Office 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 was tested and released to campus in 2010. It offered improvements over the older versions as well as the host of new features. All new machines issued after its release came with the software preinstalled. Microsoft has since launched Office 2013, which builds upon the features of Office 2010 and offers even more advanced tools. You are encouraged to install Office 2013 if you have not yet done so.

Some of the new features in Office 2010:

  • Customise the Ribbon
    You can customise the existing ribbon tabs to suit the way that you work and can even create new tabs that bring together your favourite commands and groups.
     
  • Express your ideas more visually
    Improved picture formatting tools, such as colour saturation and artistic effects, let you transform your visuals into works of art. A wide range of new customizable themes and SmartArt® graphic layouts offer more ways to make your ideas stick without having to be a graphics expert.
     
  • View trends easily in Excel
    Sparklines, is a feature in Excel 2010, where you can create small charts within a single cell to quickly discover patterns in your data. It’s a quick and easy way to highlight important data trends such as seasonal increases or decreases.
     
  • Built-in screen capture
    All Office 2010 programs now include a screen clipping utility to help you quickly capture any area of the desktop screen. The tool will automatically take screenshots of any open applications on your desktop (that are not in a minimized state) and you can insert them directly into your document or presentation.
     
  • Document printing made simple
    With Office 2010, Microsoft has completely revamped the print dialog and it is a tremendous improvement. For instance, you can tweak printer settings (like page margins, etc.) and can preview the changes side-by-side.
     
  • Built-in PDF writer
    All Office 2010 programs include a built-in PDF writer so that you can save documents into a PDF format. The tool will automatically take screenshots of any open applications on your desktop (that are not in a minimized state) and you can insert them directly into your document or presentation
     
  • Distribute your PowerPoint slides as a video
    PowerPoint 2010 can convert your presentation into a video file that you can upload onto YouTube or distribute on a portable media player like the iPod. The video conversion happens in the background so that you can continue using PowerPoint while the video is being created. Another cool PowerPoint 2010 enhancement is the ability to record presentations directly to video.
     
  • Video editing in PowerPoint
    Do you want to trim some parts of a video clip before using it in your presentation? Or do you want to apply professional styles to a video (like reflection coupled with 3D rotation) so that your audience remain interested for longer? PowerPoint 2010 now includes some very powerful video editing features that are easy to use. There's also a basic video editing capability that lets you edit videos in PowerPoint 2010 without the need for third-party tools.
     
  • Click "File" to access your Backstage view
     The Backstage view is available in all Office 2010 applications and replaces the File menu of earlier Microsoft Office versions. It includes the commands to manage your documents and related data, i.e. create, save and send documents, inspect documents for personal information, set options such as turning on or off AutoComplete suggestions, and more.
     
  • Protected view for downloaded documents
    For added security, Word 2010 has a new Protected View for documents opened from the Internet. Protected View essentially presents these Internet documents in read-only mode, which prevents you from running any malicious code that might have been inserted into documents.

Office 2010 user guides