Microsoft says they are ‘entering’ Technical Preview, two months after it actually happened.
You have to hand it to Microsoft, if they can’t announce something new, they announce something old knowing most people won’t realize any different.
We were amazed, but not really surprised, to see Microsoft announce that Office 2010 was ‘entering Technical Preview’ today.
Really? No, not really.
The Office 2010 Technical Preview was released TWO months ago.
Office Watch published images and details from the Office 2010 beta back in May. We received screen shots, details and complaints from testers all over the world.
This isn’t news to Microsoft, the company itself had to ask people not to use the Office 2010 Technical Preview under the usual excuse about possible virus infection. We had some other reasons for suggesting you avoid it.
Today’s announcement has some more nuggets of information – which Office Watch will check ourselves instead of just parroting the Microsoft line.
We now know that the re-vamped Office button menus we covered in detail back in May will be called ‘BackStage’. There’s something called ActionBase that’s still a mystery despite (or because of) today’s announcement.
Beyond that the Office 2010 ‘overview’ uses all the code-words and phrases we’ve heard before:
- GET THINGS DONE FASTER AND EASIER
- EXPRESS YOUR IDEAS MORE VISUALLY
- ACCESS YOUR WORK ACROSS DEVICES AND PLATFORMS
- MANAGE LARGE VOLUMES OF E-MAIL WITH EASE
- CONNECT, SHARE AND ACCOMPLISH MORE WHEN WORKING TOGETHER
- CREATE POWERFUL DATA INSIGHTS AND VISUALIZATION
- QUICKLY COMMUNICATE AND SHARE INFORMATION
Today’s Office 2010 ‘news’ is just another of the trickle-feed of information we’ll see in the months before the product goes on sale. It’s all about building ‘excitement’ about yet another version of Office – which, alas, is getting harder and harder to do.
The only thing people might get excited about is the upcoming ‘Office in a browser’ which was conspicuous by its absence today.
See Also
- The return of the File menu
- What is ActionBase?
- Access 2010 – first look
- PowerPoint 2010 – first look
- Excel 2010 – first look
- Other Office 2010 news and bundle changes
- Office 2010 Technical Preview – why bother?
- Step-Up Your Office
- Office 2010 – web apps preview
- Office 2010: new relations
- Under the Office 2010 ‘Office’ button
- Office 2010 – a ribbon minimize option
- Outlook 2010 gets the ribbon interface
- Word 2010 – sneak peek images
- Office 2010 new images and more questions
