Monday 11th May 2009 saw the birth of the Microsoft Office 2010 Blog.It’s being maintained by the Office team to help the general public get a better idea of what’s going into Office 2010 (formerly Office 14) and to discuss key issues. On the blog, and also at their annual TechEd event held in the US, Microsoft revealed  that attendees will make up the first segment of their limited Technical Preview program. Technical Previews are going to be released in July.

The blog cites the following as system requirements for running Office 2010:

1. Office 2010 will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

2. Office 2010 will run on Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

3. You don’t need to replace hardware that is capable of running 2007, it will support Office 2010. Like Windows 7 has demonstrated, we realize that taking advantage of the hardware you already own is just as important as supporting all the new technology coming out.

I also checked out the Office 2010 Movie site and found that it was yet one more insidious attempt to get me to install Microsoft Silverlight. I finally caved in and installed it. The movie is nothing spectacular, and Silverlight itself didn’t offer anything that Flash could have offered for the same movie. One thing I found entertaining was the fact that the movie advertises “No Ctrl. Alt. Delete” as if it’s a feature and not something we should expect from software we are paying hard earned cash for. It’s supposed to work properly, this isn’t a lucky bonus!

In case you hadn’t got your name down, there is a registration page to indicate your desire to be put on the waiting list for the Office 2010 Technical Preview.

Get this – there’s also a Microsoft Office 2010 Forum now. From looking at the threads there it looks like this forum was born this week. At the time of writing, the most active thread is discussing the facility to turn off the ribbon and return to 2003 style menus!

Tags | office 2010 blog, office 2010 forum