Office 2010: 'Not much new in Excel'

Amid the excitement surrounding the Office 2010 Technical Preview at the Microsoft World Partner conference this week, details of significant changes to Excel were in short supply, reports John Stokdyk. Microsoft rightly captured headlines with its announcement of web-based versions of its Office suite that could run in browsers and some smartphones. But the subheading in ComputerWorld’s Office 2010 Technical Preview report neatly summed things up for spreadsheet fans: “Not much new in Excel”. Not for the first time, the slogan “BI for the masses” was repeated from the conference stage and in WPC press releases - but little of substance emerged during the New Orleans love-in. The Technical Preview is intended as a final testing programme for Microsoft partners and developers before the product goes into a public beta test. The commercial edition of Office 2010 is expected to ship in the first half of 2010, but it could appear earlier. The Office web apps collection - when it appears - will represent a major step forward. For the time being, delegates at the World Partner Conference were treated to a demo from the keynote stage of documents being created in Excel and PowerPoint and being viewed on the web and via a mobile phone. The new suite and its collaborative features will be available as a full Cloud application for Windows Live users.

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