This is a comprehensive guide to buying, preparing, installing and configuring Office 2010.

We’ll help you properly prepare for installing Office 2010 the best way and for the least cost.

After all it's probably the most used piece of software on your computer, aside from Windows itself - so it's worth getting right.

We'll give you information that Microsoft doesn't provide 'up front' so that you can make a properly informed installation and configuration

Office 2010: the real startup guide applies to all versions of Office 2010 including

• Home and Student edition
• Home and Business edition
• Professional edition
• Standard edition
• Professional Plus edition.

We also explain the difference between all those different names <g>

Buying

There are many ways to buying the same Microsoft Office software. Prices vary a lot and it’s easy to pay too much for Office 2010. We have many tips for cheaper options to buy Office 2010. You can obey that old saying:

“ Never pay retail ”

We also have detailed advice on the computer hardware that’s best to run Office 2010, far more information than Microsoft’s brief and understated system requirements

Special advice and tips for netbook users.

How to try out Office 2010 without uninstalling your current version of Office

Office 2010 Starter has a unique and useful ‘To Go’ option that’s worth checking out. We look at the Starter edition and the ‘To Go’ option.

Install

Microsoft likes to push the line that installing their software is simple and easy. For the most part it is easy, but there are things that you should do to make your computing is more stable and efficient starting

64-bit Office 2010 is new and has special considerations, which we look at in detail.

Netbooks and some laptops don’t have a DVD drive – we show how you can install Microsoft Office from a DVD disk without an optical drive on the computer .

Microsoft’s Product Activation helps them prevent software piracy and usually works fine for customers. We show you how to avoid activation problems and plead your case to Microsoft.

Configure

What Microsoft wants isn’t necessarily what you need. Microsoft chooses the original settings based on what they think people want and, occasionally, some marketing agenda. This book suggests easy changes to make.

The ribbon interface has a lot more going on than most people realize. We go into the ribbon in detail, the features and shortcuts. Then see how it can be easily changed in Office 2010.

The Quick Access Toolbar can also be loaded up with your most commonly used commands – we have step-by-step instructions .

Outlook 2010 now has the ribbon interface plus a lot of features on the screen. We go through the panes and options on the Outlook screen so you can decide what you need and what to remove.

Using Office 2010

We look in-depth at some of the new and changed Office 2010 features including the new ‘Backstage’.

Image Editing gets a big boost in Office 2010. Image correction, Artistic effects, new cropping features and a nifty Background Removal Tool all let you maike quick changes inside a document or presentation instead of needing another program. We look at all these options in detail with plenty of full color examples.

There are many new Text Effects and access to new OpenType options for a more professionally typeset document.

Outlook’s People Pane is a new venture into social networking, however it has uses even if you don’t link to Facebook etc.

Excel Sparklines and Slicers plus updates to Solver and Conditional Formatting.

OneNote 2010 is worth checking out, especially since it now has heading styles, better lists, linked notes and a docking option. Best of all, you can put your notes online and access them from any browser.