For all of you Microsoft software users and technologist out there, this weekend spent time playing with Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, and Microsoft Office SharePoint 2010.
Now if you think change is bad, or do not like change then you will not be happy with these new product lines when they release. Once again the GUI / Graphical User Interface has changed! It is no longer your GrandMa’s Office suite, nor GrandPa’s SharePoint!
For Microsoft Office 2010 the Ribbon is back and cleaned up, first thing that you will notice is that the Office Button is gone, I liked that button but I guess it confused so many they had to get rid of it and call File…back from the Old Office 2003 and older office applications. The File tab is located to the left of the Home tab, so if you got used to the Home tab being the first tab on the left well not any more! Outlook is now Ribbonized too and if you thought Outlook was rough getting around in it’s menus, they have changed them up for 2010. Once you see where they are all at, it does seem a little easier but WOW! I had to get used to the default Outlook view also your email is grouped by Date and Conversation which if you are not used to seeing that way can be a little confusing still getting used to that view.
For those that use SharePoint Designer, SharePoint Designer 2010 will be the new version and boy has that changed too! Ribbon is in SharePoint Designer, I did not play to much with Designer 2010 other than to open it and see what it looked like, will have to use it later.
The biggest change that I did notice was the look and feel of SharePoint 2010…WoW! Site Collection admin for sites is totally different and well as just that way that information is presented to the user. I will be playing more with SharePoint 2010, this weekend I just went through the installation process which is not to much different than SharePoint 2007. You still install the bits, then run SharePoint Configuration Wizard to connect and create the initial database in SQL. Once created you will be brought into the Central Administration Site to make additional configurations.
Well just wanted to let everyone know that Change is on the way, and some of you will be looking forward to the 2010 applications, but I am sure that most will have negative things to say as always!