So here is how it works:

Buy your copy of Office 2007 between 5^th March and 30^th September and activate the product and use it as normal. Then after Office 2010 is released go to www.office.com/techg  before 31^st October and verify your eligibility online. If you are eligible you will be able to download Office 2010 at no additional cost. Or if you would prefer a DVD of Office 2010 you can purchase one for a small fee. If you think this is for you, then click here to sign up for an email reminder when Office 2010 is available in your language.

To be eligible make sure you do the following:

• Purchase of Office 2007 or a new PC with Office 2007 between 5^th March 2010 and 30^th September 2010.
• Activate your Office 2007 software between 5^th March 2010 and 30^th September 2010.
• Keep your Product Key and Product ID in a safe place.
• Create a Windows Live ID, or use one you already have.
• Redeem your Tech Guarantee at www.office.com/techg  before 31st October 2010 and start using Office 2010.

For any more information about Tech Guarantee and to read the full terms and conditions please visit www.office.com/techg.

If you are keen to try out the latest version of Office but are still not quite sure what the Beta entails, I’ve outlined a few of the most common questions I’m asked below. For even more information, take a look at the Office 2010 Beta FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), which has a comprehensive set of answers to any question you may have – or perhaps never knew you had - about the Beta :).

• Download Office 2010 Beta
• Office 2010 Beta FAQ

Do I need to uninstall my current version of Office to run the 2010 Beta?

The good news is that if you choose to use the Office Home and Business 2010 Beta or the Office Professional 2010 Beta it will happily run alongside your existing copy of Office. Install the Beta, and when you open your program menu you will see your existing Office programs, as well as the Office 2010 Beta programs. You just choose whether you want to use the old version (eg Word 2003) or the Beta version (Word 2010 Beta) each time you open the programs from the menu.

The only exception to this is Microsoft Outlook, which isn’t happy running when a former version of the product exists.

Here’s the blurb from the FAQ:

‘Upon installation of your Office 2010 Beta, you may be offered the option to Upgrade or Customize. Clicking Upgrade results in only the newer Office 2010 Beta product remaining on your machine. By clicking Customize, you may explicitly select to have multiple versions of Office coexist with the exception of Outlook and SharePoint Workspace (formerly known as Microsoft Office Groove 2007). These applications cannot co-exist with previous versions and you will need to select one version of the program to have installed on your computer.

If you are not offered the option to Upgrade or Customize, the default behaviour will be for your Office 2010 Beta to co-exist with your previous Office product(s).’

• Read more in the Office 2010 Beta FAQ

When does the Beta version expire?

The Beta will stop working (or ‘timebomb’) in October 2010. After that time you can choose to download the trial version of the finished Office 2010 product, buy a copy of Office 2010, or continue using your old Office software.

• Read more in the Office 2010 Beta FAQ

Are there special system requirements for running Office 2010?

System requirements for Office 2010 are pretty much the same as for Office 2007, including the following:

• Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista or Windows 7
• You don't need to replace hardware that is capable of running Office 2007; it will support Office 2010 :).
• Processor: 500 MHz or higher
• Memory: 256 MB or higher
• Hard Disk: 1.5 GB; a portion of the disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive.

What’s next?

• Download Office 2010 Beta
• Office 2010 Beta FAQ

TAGR, our new tagging game aims to get around this problem by letting you (the experts!) tag the images. Play with 1000’s of other people to come up with new words to describe the images shown. The more times the word has been thought up by other players, the more points you’ll score. You have 3 minutes to get your high score!

Warning: It’s a little bit addictive….

• Play TAGR

Microsoft Education at BETT 2010 

“The dust has just about settled after the BETT Show that took place in London’s Olympia last from Wednesday to Saturday.  BETT is the largest Education Trade show in the world and in 4 days around 30,000 people attend the show.  I’ve been attending BETT for the last four years, and it’s always a fantastic show.  It’s great to see so much of what Microsoft offers to Education on a single stand and the number of customers we get to talk to is always a lot of fun.

The new features of Office 2010 get customers smiling at BETT

As we’re currently in public beta for Office 2010, we used the opportunity to talk pretty broadly about what the next version of Office is bringing, with two theatre presentations a day and Office 2010 installed on all our demo machines.  So – what were the top 5 highlights that really got people smiling?

1. Office Web Apps 

Web Apps are new web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote which anyone can sign-up to use. At BETT we did a lot of demos, showing how the Web Apps let customers work with their Office documents in new ways, such as co-authoring (2 or more people working on a document at the same time over the web) or making simple edits on PCs that don’t have Office installed. The response from the visitors that saw the Web App demos was fantastic.  They were particularly impressed that files look the same on the web as they do in Office. That really makes Office Web Apps stand out from the competition!

Access and edit your Excel documents through your web browser using Office Web Apps

Our theatre demo showed two students working on an Excel sheet together from the web – great way to extend access and also saved the teacher effort in collating results back in the classroom. 

• Find out more and sign up to Office Web Apps Technical Preview

2. OneNote 2010 

I love OneNote – and I love showing it to customers because they quickly fall in love too. Linked note-taking was a very popular new feature – helping people keep track of what they were looking at when they made that note – really helpful for everyone, but it’s a particularly great Education feature.

