Office 2010 - Worth the upgrade?

I'm currently using Office 2007 and had intended to wait until Office 2013 before thinking about upgrading, but with Microsoft moving to a one-installation-per-copy or subscription model, Office 2010 suddenly looks a lot more appealing as I have 3 computers and buying 3 copies of Office 2013 or paying $50 per year indefinitely would both cost a lot more in the long run. That said, is Office 2010 worth the upgrade over Office 2007? Or should I just stick with Office 2007 until support ends in 2017 and then think about what to do?

 

What is your usage level? Do you make money using Office? Is there a feature lacking that would be worth the money? Only you can tell if 2010 is worth it...

 

This, 2010 is pretty much a refinement of 2007. Some more advanced options are a bit more straightforward in 2010, but aside from a few minor tweaks, all that matters is both in 2007 and 2010. I'd look for a detailed list of the changes made and then decide based on what you use Office for. I made the switch, but that is because I had the student discount for Office 2010 Pro which was ~100$ for two licenses. I find 2010 is a nice improvement, but I wouldn't mind using 2007 either. Now, business model aside, Excel 2013 has some very nice improvements in managing data for graphs and charts that save me quite a bit of time when it comes to editing the way data series are displayed, enough for me to seriously consider making the switch from 2010 to 2013 once it's released.

 

In my opinion, the feature set and interface are largely the same. The layout in 2010 has some slight improvements as far as ease of use/navigation goes, but it's pretty inconspicuous on the whole.

Here's a more in-depth look: What's the difference between Office 2007 and Office 2010?

 

I would say if it doesn't cost to much to upgrade to Office 2010 I say go for it. It does updated some features and improve the interface especially with Windows7 if you have Windows7 I would say get Office 2010 if the price is reasonable but still I would advice to still get it. I have Office 2010 and the jump from Office XP to 2007 was a drastic change and learning curve but once I got the hang of using it going back to XP was not something I would try again. But the upgrade also improves on security and updates for Office as well and that would be one big factor to upgrade to Office 2010. I use many Word and Excel mostly as I do alot of family financials which I use Excel alot on and Word for Letters and Business correspondents. So even if you don't use all the features of Office 2010 having their when you need them will benefit you in the long run and I also use Outlook as well for my local ISP emails of which it is very handy for. So in the end I would say get Office 2010 and you will gain more in benefits then you would otherwise have.

 

Mainly, it's just a cosmetic difference between 2007 and 2010 (I get both free from the university). There might be some subtle differences in macros and other advanced features, but I don't use the more advanced features in Word or Excel beyond stuff like =SUM(a1:a10) and the like. Personally, I like the 2010 layout better than the 2007 layout, though that's just subjective. The link provided by Prostar Computer above offers what looks like a fairly detailed list of differences; I'm just a "casual" Office user, so I don't know anything about that.

 

Same here but so much computing nowdays are done on Windows and Office it's better to have a up to date Office so you can better work with it if the need comes. I was using 2010 before my work place starting migrating to Office 2010 they had Office 2007 and I been using 2010 since it came out at home so that gave me a heads up to what changes were coming.

 

I'm pretty much vested in Microsoft now (Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate, WP7, Xbox, Visual Studio Professional 2012, bit of Server 2008 R2 and 2012 when they finish downloading), and its nice to stay up to date, but I could live with Office 2003 if I wanted to (used it for about 8 years). Actually, with what I do with it, I could work just fine with OpenOffice (which is what I did for a year or two as an experiment). Only reason I updated to 2010 (and got VSP2012, 2008R2, and 2012) was because it was free for me as a student. Gotta love having Microsoft trying to get young people hooked on their product, right? . Not ranting or anything, just stating the purpose of Dreamspark and similar ideas.

 

If you have an email address from a university, there was a Microsoft website that was selling it for $10. I can't vouch for it myself since I already have 2010 so I didn't buy it, but it looks legit.
Microsoft Home Use Program - Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. The software suite includes Word, Excel PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access and more!

 

WHOIS lookup seems legit... created in 2008 by Microsoft themselves, it seems.

microsofthup.com WHOIS domain registration information from Network Solutions

 

It's legit; not everyone (and all universities) qualify, however.

 

I think that each university has to work out their own deal with Microsoft. For example, my university has free copies of 2007 Professional(?) and 2010 Professional Plus, and $20 + tax for either 7 Pro or 7 Ultimate; in contrast, my friends at S. Carolina get absolutely nothing discounted (as I'm told).

 

Yep, I think so. I get Windows 7 or 8 Pro for free from UCLA Engineering, but Office is sold at full price.

 

The deals can even be different depending your faculty to make things even more of a mess.

 

A lot of retailers sell the University edition as well, which I don't think is subject to the same confusion. You may not get to pick and choose your edition/features, but at least University is a step up from Home and Student; just no Outlook.

I believe you only need to supply student credentials, and University edition is around $100 (a lot of places have it for $100 even).

 

Too bad MS went with the university edition, before it was what they called Academic Professional Plus which was actually the full Office Pro suite, just cheaper and yeah it included outlook, still better than home and student for sure.

 

I guess they figured students didn't need the luxury of an IMAP and POP3 capable email client.

 

Well they probably knew that already from which packages of prior office users bought and made it accordingly but also money played probably a important part. It's like you want more candy features you will have to pay for it. That just so M$ if you want more fun then you will have to pay for it. But I doubt most student are concern with POP3 or IMAP - Word, Excel, Access, Publisher are used more for their projects and that would be more beneficial to them first though. I used used Office from 95, 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 and now 2010 - so I had alot of usage to know enough bad and good points about the Office suites to know a full package Office Suite Plus is worth the money even if it does cost a arm and leg. It's one of the better software second to Windows of which the world uses and works with.

 

Eh, I mostly use Word and Excel for my schoolwork, and used PowerPoint for the first time in years a couple of weeks ago. Never even touched anything else in Office. Don't even remember what Publisher does exactly...

 

Pretty much the same for me, except that powerpoint gets a lot of use now and when I was an undergrad. One large project per semester and on average 2-3 presentations on said project. I also used visio when in a pinch to get flow charts done.

 

One major shortcoming of Office 2007, is that certain features do not work properly under x64. For instance, OneNote uses a special document import "Printer" driver that allows you to print documents into your notebook. It's not compatible with 64-bit Windows, and apparently never will be (so much for Microsoft product support).

There is a hack-around that uses conversion through the XPS format, but the end result in OneNote is essentially a flat graphic of each imported page, with text and other metadata lost. Not a big deal if all you want is to file away a few pages here and there, but if you are using OneNote as a full-blown notebook system (as it is intended to function), it is a critical shortcoming.

For instance, I have a bunch of class Powerpoint presentations imported, on which I type comments. However, the text of the imported PPTs themselves is no longer searchable, only my hand-typed personal notes.