Well I’ve quickly tried out Microsoft Office 2010 beta and i found it a massive improvement over previous versions but as with all Microsoft programs there were pro’s and con’s. I really liked how the office programs was installed via the net and only really installed the components that you needed at the time – once installed it was on the system and ready to use. I really like the new interface, its really easy to use and fully functional. They are still using the ribbon style layout like Office 2003 i believe but its been set up a lot better and there are more options for customisation.

The cons though i think are hardly any support for there own mail system within outlook – i use Windows Live Hotmail and you still have to install the Outlook Hotmail connector to use hotmail within outlook and this i feel is a silly mistake. There is actually better connectivity between Windows Live Mail over that of Outlook and its support for Security Certificates for hotmail is literally non-existent whereas WLM does have that support. I like the calendar layout and in the past have only ever really been interested in there outlook program. I was interested in buying this new version if it lived up to expectation but alas i have found it pretty disappointing. The interface although very nice is very slow. I found that synchronising mail with hotmail was very slow and on most occasions never actually picked up any mail and yet mail was in the folders. I would think that there would be better support for offline folders for and storage within the outlook PST file but that also seems to be lacking within this version. I think they went in the right direction with there home user software of Windows Live Mail that does pretty much everything i need and would expect of a mail program, but that also has its drawbacks such as lack for PST support. I think if Outlook was designed with better connectivity to the major mail providers such as there own hotmail, the system would be virtually perfect in design. But it does need to overcome some of the speed flaws and connectivity problems first.