Office 2016 Preview - so what's new ?
MS on May 4 released a public preview of Office 2016. Versus some of the previous releases this seem pretty complete.
I installed the 32 bit version on my Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet running Windows 10 Tech Preview 10074. I will install it on my desktop once I return from a business trip. This is for PCs only - MS had mentioned a few weeks back a version for Windows 10 for Phones coming by the end of April - but nothing yet....
So first off - again installation problems. Much like the IT Developer/Pro release back in March - MS does not provide a full ISO version of Office. Instead you get a 20Mb or so executable that "streams" Office down to your machine.
The problem is that it's just not very clear about what it's doing. First you get a background notice that shows a level of progress that seems to stall around 65%. Then a pop-up that says Office "streaming" - but the progress bar never moved.... It took two attempts to finally get it to install...
You do have to enter a Key and Activate Office. Why MS...? Embed the damn thing and quit being so paranoid...
So Skype for Business is now a part of Office replacing Lync and believe it or not MS Access is still included.. I haven't coded in Access is nearly 12 years, and I can't believe folks still use it... Publisher is also included... here is my question MS - why not include Publisher capabilities in Word and save a huge piece of coding maintenance.
For the most part Office 2016 looks and feels much like Office 2013. The only real change is that for "touch" support, MS has removed the ribbon and provided more space for you to touch the action items like Home, Insert, Design, etc that will then pop-down the ribbon... BFD...
The reality folks is that Office was never oriented towards touch. I even tried changing to tablet mode to see if it initiated any other changes - but not really.
There is only 1 MS Office app that ever was designed for touch/pen and that's OneNote. Word, Excel and even PowerPoint are not. MS did not provide versions of Visio or Project - so I can't comment there.
And MS didn't really change the game. What can't I drag a shape onto the slide ? No I select shapes for example - get the pop-up - select it with my finger then select ok to insert. There is also nothing much new about outlook. Same look and feel and in fact it's harder to use.. Because simple things like adjusting the pane sizes is almost impossible on a tablet.
Bottom line - kind of underwhelmed with Office 2016. MS says they are going to add some of their new Office apps like Sway - but to get to the core of the matter. If you're running Windows 8 or 8.1 and Office 2013, there is absolutely nothing compelling about Windows 10 / Office 2016 that would say oh I have to upgrade. If your a Windows 7 / Office 2010 user - I think the answer is the same, you're not getting that much...
Just as it appears as though MS is going to provide Windows 10 as a free upgrade to anyone running Windows 8 or 8.1, it should do the same for Office. While MS Office is the defacto standard for business productivity apps, it has gotten old, bloated and hasn't really changed that much now in almost 6 years. Maybe they'll get template based formatting correct finally...
I installed the 32 bit version on my Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet running Windows 10 Tech Preview 10074. I will install it on my desktop once I return from a business trip. This is for PCs only - MS had mentioned a few weeks back a version for Windows 10 for Phones coming by the end of April - but nothing yet....
So first off - again installation problems. Much like the IT Developer/Pro release back in March - MS does not provide a full ISO version of Office. Instead you get a 20Mb or so executable that "streams" Office down to your machine.
The problem is that it's just not very clear about what it's doing. First you get a background notice that shows a level of progress that seems to stall around 65%. Then a pop-up that says Office "streaming" - but the progress bar never moved.... It took two attempts to finally get it to install...
You do have to enter a Key and Activate Office. Why MS...? Embed the damn thing and quit being so paranoid...
So Skype for Business is now a part of Office replacing Lync and believe it or not MS Access is still included.. I haven't coded in Access is nearly 12 years, and I can't believe folks still use it... Publisher is also included... here is my question MS - why not include Publisher capabilities in Word and save a huge piece of coding maintenance.
For the most part Office 2016 looks and feels much like Office 2013. The only real change is that for "touch" support, MS has removed the ribbon and provided more space for you to touch the action items like Home, Insert, Design, etc that will then pop-down the ribbon... BFD...
The reality folks is that Office was never oriented towards touch. I even tried changing to tablet mode to see if it initiated any other changes - but not really.
There is only 1 MS Office app that ever was designed for touch/pen and that's OneNote. Word, Excel and even PowerPoint are not. MS did not provide versions of Visio or Project - so I can't comment there.
And MS didn't really change the game. What can't I drag a shape onto the slide ? No I select shapes for example - get the pop-up - select it with my finger then select ok to insert. There is also nothing much new about outlook. Same look and feel and in fact it's harder to use.. Because simple things like adjusting the pane sizes is almost impossible on a tablet.
Bottom line - kind of underwhelmed with Office 2016. MS says they are going to add some of their new Office apps like Sway - but to get to the core of the matter. If you're running Windows 8 or 8.1 and Office 2013, there is absolutely nothing compelling about Windows 10 / Office 2016 that would say oh I have to upgrade. If your a Windows 7 / Office 2010 user - I think the answer is the same, you're not getting that much...
Just as it appears as though MS is going to provide Windows 10 as a free upgrade to anyone running Windows 8 or 8.1, it should do the same for Office. While MS Office is the defacto standard for business productivity apps, it has gotten old, bloated and hasn't really changed that much now in almost 6 years. Maybe they'll get template based formatting correct finally...
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