Microsoft Office 2010

A few years ago Microsoft Office was the best way to get hold of good-quality software for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, but there are now lots of alternatives.

The free Open Office lacks the good looks of its paid-for rival but is good at the nuts and bolts. Online alternatives such as Google Docs and Zoho which make it simple to collaborate and share documents (see our full round-up of alternatives).

The new Office 2010 doesn’t have much in the way of big, obvious new features – the big move came with its immediate predecessor, Office 2007, which introduced the new ‘ribbon’ interface.

The ribbon remains here – instead of having menus along the top of the screen the main features of the program are arranged into panels and boxes with simple icons that make them easy to pick out.

It is confusing if you are used to menus, but we prefer it, having got used to it, and for newcomers it’s far more intuitive than having to learn where everything is in each menu.

The ribbon has been extended to every part of the program and it’s now customisable.

Several improvements have been made to how the various programs work, noticeably in Excel where some functions load noticeably faster. In each application, the ‘file’ functions have been moved into a new tab called Backstage.

This makes it easy to preview documents before printing. It also gives access to one of Word’s most important new additions, which is handling for versions – it will automatically save versions of your document as you type, to which you can then go back.

Office 2007 improved the programs’ handling of graphics and colours so it was much easier to make good-looking charts and diagrams. Office 2010 adds a few more nice touches and better picture handling in Word.

There are several versions: for most home users the one to go for is Home and Student 2010 which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Onenote and access to the new Office Web Apps for online document sharing and editing.

The Starter edition, pre-loaded on some new computers, is cut-down and cannot be bought separately, but if you need no more than Word and Excel it may not be worth changing from that. It’s a shame that if you want the advanced email and calendar handling of Outlook you will have to pay an extra £130 for the Home and Business edition.

It’s worth noting that the Starter and Home and Student versions cannot be used commercially. If you are running a business and using Office there is realistically nothing to stop you but you will be in breach of the terms and conditions. The cheapest business version is Home and Business (the only difference between that and the cheaper editions is the addition Outlook).

It’s also worth noting that if you are buying a new PC you may be offered an Office Key Card that gives you one of the full Office versions at a slight discount.

However, this only offers one licence and can’t be transferred to another PC even if you sell the first one. The ‘full’ Home and Student edition can be installed on three PCs, while the Home and Business edition can only be installed on two.

The RRP of £110 for Office 2010 Home and Student is high, but it’s available for around £70 online and at that price we would have no hesitation in buying it.