Enhanced productivity suite with upgraded features for true power users and businesses, supporting 64-bit processing and native PDF creation
Enhanced productivity suite with upgraded features for true power users and businesses, supporting 64-bit processing and native PDF creation
Vote (1,122 votes)
Program license Full
Developer Microsoft
Works under Windows
Vote
(1,122 votes)
Developer
Microsoft
Works under
Windows
Program license
Full
Pros
- Improved Utility & Performance
- Integrated Image Editing Tools
- Superb New Outlook App
- Optimized Ribbon Interface
- Video Support in PowerPoint
- Mini-Chart Support in Excel
Cons
- No Trial Version
Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010 is a version of the amazingly popular and trusted productivity suite from Microsoft, and it was designed specifically to handle the needs of college and university students without breaking their budgets.
In many cases, the student versions of popular software suites are stripped of their higher-level functions or utilities, but that is not the case for Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010. The full set of apps in the professional version of Microsoft Office 2010 is included in this academic version, and that includes PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, InfoPath, Access, Publisher, SharePoint, and Communicator. When used together, these apps provide tools to make every aspect of the academic experience easier and more intuitive.
The user interface for this version of Office is quite simple, and it seems to have adopted a nearly minimalist approach to design. The dreaded Ribbon interface from earlier versions of Microsoft Office is still included in the interface, but it has been streamlined and reorganized to function as it was meant to in the first place. The Office button that was at the heart of the Ribbon interface has been completely changed to allow access to completely different options, including instant access to the most common tasks related to document production and maintenance. It also details the document that is currently open.
This version of Office for students basically has the exact same functionality and features that are available in the standard professional version, but without the professional price. Word, which is possibly the most used app in the suite by college students, has been improved tremendously in terms of the context menu. It actually shows potential changes in real time as the user browses through the different contextual options. Videos now work within PowerPoint presentations, which is something that has been demanded by customers for years. Mini-color charts can now be added to spreadsheets in Excel, and redundant emails can easily be removed from Outlook. Tools were also added to the suite to take screenshots, translate text, and use special effects with document images.
Unlike older versions of Office, this version is fast and easy on the hardware. That's because the suite has been redesigned with a sleek and optimized underlying code structure that is much more focused on performance. These apps now use very little system resources, and it is easily possible to run many of them side by side.
There are few productivity suites with the same functionality and intuitive nature as Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010. The new features make the software much easier to use, and it is one of the best ways to handle the daily workload associated with most college programs. Students would be wise to take advantage of such comprehensive and affordable software.
Pros
- Improved Utility & Performance
- Integrated Image Editing Tools
- Superb New Outlook App
- Optimized Ribbon Interface
- Video Support in PowerPoint
- Mini-Chart Support in Excel
Cons
- No Trial Version
Microsoft offers their latest upgrade to the world's premier office productivity suite with the 2010 version of Office Professional. You’ll find a host of new and upgraded features, some of which are useful to general users, although many — like its new 64-bit codebase — will likely appeal only to serious power users and enterprise software buyers.
If you’re not already familiar, MS Office combines the applications for spreadsheet (Excel), word processing (Word), email and scheduling (Outlook), database (Access), presentations (PowerPoint) and lesser-known apps for note-keeping (OneNote) and web design (Publisher). Each of the major applications has become the standard within its own category. Taken together, there’s enough utility in this suite to handle 95% of the demands of most desk jobs anywhere. That’s what’s made MSOffice an essential in the modern world.
The biggest news is the 64-bit compatibility. This will encourage power users of Excel. Row limit is now 1,048,576, up from a mere 64,000 or so in the 32-bit version.
Office 2007 introduced the ribbon-interface which tended to confuse users of previous versions. Unlike its predecessor, the 2010 update doesn’t demand much adjustment on the user-interface front. The ribbons are still there, and still require a surprising number of clicks to perform some basic tasks (changing paragraph styles is one example).
Big news in all apps is the “Backstage” view which gathers all functions to be found on the File menu, combined on a single pane with a print preview. This is a great feature, and justifies whatever code bloat it required to incorporate. However, the graphic nature of Backstage has blocked some file-management keyboard shortcuts popular among traditional power users.
Another great advance: native support for pdf creation. You can print to pdf directly from any of the Office apps: No more plug-in, driver, or secondary app. This change shows MS responds to popular needs — even when it involves a file format is proprietary to a company other than MS.
Office 2010 offers stronger graphics capability in all apps. Word now features graphic-creation and manipulation tools to meet modern expectations. Newer users expect to be able to embed and edit graphics and video in word processing documents as easily as they would on a social media site. Good on Microsoft for responding to evolving expectations.
Outlook in Office 2010 gains some refinement and performance upgrades. It also gains the ability to search MS-owned LinkedIn for email addresses. That’ll be helpful for sending resumes.
Word gains some safety features to prevent the opening of risky VB macros downloaded from the internet. It also adds even more features to its already nearly colossal arsenal. That’s one concern: too many tools. Confusion seems to be a constant risk to Word users. However, Word has gotten more web-centric to match the expectations of users over the years. The find dialog now works much more like a mini-search-engine than a simple find. That might make it a little less daunting for some users.
Conclusion: the Office 2010 is a worthy upgrade from 2007, especially at the discounted academic price.
Pros:
Consistent ribbon interface throughout all apps
Backstage file management menu
64-bit support
Upgraded graphic tools
Cons:
Word is, perhaps, beyond feature-rich
Outlook won’t allow printing of one page of an email
So many features and tools, it’s inevitable some are too hidden to be convenient
