Office 2010 Beta almost now available

Its a multiple activations key ... no idea what it means though...

 

Mmmmmm, Outlook 2010. I like!!!

 

so far, no beta wanted to activate.. dunno

 

Mine worked Didn't get the window to input my activation code immediately... I think it was still reorganizing itself...

 

they never ASKED to be activated was what i wanted to write.

 

Ah, OK.
Mine did immediately.

 

I like office 2010 beta more than office 2007.

 

Man, mine is still downloading. I really want to try it out. I was planning on getting 2007, but maybe I will be glad I held out for 2010. I like to get the newest version and that way I can keep it for a long time.

I still don't know about keys though. I would like to use the beta on my desktop and laptop. Is that allowed? I got one key from MS for the one I am downloading right now. Not sure if I can use that same key for another instance?

 

Register with another email just to get another key if you are really that worried?

 

I think if you have a multiple activations key you can easily instal it on two computers - but I may be wrong.

The second e-mail address as mentioned by coldmack is another alternative.

 

they are keys for stuff that is for free => why should they care?!

other than that, yes, i've used it to activate now more than once, and else just go to that registration page more than once and you get several keys.

and then, you could just register 11 times, to see if the 11th is the same as the 1st. why? because it was like that for the win7 beta, too.

 

Thanks for the ideas guys, I will try it out. In any event I was able to download it and install it on my desktop for now. I really like it. I like it better than 2007. I have been using 2007 for about 4 months and it is ok, but 2010 seems much better. I can't get over how ridiculously fast 2010 starts up; lightening quick. And mind you I am using the 32 bit version on a 4.5 year old desktop. I can't imagine how fast it will be on my laptop. Another thing I like is the colors they used. Everything seems very clear and with good contrast. In 2007 the color is this bluish ting and I find it difficult to see and read.

It looks like I can use the beta for a year but my question is will the files I create with it be unusable after the beta locks up? Any such stuff to worry about?

 

you could change the colour of 2007 (i had it black.. gorgeous design). but yeah, the new one has a great style by default.

no the files should be ordinary docx and such files and just work.

 

The only problems I had on the technical preview were the excel integration into Word and the renaming of functions in Excel graphics. They should be fixed now (well I hope)

 

Yepp

I think I used Black for a while - but preferred silver - its worked better with the rest of the programme and the black while nice was sometimes too dark.

I suppose its taste...

 

it sure is. but on the new one, silver is best. the other look quickly ugly placed in because they had to, somehow..

and i would rename silver to WHITE

 

White? Is your screen dsplaying the right colour Dave? It isn't white - light grey yes.
But try to find people who would chose light grey over silver...ehm...

 

2 sided printing does not work correctly! At least with my printer....

 

.doc or .docx? I noticed an incompatebility with formulas and printig... creatinga pdf works though...
And I think its the old formula editor in .doc files that does't print correctly.

Find out how you can tell Microsoft

 

it is a docx doc.

 

OK... should normally work.

I suppose a solution if you have to print is save as pdf and then print via adobe reader...

Tell Microsoft about ti

 

I wanted to report back. I installed Office 2010 on both my laptop and desktop and it is working great using the same key. My desktop is XP so I just went in and added the key per the given instructions to activate it. My laptop is Vista and I added the key the same way to activate it but then another step was required where a wizard window came up that asked me to activate click here...

 

I'm liking the new Outlook!

Now if they only redo the silly folder list.

 

microsoft has only two reasons that people have to activate:

a) testing that activation works (yeah it worked on all their other systems, still, testing never hurts)

b) counting the amount of beta users.

it's free. so you can use it as often as you want

 

Wich one uses less resources? I have old xp machine with low RAM. I use primarily outlook.

 

Which one of what? Are you talking about 2007 vs 2010?

 

2007 uses less resources.

 

Really? So far I am finding that 2010 is using less resources for me.

 

Not this canard again....unused resources are wasted resources. If Outlook is using 32,000kb and you have 2,097,152kb does it matter? If you are using 5 percent of your CPU's attention and 95 percent are free, who cares?

If a program is properly written, returns memory when it is done with it, this obsession with "system resources" is simply a wasted discussion.

Which of course means someone is going to spend the next four pages of this post arguing with me.....sigh

 

WRONG! Just kidding. You have a valid point, but perhaps they are asking because their machine only has a small amount of available resources. But you are right, if you have a newer computer... who cares if it uses more resources? You have plenty to spare.

 

Well, CPU load I would care - because CPU load = less battery life - with extreme battery saving as on the SZ it does matter.

But RAM uses the same amout of electricity no matter how much is used.

 

Yes, of course.

Thanks for info.

Well, like I said I have an old machine.

At least someone read my post fully.

 

I don't know about how much resources each is taking, I never checked. I just use a program and if it feels fast to me(i.e. reacts to my commands quickly, opens and closes quickly etc) then I am happy with it in terms of performance. So for looking at it in that regard 2010 feels much more responsive and "fast: compared to 2007 for me.

 

same here. If I'm using office 2010, I would probably not be using other ram intensive program, so it's fine if office 2010 takes more ram than office 2007.

 

Office 2010 technical preview booted a bit slower than 2007 on my laptop. The 2010 beta on my laptop is kind of slow to boot because I, by mistake, I installed the home & student edition, which is semi-web based. I have the pro plus on my desktop and it's instant boot. My desktop has a way stronger cpu/hdd than my laptop though.

 

you and not caring about ram usage? now that's my joke of the day you really made my day now

 

Dave, when I care abut RAM usage then I oly care about idle RAM usage.
i.e. what is used when I start my OS an do nothing.
Not how much a programme I opened uses.

 

Have they removed the 64bits download link? Or is only professional plus available in 64bits? Downloading normal pro at school right now. I have found back one of my technical preview key.

PS: Technical preview keys work for Pro beta.

 

I got my pro plus in X32 version.

 

Sorry I messed up my sentence. I meant, is pro plus the one available in 64bits?

 

Ram usage, Cpu usage, old machine, new machine---irrelevant. No office productivity program pushes into the realm of affecting your computer's performance or battery life with the exception of you having so little ram that you are swapping pages of memory to the harddrive resulting in increased pagefile (hence harddrive) use.

And if you are in that category, it is inconceivable you are using Office 2007 or 2010. You should be back running office 97 on Windows ME.

 

It is the only one I have seen

 

Oh great, Yet Another reason for me to postpone a personal technet plus renewal.......

 

The 64bits on my desktop runs way faster than my the 32bits on my laptop but this may just be because of the HDD & CPU. My laptop is using the tech preview key I had, fingers crossed that it will continue to work on the final version (it IS labeled as a retail key valid for all builds

 

Really doubt that.

 

I just checked, the Preview key is labelled at retail - but its also associated with a build number I think.

 

Final version available June 2010

 

Wow, that is later than I expected. I thought I read 1st quarter of 2010. And it is interesting that they condensed all the various versions of office into only 3.

 

Tiger Direct is selling a 3-pack of licenses for 2007 Home/Student for $60- this weekend. Fire Sale anyone?

I'm betting that Office 2010 will be GA before the current 06/2010 release date.

 

You checked? Where? I thought they had deleted the entire section, I wasn't able to find it anymore. They keys I got were labeled for all builds.
And it's not uncommon for Microsoft to give software to people participating in private betas.