I’ve written about Office 2010 previously at ZDNet. Today, Microsoft officially released a public beta of Office 2010, with many of the features that were incomplete in the technical preview release enabled and some new features available as well.
I’ve been running Office 2010 for several months for daily use and have been very impressed. If you’re comfortable with beta software and understand the risks, I recommend giving it a try. But please, please don’t try this on a mission-critical PC!
I’ll have an in-depth look at the beta the week after Thanksgiving. (For you folks outside the U.S., that means the first week of December.)
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
It looks like they changed the logo button at the top left to a “File” button in this beta. I’m REALLY glad they did that, as sticking two buttons with similar logos right next to one another would create no end of confusion.
Generally, a success. I tried the “Custom” install (separate installation with Office 2007 intact, or so I thought), but got a whackadoodle error message. 2nd try was “Update” install option, and that one went well.
Looks like most of my settings are intact.
Had the usual, “now, where the hell did they put this option?” but eventually found my way around OK.
OneNote is still there…and as you said years ago, Ed, it’s a killer app!
I’ll rate Office 2010 a strong Pretty Good.
I had to uninstall Office 2007 32-bit in order to try the 65-bit version of 2010. I was relieved to find that my Groove workspaces were recognized immediately. I would like MS to swat one bug – I couldn’t turn off the prompt for permanently deleting items in Outlook. I checked the forums, and others have this problem as well. I wound up using autoarchiving on the Deleted Items folder to work around the problem.
I personally liked the globe idea in 2007. The “File” idea is a little too much, as it looks bad and works funky to me.
For now though, I’m going to have to un-install it and re-install 2007. I work for a small business, and we have a mix of technologies that require a number of plug-ins for Office. None of those plug-ins worked in 2010. I’m sure if we were 100% Microsoft in all aspects, we’d have less trouble. But due to the industry software requirements we must follow, that just can’t happen. Too bad Microsoft continues to be very proprietary in far too many areas. Seriously, if a plug-in works in Outlook, it should work in all versions of Outlook. If we are moving foward, are we really going foward if this occurs?
I especially like the steel look and lack of vibrant colors, which in my view was a distraction and gauche.
I am using Outlook for the first time in several years.
I am impressed, so far.
I haven’t had any trouble navigating; it appears that all things are where it makes sense for them to be.
I would also try it, looks interesting. How are the loading times? Hope not like 2007’s.
I’m trying the 64 bit version and the performance is fantastic. I just use to the old 2007 orb and now they changed it but it is easier to use for some things and Outlook is snappy.
Whens the last time anyone called Outlook “snappy”?