Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus

Now, first let me say that regardless of the features, the massive price tag is, for myself and many I have spoken too, simply too much. Maybe better value than the lower suites, like Professional or "Home and Student" (A concept I'll get on to later), but very expensive nonetheless. So I'll get my only major quarrel out of the way early.

Cost

Massive. I would not wish to spend "£386.99" on this suite. But the trouble is mnay would have to. For example, I am a Year 11 student, and I require this software to suit my needs. Many would argue there's open-source software available that does the same, but it's really not the same as Office. I don't believe anything is, including Office:mac.

Workarounds

Many students will have paid a lot of money for Office when it was simply not necessary. This suite is available from Microsoft and Microsoft Gold-Certified retailers online for as low as £40! Simply being a student in K-12 (or primary and high school for those UK readers) and holding a school (.sch.uk or .edu) email address is enough to qualify. So in short:
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! LOOK AROUND FOR DEALS!

OK, now that my major concern is through with, I'll go on to the good bits!

Overview

The 2010 suite is far more advanced than it's predecessor, Office 2007. Overall, the interface is uniform and sleek, with every program in the suite boasting the new 'Ribbon' interface (as opposed to just PowerPoint, Access, Excel and Word in 2007). The Professional Plus suite consists of the following Office applications:

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Microsoft OneNote
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft Publisher
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft InfoPath
  *InfoPath Filler
  *InfoPath Designer
• Microsoft Lync (or Communicator 2007 R2 on some older installers)
• Microsoft Sharepoint Workspace (Formerly Office Groove)

Now, I'm reviewing the Suite, rather than the applications, so I'm not going to go into great detail about each program; you can view the relevant product page on Ciao for more in-depth information. However, there are a few programs that many will unfamiliar with, so here's a brief overview for some of them-

• OneNote is a useful application that acts like a notebook, good for organising schoolwork or research
• InfoPath is an application for creating forms.
• Lync is a IM and conferencing program- like Messenger, but for business use

Interface

All Office programs (with the exception of Microsoft Lync) now include the Ribbon interface. This is now a lot less 'chunky' and appears more streamlined. You can now fully customise the ribbon with your own tabs and commands without the use of 3rd party software, via the Options menu.

In addition, the Office Button (the little round Office logo in the corner of some 2007 apps) has been replaced with the File tab, which, when clicked, opens the 'Backstage View'. This is a large menu interface that covers the whole screen, and allows you to do a variety of tasks, such as privacy settings, viewing licensing info, printing, save/open, and export files, all in one screen. The print dialog that is commonplace across almost all applications has been replaced with a more simple, streamlined screen which combines the Print Settings with Print Preview.

Conclusion

The Professional Plus suite for Office 2010 is packed full of programs to satisfy all users, from students through to business executives. The price tag will put many of, but with the right amount to research, it is possible to save big money on the latest and most complete version of possibly the most influential and essential productivity suite on the market.