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The 10 Biggest Office 2010 Annoyances

Author: Debra Littlejohn Shinder at Tech Republic

In some ways, it might seem that I’m the wrong person to write this article. I’ve been working with Office 2010 every day since the early betas, and I like it a lot. In fact, way back before it was available to the public, I wrote about 10 cool features to look forward to in Office 2010. But every software package has its annoying aspects, and Office 2010 is no exception. Although many of the changes make it easier to perform common tasks, there are times when you just shake your head and wonder, “Why did they do that?” In this piece, I’ll look at the dark side of Office 2010 and those little things that annoy me (and other Office users).

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: There are too many editions (but not enough choices)

It’s good to have choices, but when it comes to software, many users wish vendors would subscribe to the KISS (”keep it simple, sweetheart”) philosophy. One of the biggest complaints about Windows Vista and then Windows 7 was the number of editions you have to choose from. Office has developed the same problem: How do you figure out which edition has what you need? You can have Home and Student edition (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote), Office Home and Business (which adds Outlook), Office Professional (which adds Access and Publisher), or Office Professional Plus (which adds SharePoint Workspace and InfoPath and is available only through volume licensing).

On the other hand, some might say there aren’t enough choices (or the choices aren’t configured correctly). What if you want Word, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook but don’t need PowerPoint? What if you want Publisher but have no need for Access or Excel? What if you want SharePoint Workspace but your company isn’t big enough for volume licensing? Sure, you could buy the individual applications, but that ends up costing more. How about a “cafeteria plan,” where you pay X dollars for X number of applications and you get to pick the applications? Just an idea.

When it comes to putting together a suite of software programs, you can please some of the people some of the time — and the rest of the people are likely to be annoyed.

2: The cost is steep, with no upgrade price

At $499 for the full boxed edition of Office Professional, the software is considered to be just too expensive by many users — especially when Open Office, which has some of the same functionality, is available free. But it’s not just that the prices are high — it’s that they’re confusing, too. For instance, the Professional Academic edition has the same programs as the regular Pro edition but costs $400 less. Teaching might not pay so well, but sometimes it carries nice perks.

For any particular package, you have the options of full price (boxed retail, which allows you to install Office on two computers) and the “key card” price, which is the cost for a single-license card with a key that lets you unlock the software that’s preloaded on machines by the OEMs. What you don’t have is an “upgrade” (discounted) price for those who already have a previous version of Office installed. And that has many users very annoyed.

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