uploading now
(the embargo was supposed to end at 6 a.m., not at 2 a.m., but oh well). Watch http://
scobleizer.blip.tv for videos.
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He has videos of Excel sparklines, pivot table slicers, cut and paste live preview, insert
screenshots of other windows from the ribbon.
Thanks, I just finally finished all the uploads, and posted them here: http://scobleizer.
com/2009/07/.....of-videos/
Office XP?
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thanks for the videos man, they’re really nice too see whats really new. I know I will be using
most of these new things on a regular basis.
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Excellent videos and insight on your blog post, Robert. Wondering how Google are feeling at
this point in time… should be a fun competition between them and Microsoft going forward.
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You can watch the keynote sessions from the Microsoft Partner Conference live and on
demand here - http://bit.ly/8WEcL and see for yourselves!
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This time they come out with some compelling features.. Its true that competition takes out
the best from you…!!
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Are you really a MS fan boy? Wouldnt a real fan boy wait & see before rushing to judgement?
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Image for Powerpoint and Excel are the same when I view it
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First of all the PowerPoint and Excel images are the same.
Word and Powepoint look good but Outlook has quite a messy interface.
Cheers
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I use IE8 by choice because it is a solit browser, I have no problems with it. I will use what
works for me and not because someone else tells me to.
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What else have you tried for longer than a couple hours?
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“Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where
consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost”
This is interesting, I suspect that we’lll be able to save documents to SkyDrive then. Cool.
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As I just posted over on my blog, I think this could open the enterprise up to web
applications. The key is that the web-based versions of the office applications look like they
can be installed as part of Sharepoint, allowing enterprises to keep full control of their data.
Other web applications vendors should, and will, follow suit.
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that 3 screens aproach is awsome, I hope they include their entertainment devices into the
mix very soon.
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Anyone know of the life expectancy of InfoPath? I’m using it for a project at work, but lacks
certain key features (like the abaility to export a form to any other format…).
The InfoPath MSDN team blog hasn’t been updated since Feb, and there isn’t really anything
else about it out there in the wild…
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@Paul Gordon
Infopath will live on, and will continue to evolve…
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“While I can’t yet comment on all the blogger silliness I’ve seen about tomorrow’s WPC
announcements (let’s just say the most obvious Office-related predictions I’ve seen are dead
wrong)”
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Expect it to fail pretty much instantly and be riddled with bugs and endless problems.
And I wonder if the Microsoft web apps will say “Sorry you must be using Internet Explorer to
view this website”.
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“Henry Gale arrived on the Island in a balloon. At some point he died of a broken neck, and
Ben took on his identity. Henry was buried in a grave near the balloon, although Ben claimed
(in the guise of Henry) that his wife was buried there.”
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Henry_Gale
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Did you even read the part of supporting all the browsers (IE,FF, Chrome, Safari) in the
article
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Yeap, just like M$ has supported standards and other browsers in the past.
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Yes, it is very interesting kamilo. Either he was wrong, or there is something else coming
today too.
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The big questions is whether they’ve finally introduced manageable layers into Powerpoint
and enabled multiple Windows in Excel. My guess is: NO
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Do Start > Run… > excel for multiple Windows in Excel 2007.
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are you serious? you don’t know how to launch multiple instances of excel? they’ve had this
for years.
in win7 start up excel right click the excel icon on the task bar to access the jump list then
click the “microsoft excel” button in the list to start a new instance.
in excel itself, you can click the file > new> blank to start a new instance
in excel itself office 2007, you can click the alt button on you keyboard then click F > N >
“enter”
there’s multiple ways to do it. If i had to guess I would say that you’re just going by what
someone else told you and that you really don’t know anything.
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That sounds really interesting. MS seems to understand, why google won every battle in the
past
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Scott, please clarify how this article confirms Google “won every battle in the past.”
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You said “Microsoft has added a particularly innovative feature called Sparklines, which gives
a visual snapshot image of a data trend over time within a cell.” - Microsoft is just catching
up to features that should have been in Excel 2007.
The theory of sparklines (small, intense, simple datawords) along with many practical
examples of recent sparkline developments can be found in a 5 year old book - Edward
Tufte’s book Beautiful Evidence.
When it comes to business graphics and data visualization with Excel, Microsoft provides
lagging technology not leading technology. The leading technology comes from a handful of
outside developers.
@dmgerbino
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And Sparklines has been available in which currently shipping spreadsheet product?
