Windows 7 and Office 2010

To experience the next level of computing, install Office 2010 on your Windows 7 computer.

The good news for Windows 7 users is that the latest edition of Microsoft’s productivity suite is compatible with their operating system. For starters, it would be convenient if they try beta version of Office 2010 on their Windows 7 computer as it will help them in learning more about the final version of office 2010, which is set to be released in the latter half of 2010.

With office 2010, Microsoft has tried to offer some exciting tools that are beneficial for home users as well as for the professionals. There are new features and improvements that will lure you to upgrade to this latest version of MS Office.

Here is a technical preview of MS Office 2010 for Windows 7 Users:

Updated Menu System
Office 2010 has an innovative Ribbon menu system and has a new home menu system. Now the entire window changes colors and provides save, open, close, preview, and other options whereas the previous version has an opening a dropdown process.

Further, the new menu system provides elementary information on the modifications, authors, file size, and permissions. There is also a new print and print preview menu which will help you in changing the layout.

Quick Access Tool Bar
There is Quick Access Toolbar in Word 2010 which is used for displaying all the commonly used options. This bar can be customized and is located on the top left side corner of the application window, near the office button.

There are three options, Save, Undo and Redo which are displayed by default on the three options.

Enhanced Security Settings
There is some iteration done in the security features of Office 2010. Refurbished author settings, restricted editing, and a “protected mode,” prevent you from accidentally editing a file that you have downloaded until you enable it.

Deeper Multimedia Editing
Now, with Office 2010, you can edit your image easily and there is also an in-video editing option within Microsoft PowerPoint. Screen captures and video cutting are now included. You can even remove backgrounds with the new Office.

New Artistic Additions
Users of Office 2010 on Windows 7 can apply a number of colorful artistic effects to the pictures. To add the artistic effects to your document, you have to navigate to the following option:
Insert > Illustrations > Picture.

Browse and select the picture you desire
Picture Tools contextual tab is displayed and you will be able to see the new Artistic Effects, once the picture is added to the document.

Windows Media Center

In the latest version, you can avail goodies like TV show images throughout the guide and Recorded TV; media center desktop gadget; trick play functions like fast forward, rewind, and skip; streamlined schedule of recordings; guide button in Window mode; use of movie library without any registry hack and support for more file types; and resumption of various video types except dvr-ms and wtv.

The new WMC enables you to combine tuners of different types to tackle recording conflicts automatically based on priority. It allows you to view a miniature version of a HD video playing backwards or forwards at the same speed.

A running movie or a video clip nicely dissolves into the background when you browse the channel guide or pull up a menu to add a new show or even shift to another area of the Windows 7 Media Center.
WMC also allows you to watch all the virtual channels, including programs like popular shows, TV series, music channels, movies, etc. Hovering the pointer over the start menu (Media Center logo) pops up a list of recently recorded shows along with other frequently used MC features.
While viewing a channel guide, you just need to hold the arrow button on the remote to skip days in a jiffy. It blurs the listings, with only the days of the week and the portion of the day appearing floating, enabling you to see when to stop.

The Windows 7 games, which are available in Extras Library, can be easily launched from inside the Media Center.

WMC includes a new slide show creator that enables you to make multiple slide shows for different occasions. You can also play music and insert pictures in the show from your library.
In a nutshell, new features make the latest version more responsive than the Vista Media Center. The third-party Extenders in the latest edition have become faster with Windows 7, especially the trick play functions – fast forward, rewind, and skip.

Get a smoother sharing of music, pictures and documents within your home network and Windows 7 PCs with HomeGroup.

Earlier, it was difficult to automatically start sharing your music, pictures, video, and document libraries with others in your home by connecting two or more PCs.

The tool enables the sharing of files and printers on a home network. It makes it easy to automatically start sharing your music, pictures, video, and document librarieswith others in your home by connecting two or more PCs running Windows 7, and HomeGroup. The new Share With Menu property of Windows 7, provides a speedy way to share individual files.

Keeping in view your security, the HomeGroup is password protected. It allows you to decide which file you want to share and which not.

You can also share your USB connected printers through Homegroup. By virtue of this feature if you have a printer in the living room that is shared by HomeGroup it will be automatically installed on to your other HomeGroup enabled PCs. Domain-joined computers can also be part of a HomeGroup.

This application was also available in the Windows Vista but it has been improved further in Windows 7 by adding certain features including security and privacy of data and content of one user against other.