Upgrading and getting started with Office 2010

Making the move to Office 2010? Here are some tips and new features you'll encounter.

Scenario #1 – Moving from Office 2003:

You will be amazed by the range of new features – and you won’t even have to get used to your File tab being gone (it left in Office 2007 but now it's back)! However, you will notice a number of new features, most notably the Ribbon. Find the history of the Ribbon and help getting started. There are also interactive menu and toolbar command guides for each Office 2003 program with printable list so you can see where you favorite commands live now.

Scenario #2– Moving from Office 2007:

Wondering where the Office button commands went? Just click the blue File tab. This new section has been dubbed "Backstage" and contains your Save, Open, Recent, New, Print, Options, Permissions, and a Prepare for Sharing section that helps you remove document properties.

You also get a neat summary with word and page count and even how much time you've spent editing it:

The shift from the Office button to the File menu Backstage view is the most significant change in terms of finding your favorite commands and features. For the most part, the Ribbon is pretty close to what you've been using in Office 2007.

Overall, Office 2010 will seem familiar - though there are a lot more features you'll discover "under the hood" the more you use it. We'll examine these features in more depth in future posts.

Suzanne