Campus Technology Services

Getting Started with Microsoft Office 2010 (PC)

Users upgrading from Office 2003 (PC) will need to become familiar with a significant change in the graphical user interface. Beginning with Office 2007, the suite no longer utilizes a menu system. Rather, it uses a tab and icon-based system called "The Ribbon." See the Resources section below to become familiar with the new user interface.

Users upgrading from Office 2007 (PC) will need to become familiar with a small change in the Ribbon. The Office button that had the Print, Save As, New, etc. commands is no longer there. The commands have been moved to a File tab called "Backstage" view.

New Features
The following features are new in 2010 since the 2007 release and are available across the three main applications - Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Protected Mode allows you to read documents downloaded from the Internet and other unsafe locations while protecting your machine from any potential malware the document may contain.
• Backstage View (the "File" tab) for document management such as creating new files, saving, and printing.
• Built-in printing options (number of copies, orientation, single or double-sided printing, etc.) and a live print preview that updates as printing options are changed.
• Live preview of pasting, formatting and style changes before they are applied.
• Capturing of screenshots to be used in documents.

• Word: a new Navigation pane for finding where you are in large documents, restructuring documents and searching for text and enhanced photo editing options. Learn more...
• Excel: Sparklines for visually summarizing trends and patterns into a cell, conditional formatting with data bars and icon sets for analyzing and highlighting data in cells, and a slicers feature for filtering data in a PivotTable. Learn more...
• PowerPoint: Independently manage multiple presentations, organize slides into sections, built-in video playback and editing, and conversion of a presentation into video. Learn more...

Resources
To learn more about Office 2010, check out these resources:

• View on-demand Office 2010 tutorials covering the Interface, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint available on the SUNY Oswego on iTunes U site.  Note this will launch the iTunes application on your machine.
• Access online Office 2010 courses on the Skillport e-learning site. Use these instructions for accessing specific "What's new.." courses for users upgrading from 2003 and separate "What's new.." courses for those upgrading from 2007.
• Microsoft's "Getting Started with Office 2010" site for learning about changes and new features in each individual product.
• Microsoft's "Learn about the Microsoft Office Ribbon" for becoming familiar with the Ribbon.
• Microsoft's interactive guide for finding where menu commands in 2003 are now located in 2010 (requires Silverlight plugin).