Four Killer Reasons to Switch to Word 2010
For Microsoft Office suite groupies, Christmas has come early this year: Office 2010 is in public beta and you can install it today. But before you waste your precious time switching to a new version of Office, you might be wondering if it's worth your time. Well, wise and astute reader, I've done the hard work for you. Read on for the four best things about Word 2010 and judge for yourself.
Go Backstage. Back when Office 2007 came out, my editor called me in a panic -- she literally could not figure out how to print her first Word document. She was utterly baffled until I showed her that the big round Office logo was actually a button that revealed a lot of "File menu" sorts of options. Well, now those things really are behind a tab labeled File, and it's better organized and more powerful than before. My favorite addition: a button to save your files directly to the cloud via SkyDrive.
Superb Print Control. Okay, this one is also in Backstage, but it's so good it deserves its own mention. Print preview is no longer relegated to some modal screen of its own. Indeed, Microsoft finally nailed print setup -- on a single screen, you get print preview and all the various print settings you could possibly want.
Take a Screenshot. The Insert tab now has a Screenshot button that lets you capture any open window with a single click, or clip just a piece of the screen. Sure, Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with the Snipping Tool -- which is also excellent -- but this feature is a great time-saver.
Photo Editing. Frequently insert photos in your documents? Then you'll appreciate the enhanced picture tools. There's an all-new background remover which lets you mark parts of the photo and then magically erases similarly colored areas. A Corrections control does away with the old percentage based adjustment and instead lets you pick thumbnails that represent the sharpness and contrast change you want to make.
Want to learn more about the new version of Office? Check out my four killer reasons to switch to Outlook 2010.
