Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

looks impressive and with this and the forthcoming windows 7 it seems microsoft is finally moving into a direction of its own rather than the following the path trodden by apple as it has so often done in the past

@ffrankmccaffery

For years MS have shipped dumbed down version after dumbed down version for the fear of confusing users. Office 2007 was a refreshing break from the norm & Office 2010 looks to improve on what was already a very good application suite.

At work I am forced to use Outlook 2003 - it really is a prehistoric piece of ****!

Having taught office applications for over 10 years the next release of Office 2010 just depresses me. These applications are based on code and methods that are eons old in computing terms and all Microsoft does is just apply a fresh coat of paint and new taillights each time.

Word uses old fashioned complex character coding which for most users is a nightmare, Excel offers little to assist users in creating formulae, PowerPoint has an inconsistent interface with limited output options and don't even get me started on Access.

Unfortunately Microsoft's dominance of the office applications market has stifled competition so that instead of empowering users we still have the 80% use 20% of the functionality syndrome.

Still, mustn't complain too much, its given me a job for all these years and as long as Microsoft produce software that many users find difficult to master it still will ;-)