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Jonathan, Sparklines were available in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 since 2006. Bonavista
Systems created an Excel add-in to provide sparklines and other missing charting options in
Excel with their microcharts product.
Here is a link to their November 14, 2006 website via the way back machine - http://web.
archive.org/web/200.....index.html
Additionally, Bissantz & Company also created an Excel add-in providing sparklines. This is a
link to their June 13, 2006 sparkline page http://web.archive.org/web/200.....talife.asp
The data visualization savvy analyst has been able to use third party tools to supplement
Excel with missing chart types such as Edward Tufte’s sparklines and Stephen Few’s bullet
charts.
A French Excel MVP created an add-in that adds sparklines and 14 other chart types to Excel
- http://sparklines-excel.blogspot.com/
I hope you all find these resources as rewarding as I have over the last 3 years.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bbo.....topic_id=1
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So they’re catching up to amorphous software that doesn’t have these features yet? Or are
they catching up to a book?
While MSFT didn’t invent sparklines, it’s not as if its a feature that’s been everywhere but
Excel–in fact, it really hasn’t been anywhere… so are we going to have to begrudgingly admit
MSFT is possibly innovating… nahhhhhhhh, that would require open mindedness.
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“are they catching up to a book?” ahahhahahhhahha, nice one, I know that sent him
spinning, he probably didnt’ even know what hit him.
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Actually, sparklines are used in Google Analytics and the Alexa Toolbar, for example. And
there are several addins that implement sparklines in Excel.
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The concept isn’t even now, you can do trendlines inside a cell with Excel 2007.
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yeah right
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I love how the writer says “the web has been abuzz” and then links to a techcrunch article to
cite her points! Hahaha, you just can’t cite yourself as evidence to make a point like that.
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Touché
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Just like I elaborate in this detailed blog post which I am in the process of writing, (and sure
to get listed on TechMeme), this is a Game Changer. A Paradigm Shift, if you will. Think of it
as Green Computing in the Cloud.
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Wow. The “Online Office” market will now consolidate and we will see the extinction of half-
baked offerings like Zoho.
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My prediction: People will use Office 2010 for unimportant stuff only.
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I think you’re in a technology bubble. Most people in my engineering firm have not heard of
these online tools. Nor do they care. They use MS Office and it works. They’re not looking for
other tools.
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The tools you mention are available now but the comparative usage to Office is essentially
nil. Google Docs is FREE and it has done nothing to sales of MS office. 2007 was a massive
seller - better than 2003 - even on the Mac. That despite all the prattle from the likes of
techcrunch that google apps was going to eat MS lunch. Whatever the mindshare these apps
have in the world of tech buffs like yourself the on-the-ground, real world numbers don’t
back it up. They don’t come anywhere close. They just don’t.
More often than not google docs is used in addition to word rather than in place of, as
Farhad’s far more lucid take (than TC’s) on the Chrome OS notes http://www.slate.com/
id/2222564/.
So MS is responding to working on the web and it appears that they are doing it right - there
will not be any compelling reason to use gapps for the average person. Of course TC still
claims that this is a victory for google but as those pesky real-world use numbers prove - TC
usually wrong.
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I can give you a compelling reason right now. Google Spreadsheets lets me share and
simultaneously edit a spreadsheet with multiple users, for free, in a couple clicks.
This article seems to state that MS is NOT allowing simultaneous editing (without the fat
desktop app), which is exactly the kind of benefit the cloud is supposed to be providing.
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And if the features you need is simultaneous editing, you’re going to Google Docs. Thanks for
making my point!
msft office is great …. i just wish some of that love went into the mac version…
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I count NINE rows of toolbars and equivalents across the top of Word 2010 in the first
screenshot.
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When this UI concept was designed - several years ago - Microsoft seem to missed the move
to small portable devices. It’s obviously aimed at a desktop setup where you can afford an
entire screen for MS Office. Please can we have some screenshots on a low-end Netbook?
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it is collapsable, but the way to do it is to right click (not double click) the ribbon then select
“minimize the ribbon”….it then gives you more screen real estate that office 03. when you
click the any of the tabs like “home, insert” etc, the ribbon will show up again, but it doesn’t
stay there unless you unselect “minimize the ribbon”
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Thanks - that was useful. But while editing, surely you need to see the ribbon *and* your
document at the same time?
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Is the web version using some version of Silverlight? Or was this AJax? I heard they will
eventually have both.
