Microsoft Will Open Public Beta for Office 2010 Next Month

All of us are intimately familiar with the Microsoft Office products, for better or for worse. Even the people smart/trendy enough to use Google Docs, Zoho or Open Office still have to use Word or Excel at some point in their lives. So you may be interested to know that the next version of the word processor (or spreadsheet manager or presentation creator or whatever) you will be staring at, both at work and at home, is nearing the public beta stage of development.

Office 2010 will enter public beta in November, and many people are interested to see if it addresses problems created by Office 2007 and the fancy “ribbon” interface. We’re actually more interested in seeing the new browser-based “Office Web Apps” that started private testing back in September. The Office Web Apps will compete with free online offerings like Google Docs and Zoho. If Microsoft wants to stay current as more people and businesses migrate to the cloud, then Office Web Apps need to be fantastic from the start.

In fact, the Office suite of productivity programs actually has quite a lot to live up to in general since Windows 7 has been released. The latest version of Windows has redeemed Microsoft in some small measure after years of disappointing customers (we’ll not go into a discussion of just how many years it’s been for fear of missing several meals whilst arguing) and Office will probably need to show significant improvement too. Many people were severely disappointed when Microsoft hyped the newfangled ribbon interface in Office 2007, which turned out to not be much of an improvement at all over the old tab and menu system.

Microsoft will actually be pushing Office 2010 in conjunction with SharePoint 2010. Coincidentally, SharePoint will be adopting the ribbon interface, which is a bad omen for those begging for a better interface. SharePoint will also be improving support for video, audio and Silverlight, which will help website management significantly.

Microsoft may be more interested in SharePoint than Office right now because SharePoint is actually one of the company’s fastest-growing businesses. Last year saw a 20 percent increase in revenue from SharePoint, which is guaranteed to catch interest from anyone worth their corner office.

For the average consumer, SharePoint improvements will mean nothing. Microsoft has announced that new computers will come with Microsoft Office Starter 2010 (unless you have purchased the full Office suite along with your computer). That means Microsoft is putting “a reduced-functionality, advertising-supported version of Office 2010” on new computers to entice you to buy the full suite.

That’s a smart move to try to catch the attention of people who would otherwise use Google Docs, but you better have something amazing to keep their attention with or it won’t matter. And the whole part about being “advertising-supported” seems tailored to annoy consumers, not impress them.

Microsoft’s main goal should still be perfecting the Office Web Apps because that’s where customers will be won. People will still have no choice about using Office at work, and the average consumer will still get Office for their PC, but it’s the ones using free online versions of productivity software that Microsoft really needs to convert.

Can’t wait for Office 2010 to come out before buying office software? Check out the TopTenREVIEWS Office Software Review site for a comparison of the best productivity suites on the market.