Business & Finance Club Magazine - Stations - Dubai: Facing a challenge from Google's browser-based applications and its new Chrome operating system, Microsoft, in retaliation has officially launched a new suite to seamlessly work across the PC, phone and browser virtually anywhere, any time.

With the release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Visio 2010, some journalists in the UAE had the opportunity to have in-depth demo of the new suite from Microsoft Gulf's solution marketing manager Tarek Mandou.

Microsoft Office 2010 — code named Office 14 — the successor to Office 2007, has a ribbon user interface similar to Office 2007 and includes a built-in screen capture tool, a background removal tool, a protected document mode, new SmartArt templates, author permissions and new animations in Powerpoint 2010.

It has 1,000 more features than Office 2007 and it is a bit faster.

An added new feature in Office 2010 is the Social Connector. This allows users to write emails while keeping track of their families, friends and colleagues by viewing status updates and past communication history with the individual.

Mandou said when users view their emails a name, picture, and title will be available for the person they are contacting. Upcoming appointments can also be viewed with this new feature and users can request friends.

Connectivity with services such as LinkedIn is integrated into Outlook but for most users the benefits will come from being easily share content like presentations using Windows Live.

The suite is available in 10 languages, including Arabic.

Pre-loaded suite

Microsoft expects that more than 100 million PCs will ship with Office 2010 pre-loaded within the next year. PC makers including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba will be among the main channels for Microsoft's distribution.

Excel spreadsheets can now run in the browser and, similar to PowerPoint, spreadsheets can be published to the browser via the desktop version. The browser version of Excel has limited features, but offers more in-depth functionality than Google Spreadsheets. Microsoft has added a particularly innovative feature called Sparklines, which gives a visual snapshot image of a data trend over time within a cell. You can also share Excel via the browser with other users and set special permissions on who can access the document.

"Microsoft's commitment to innovation has empowered people to be more productive and creative and has helped transform the way they work. As more and more people across the Gulf region embrace mobile applications and social networking tools, to share information and stay connected, Office 2010 offers them greater buying choice, making it easier than ever before to unlock the power of Office on new and existing PCs. Microsoft Office 2010's enhanced and easy-to-use tools give people rich and powerful capabilities to deliver their best work at work, home or school; on their computer, from a Windows Mobile-based Smartphone or via a Web browser," said Elias Tabet, Business and Marketing Director, Microsoft Gulf.

With Office 2010 and the office web applications the online companions to Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, people have the freedom to view, edit, and share Office 2010 documents with Windows Live SkyDrive. Office Mobile 2010 is available from Windows Phone Marketplace for all Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. People using Office Mobile 2010 can perform lightweight editing of Office documents and take notes on the go, or work on Office documents stored on their phone or attached to an email.

Office Home and Student 2010 sells for Dh549 as a boxed copy, Office Home and Business 2010 sells for Dh999 boxed and Office 2010 Professional costs Dh1,899.