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I heard something about it using silverlight which will increase document fidelity
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I live on Onenote, wheres the screenshot.. And why is the PP pic shown twice>
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……..sounds good…..I’m really excited about the FREE cloud based Office programs. Do you
need to buy 2010 to use the “FREE” cloud Office programs? I hope not, cause Google Docs is
free, and it is great for basic word processing.
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actually TC was *bought* by google and apple (to carry “advertorials” and astroturf) long
time ago. Now MSFT is trying to *catch up*
LOL
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Maybe that will finally demonstrate how crap Google Docs is?
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+1
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Except they still win in simultaneous editing, which is free and easy to do. No desktop app/
sharpoint/$$$$ required.
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“Through Windows Live, where consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no
cost” This is more than enough~
Don’t know how much “less features” is with web version and whether “document fidelity”
works totally well.
I like the feature navigation pane in Word and message tree in Outlook. But where is
OneNote?!
“Collaboration is not available in the web version Word.” Hmm, interesting~
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can you please tell us all what is wrong with docx and why it would be good for them to get
rid of it?
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It’s a fine format, it’s just that they used a different (admittedly inferior) one for decades…so
I would have recommended either that at first, they should have thought of a more compact
format; or that they keep the one they’ve got as new formats (especially ones that don’t
accomplish anything new except compression) tend to confuse people and cause
compatibility problems. (Unless, of course, you use OpenOffice 3, which supports all MSO
formats.)
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OK, I’m still wondering whether that screen shot for Excel 2010 was a deliberate endeavor! I
still haven’t caught the Office ‘07 bug and Office ‘10 is now here!
I will watch from a distance for now.
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Good Job M$
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lol
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First a guide to Silverlight, now one for Office. You guys are becoming company shills. Can
you imagine the nytimes doing this?
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Huh?
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when they released multiple articles on google and apple no one called them shills, but when
they do it for msft you start calling them shills? are you serious?
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Looks like MS knows what they are doing. Excited for this new MS.
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RIP Google Docs. If MS truly does give away the Web editions of MS office, then it’s game
over for Google.
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I notice its still got that ribon menu that slows a lot of us down.
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Why? I really like Ribbon. For me it is most innovative user interface change that I had come
across.
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+1
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++
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+++
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+3, ribbon is really nice, though most are used to the old interface
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‘Innovative’ != ‘better’…for me at least (and a fair number of people I’ve helped out using
newer versions of Office), the Ribbon adds an extra layer of complexity and unnecessary
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Seems to be great !
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Demos and videos look great btw. all the best MS; with this competition web-community is
to gain most!
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Microsoft seems to be stepping up it’s game. This sound like an exciting product.
The real question is, will we see an near bugless release for a change?
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But my big question(s) is… Will it require Silverlight? Will it essentially be cripple-ware unless
you install Silverlight? Or will they actually step up and keep it Silverlight free?
I just can’t see Microsoft not using this as a hook to get more Silverlight installs. Oh look at
our wonderful download numbers because people are just dying to get Silverlight. Not quite.
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sigh….with silverlight they can do a lot more stuff than just using plain old javascript. plus,
they’re going at it from a 3 screens aproach and silverlight is not out yet for the mobile so I
think it will be silverlight independent (or at least some parts will)
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@jaysunem : Well, who knows , microsoft might already have sneaked it in without your
notice.
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The features current version of Office is offering are enough for me, except Gmail like email
sorting feature in Outlook 2007. If Miicrosoft adds that feature with iCal like Calendar, I will
happily pay for the next version otherwise not till I am being forced to.
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It does, and importing iCal feeds into Office is very easy, but synchronising is very slow
compared to Google. You *really* don’t want to use Office 2007 if your feeds total 100+
items.
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Microsoft seems to be on a roll. These Office web apps will certainly give Google docs a run
for their money.
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“… aside from internet Explorer” should probably be “… apart from Internet Explorer” (?)
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Sparklines/trendlines are not new to Excel 2010. Go back to 2007 and you’ll see the same
feature.
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I am not sure if this is just another marketing stunt like MS did for Bing, full of bell and
whistles without significant substance.
For example, I did a search on “suresome.com” which suddenly became popular on twitter,
site info can be found on all search engines (google, yahoo, aol, ask…) except on bing, what
a crap!
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http://www.bing.com/search?q=s.....E&qs=n
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LOL. Not sure what you did. But it found it fine for me. Perhaps you are just brainwashed.
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