Microsoft Office 2010 Unleashed

Yes ! You read it right.

For the past year or so, there have been numerous rumors about the features, launch dates, etc of Microsoft’s latest office suite.
However, nothing was know before its official launch today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. The Microsoft officials have confirmed that Office 2010 will be released by the first quarter of 2010.

They also have made a mini-movie about there latest venture.
Check out that video below :

The Movie

Official Teaser

Here’s a summary of all the functionality that has been added in this release :-

PowerPoint 2010 :
PowerPoint has been upgraded with a new browser version. Users now have the capability of editing video and images within PowerPoint with a basic video editing tool 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.

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 :
Microsoft has introduced a new feature called “document fidelity”. This means that, 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.

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.

To sum up, the improvements seem to be good and the software promises to be a complete package.
However, nothing can be confirmed till it is released.