Category: Office

Office 2010 Information

Microsoft released some information to go with the 2010 RTM of tonight:

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Office 2010 RTM

I just saw on the Office blog that Office 2010 products have been released to manufacturing.  The released products are Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010.

Volume license customers with Software Assurance can start downloading on May 1st.  The official launch will be on on May 12th with a virtual event featuring Stephen Elop.  Retail will be available in June with pre-order available now.  News on MSDN and TechNet releases is being kept suspiciously quiet.  I suspect MS might be trying to avoid what happened with Windows 7 – everyone hitting refresh until it eventually appeared and then they all got slow downloads and moaned on Twitter.

I’ll be sticking with Office 2007 for a while – I’m kinda constrained by the support for the custom ribbon that my publisher uses for formatting.  I’ll probably upgrade the work machine when the partner pack is updated.  I’ve been on the CTP for quite a while now.

Office 2010 System Requirements

Curious about the hardware and operating system requirements for Office 2010?  Microsoft recently blogged about them.

The minimum hardware requirements are:

image

That is minimum.  Basically it’ll run but not great.  MS puts it this way.  If you’re running Office 2007 then you’ll be able to run Office 2010.  If you’re running Office 2003 there’s a good chance you can run Office 2010 (see above image).  If you have a dual (or more) core CPU Office 2010 will run fine.  New PC’s will run if superbly.

I’ve been running the CTP (pre beta) on a year old low-ish end Dell laptop.  It’s runs pretty well on that.

What about the operating systems?

Table of 32-bit operating systems that 32-bit Office 2010 supports. Everything in the table is supported. Those Operating systems are Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0.

Table of 64-bit operating systems. Those Operating systems are Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0. 32-bit Office 2010 is supported on all. 64-bit Office 2010 is supported on all except Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0

As you can see, Office 2010 will be the first version to have x86 and x64 versions.  Pretty much anyone buying Windows 7 on an OEM PC is 64-bit now.  And Windows Server 2008 R2 is 64-bit only.

Search Server 2008

I’ve never heard of this one before but it turned up on the Microsoft downloads last night.  Server Server 2008 Express is a free product you can download and install.

“Search doesn’t have to be complicated
Bring enterprise search to your organization quickly and easily for FREE with Microsoft® Search Server 2008 Express. As an IT professional, you need a search solution that allows you to deliver the simple, easy-to-use experience your users expect while helping to meet the security and manageability requirements your IT environment demands. The download on this page has been updated to include Service Pack 2.
Note: In order to install Search Server 2008 Express on Windows Server 2008 R2, you must use this download. Previously available versions will not install.
Product Highlights
Quick to download and set up

  • Reduce your risk in choosing a search solution by starting with a free, full application you can download and set up to meet your needs immediately
  • Go from downloading to searching in minutes with a streamlined setup process

Easy to configure and maintain

  • Review common administrative tasks, search status, and settings in a single view
  • Manage content sources and search scopes, authoritative sources, key words, best bets, and other configurable relevancy settings through a powerful, easy-touse management console
  • Index common information sources with Indexing Connectors for file servers, Web sites, Microsoft SharePoint® sites, Microsoft Exchange Server public folders, as well as EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet, and Lotus Notes repositories
  • Monitor search performance and improve search relevance with query and results reporting
  • Help ensure that only the right people can find information with a search engine that utilizes your user authentication infrastructure for enhanced security

Powerful enough to meet your search needs

  • Empower your users to quickly find the information they need through a familiar, Web search-style interface
  • Deploy a search capability optimized for business data to deliver highly relevant results across intranet and public-facing Web site content
  • Scale your deployment to meet your needs with no preset document limits and continuous index propagation
  • Easily upgrade to a multiserver topology with Microsoft Search Server 2008 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as your enterprise search needs evolve

For more information on Microsoft enterprise search products, please visit www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch”

There also appears to be a commercial product offering more functionality.

Office 2010 at WPC 09

We thought today would be Windows RTM day but it’s not; it’s Office 2010 day.  Remember Office is a brand including things like Exchange and SharePoint including several others.

LMAO – As I’m writing and the speaker is building up to the launch, TechNet just tweeted that the Office 2010 technical preview has been launched.  He’s been preempted.  The preview program is by invitation only. 

Live on stage, the OCS client crashed in the middle of a demo *OUCH*

The presenter showed a cool implementation of Dynamics CRM with Twitter.  He asked a question and then could analyse the viewing figures and responses.  He got 3000 responses to a question in a minute or so.

  • Exchange 2010 in public beta.
  • Office 2010 is at technology preview stage – invitation only.  All WPC09 attendees are invited.

Demo:

  • The Ribbon will be on every Office product, e.g. Project and Visio.
  • Text voice mail preview in Outlook with hyperlinks to her contact card.
  • Conversation view – one of the two things where GMail had an advantage.  I’ll love that!  You can even ignore a conversation, including future mails.  Handy for mail lists.
  • Quicksteps for your most common tasks.  Like a favourites for mail.
  • Mail tips will warn you about certain mail addressing trends, e.g. accidentally sending a mail to everyone in the company.
  • The Ribbon is in SharePoint 2010.  Nice.
  • Excel: create mini graphs in a single cell.
  • Simultaneous/cooperative editing on SharePoint using IE, FireFox and Safari.
  • Office Web Application will be available to half million people when it launches.
  • Powerpoint has new screen transitions.  Not a big deal really.  There is video editing in PowerPoint now.
  • Backstage view is a new feature in Office 2010.  It’s like a high level view of the doc properties.  Integration with applications can be surfaced here.
  • More SharePoint 2010 news at a SharePoint conference in October.
  • When you collaborate on a document, you can retain control over changes.
  • Synchronised presentation of Powerpoint over web and phone interface.  It’s like a broadcast.  They tried to demo this on an iPhone taken from the audience.  The wifi connection was being hammered by delegates.

Quarterly service improvements, e.g. SharePoint upload size and Exchange mailbox size, Safari/Firefox support.

So, Steve Ballmer talks tomorrow.  That has GOT to be when the Windows RTM announcements will be made.

Visio 2007 Diagramming From OpsMgr 2007 and ConfigMgr 2007 Data

I just spotted this new free download from Microsoft which will be very handy for Microsoft network admins.

“In Microsoft Visio 2007® diagrams, appropriate data can be attached to the shapes depending on the nature and domain of the diagrams. Visio Add-In for System Center allows IT professionals to visualize data from the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) by generating the diagrams for each machine configured for it. The Add-In allows filtering of data, automatic generation of diagrams and an automatic refresh of the associated data”.

Microsoft Office Labs

I was browsing through some MVP only areas (and activating my free TechNet/MSDN subscriptions) when I saw a link to something called Office Labs. 

The software that’s on there is purely experimental.  MS are trying out ideas and trying to get feedback from users to see if this stuff merits further development.  There’s obviously no support for this stuff in production.  Some of the tools look pretty cool, e.g. an SDK for touchscreen-like functionality using a webcam and a normal non-touch screen.  I’ve just installed an email prioritisation tool to see what it does. 

Note: it only works with Exchange connected Outlook.