Office 2010 Hits RC Stage, But You Can't Have It

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Microsoft's productivity suite hits Release Candidate, but it's a private party.

Microsoft Office 2010 this week hit the Release Candidate milestone, signaling that the product is nearly ready for prime time.

Interestingly, unlike the public beta release (which was downloaded over 2 million times), this release candidate is not available for just anyone's consumption.

"Microsoft made a release candidate available to members in the technology adoption program (TAP)," a Microsoft representative told Cnet. "This is one of Microsoft's planned milestones in the engineering process; however (we) do not have plans to make this new code set available broadly."

Microsoft said that it benefited greatly from the wide-range of public testing it had for Windows 7 through its multiple beta and release candidate phases, so it's a little strange that the company isn't adopting the same strategy for its premier productivity suite.

Microsoft Office 2010 is slated for release in June.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
36 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Tomtompiper
    What can it do that 2007 couldn't or 2003 or XP or 2000 or 97? I think this is a case of milking customers dry.
    Reply
  • itadakimasu
    I didn't use 2007 very much...

    I've been using 2010 since they released the beta. There are some good features I like, for example... If I have a spreadsheet open and I'm searching, it lets you click in the spreadsheet while keeping the find box on top. In 2000-2003, you have to first close the find box, then open it back up if you still need it, which is a pain.

    Alot of stuff is re-arranged and in some cases hard to find. I Had to revert to my old access because I couldn't find the "export" feature!
    Reply
  • botabota
    same function... just change the user interface to confuse us all...
    "OMG check it out I can still do Copy and Paste.. the button just moved slightly to the left... damn that took me like 5 minutes to figure it out"
    ... still ctrl+c is still the same and havent change for decades
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    OpenOffice.org RC downloadables are available as soon as they are ready.

    More info on TAP at Microsoft Connect.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    There are little thing in Office 2010 like the "Text Effects" that are not there in 2007. For any one not using these, there is no point to upgrade. But having used Office 2010 Beta for the past few months I find my self using these text effects,etc on school projects,etc. Before this, I was using Photoshop,Paint.NET,etc to do even basic text effects and it's saved me quite a lot of time now.
    Reply
  • The Greater Good
    tomtompiperWhat can it do that 2007 couldn't or 2003 or XP or 2000 or 97? I think this is a case of milking customers dry.
    Going from Office 2000 to 2007 was a very nice change; lots of improvements, love the ribbon and looks more visually appealing. Just like going from XP to Windows 7; I didn't see a need to go to Vista when XP was working fine for me and I knew that another version was right around the corner.

    I'm not planning on going to Office 2010, maybe the next version if it brings as much change as the jump from 2000 to 2007. I think most people stick with what-ever licence they have. Why pay money when you have something that works for you? Assuming no incompatibles with a new OS, of course.

    Oh, and... no one is forcing you to go out and buy a new product. If you don't want it... don't buy it. It's that easy.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    For what I'm talking about: http://winspark.net/2009/05/17/cool-text-effect-function-in-word-2010/
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    jhansonxiOpenOffice.org RC downloadables are available as soon as they are ready.More info on TAP at Microsoft Connect.Yup. OpenOffice is good for people doing just basic typing imo. I use it.
    Reply
  • tamick88
    They probably dont want people to see how little office 2010 has changed from 2007 lol
    Reply
  • zorky9
    It probably isn't just interface. There could be a ton of changes under the hood to warrant it a version title instead of just a patch. Maybe it'll be optimized to take full advantage of hexa/octacores to be released this year.
    Reply