Microsoft Office is considered essential student software but Prior to the release of Microsoft Office 2010 there was concern as to whether it would be worth the money to upgrade from Office 2007.  By theJune 2010 release date plenty of people with opinions had tested the beta version and many seemed to highlight the following 3 differences as being the most significant and useful:

The ribbon interface (the menu bar at the top section of the screen) was actually introduced into the 2007 version of this product and some people didn’t like it at all.  In the 2010 version, however, where it had been added to all the Office programs (including Outlook and OneNote), the ribbon implementation was much improved with more control of what items appeared on its tabs along with the ability to add your own tabs and put in favourite commands.

Many of those who have chosen to upgrade to the 2010 version of this product have appreciated the improvements made to Outlook – a program which offers premium business and personal e-mail management as well as the ability to create calendar appointments, schedule meetings with other people, set yourself reminders, create contacts, tasks and notes.

Outlook fans hoped for improvements that didn’t involve having to relearn everything or lose functionality.  Thankfully this was not the case and, with the introduction of the ‘ignore’ button you  can now get rid of conversation threads by not only deleting all messages from your inbox that are linked to that thread, but  automatically deleting any messages that come in later.

Another feature from Office 2007 which has been improved is the Office button.  The big round button in the top left hand corner now has a new look and has also been added to Outlook and OneNote.

Hailed as a great improvement on the 2007 version, pupils, students and teachers alike should be aware that there are genuine online offers on software for pupils to purchase at highly discounted prices - for example, Microsoft Office2010 Professional Plus can be found at just £37.89 inc VAT – a 90% reduction on RRP. 

Pupils and students who might think it cheaper to buy the Office 2010 Home and Student version would be surprised to learn that the Professional Plus edition is available at such a competitive price – especially bearing in mind that the Professional Plus edition comes with Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, Lync 2010, Infopath 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010 over and above the Home and Student edition.