Microsoft
Office Home & Business 2010 is exactly what most people need in a basic
software suite - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (plus OneNote), with a
number of nice improvements over 2007: the ribbon bar is included in Outlook
now (which can thread conversations across folders now); they replaced the big
round button with a File tab, image editing is much improved (not Photoshop,
but WAY better than before) and PowerPoint transitions are much easier to
control now as well. Not huge stuff, perhaps, but overall worth the extra money
compared to the 2007 version, I think.
Something
to consider is that with the Office 2010 series, Microsoft no longer offers an
upgrade path. That's right: if you are thinking about buying a particular
combination now and then upgrading it later, you won't be able to do that.
You'll be faced with buying the missing product(s) separately or buying the
entire suite. Microsoft has abandoned their previous policy of enabling you to
upgrade, in favor of simpler pricing where you just have to buy everything at
list price. I found this out myself the hard way after buying Home and Student,
and then deciding to upgrade it to Home and Office: no deal.
So,
if you think you might ever need Access or Publisher, strongly consider the
Professional version instead of this one, to get those products now--unless
you're certain that you'll be happy buying them as individual products later
(or perhaps even just buying Professional outright later, and essentially
sacrificing your investment in Home and Business).
Another
consideration about this version versus Home and Student is that this one is
licensed for commercial use in a money-making business (which includes
not-for-profits in Microsoft's licensing view, incidentally), while Home and
Student is NOT (and clearly reminds you on the title bar of every program!) So
even if you don't need Outlook, this is the version you need if this is for
anything involving a for-profit business (even if run OUT of your home!)
Overall,
this is certainly Microsoft's best yet, and you'll find yourself becoming
productive with it in a hurry--especially if you're coming from version 2007
(Version 2003 users will take longer, but it's worth it, promise!)
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| Microsoft Office Home & Business 2010 |