• Try out OneNote 2010 by downloading the Office 2010 Beta 
• Got Office 2007? Get started with OneNote 2007

3. Video and picture-editing in PowerPoint 2010

The ability to do some simple editing of videos in PowerPoint was a popular feature, but I think the top spot goes to “Remove Background” from a picture in PowerPoint.  So many people that I showed that feature to were amazed at how simple we’ve made a task that is pretty hard to do today.  It’s a great example of something that a lot of people want to do, but most people don’t know how.

• Have a go for yourself by downloading the Office 2010 Beta

4. The Ribbon is everywhere

3 years ago I was at BETT showing Office 2007 and the new Fluent User Interface (a.k.a. the Office ribbon) and hearing a lot of concern about the change.  This year, with Fluent being in every product, including SharePoint 2010, people have not only got used to the ribbon, they’ve learned to love it - and love that it’s going to be everywhere.  Most satisfying is to hear customers talking about how much simpler they’ve found it to learn new programs and how much faster they can work with the ribbon now – that’s exactly the sort of thing we wanted to happen as a result of the change.

• Find out about how the ribbon makes Office easier to use

5. Paste. 

I know – it sounds crazy that a feature like paste would feature in anyone’s top 5, but everyone I showed the new ‘paste’ to absolutely loved it.  Before 2010 many people found that content didn’t look as they’d hoped once they’d pasted it into a document, so they’d need to ‘undo’ and repeat until they found the look they were after. Office 2010 has added Live Preview to paste, so now you can hover over the different ‘paste’ icons until you spot the result you wanted.  Much simpler!  And the thing is that people cut and paste such a lot that making it just that little bit faster can soon add up over the course of a day.

If you were at BETT – hope you enjoyed the show and that you enjoyed a visit to the Microsoft stand.  It’s tough to narrow down to a top 5 - I haven’t even mentioned Excel, Outlook, Publisher or SharePoint 2010. Download the Beta if you want to try out my Top 5 and find your own favourite features.”

Chris Rothwell – IW Live Lead, Education

Jodi Deros of ATOMdesign gives her take on the video and broadcast features in PowerPoint:

• 2010CES Office 2010: "A really fantastic tool"

Doug shows what you can do with OneNote:

• CES Office 2010: He ain't OneNote, he's my brother

There are more of Doug’s videos from CES at the Office blog. If you want to try Office 2010 for yourself, you can download the Beta version right now for free at www.office.com/beta.

1) Set yourself up a dedicated work area and make it your ‘out of the office-office’ for a day.  It helps you focus.  Phil says ‘I don’t have a study room so I extend my dining table, set up my laptop (with a mouse and keyboard) along with my work folders and a pad/pen.  Add a cup of coffee – and I’m good to go’.

2)  Check your schedule and your kit first thing. There’s nothing worse than having to turn the house upside down 5 minutes before a conference call to find your headset, or that you have your headset but it’s not working properly. On a related note, also check you have all the call details you need for the day’s meetings. Keep your company tech support number close to hand in case you need it. If you’re not sure 100% how to use everything, call them or a techy colleague in advance to check your setup.

3) Tidy up the view behind your webcam. As Chris says ‘No-one wants to see the pile of dishes by your sink or your laundry on the radiator when they’re talking to you’.

4) Get milk. There’s nothing worse than realising you can’t have you morning cup of coffee before the first call of the day without going out to the shop. On a similar note, make sure you have something lined up for lunch.

Steve’s tips for a good working routine

My colleague Steve gets his own section for some great suggestions on a productive home-working routine. Thanks for the tips!

1. Have the same morning routine as if you were going to work i.e. have shower, get dressed etc. I’m not saying put on a suit (unless you like wearing suits) but staying in PJ/dressing gown isn’t conducive to getting into a work mindset

2. Have regular breaks 5-10 minutes every hour (you would have this walking to another meeting if in the office)

3. Go out for a short walk at lunch. The very cold fresh air is great for clearing your head

4. Try to arrange your schedule to be varied e.g. break up 2 hours of solo work with a conf call

5. Remember to stop for lunch and at the end of the day as normal

1) Arrange a play date! This is the time to call in favours, particularly if you have something really important that you have to get done. It’s not the time to try to remember whether it their turn or your turn to have the kids over. Call neighbours, family and school Mums (or Dads) and explain your dilemma. The best people to ask are obviously those who are also stuck at home with bored children. 9 times out of 10 they will have been in similar situations to you and will also be aware that two (or more) children keeping each other occupied are much easier to look after than one bored child.

If you are fresh our of favours to call in, begging is always an option :). Personally, I wouldn’t suggest resorting to having other people’s kids over when you’re working. Unless the kids are much older (10+) it’s just too hazardous!

2) If it looks like you will be stuck with the little darlings all day, accept the fact that you’re unlikely to be able to be as productive as you would be normally. Once you’ve accepted that, take a hard look at your calendar and your to-do list and decide what can be moved or cancelled and what really needs doing today. The younger the kids, the less work you’re likely to get done. Be realistic, or possibly a little pessimistic :). That way you may end up pleasantly surprised by the amount you’ve achieved at the end of the day.

3) Be flexible. If you can, choose tasks which are easy to pick up and put down easily, rather than ones which you need to concentrate on for any length of time. Triaging and responding to a backlog of email is less of a problem to interrupt than writing a report, for example.

4) For those one or two must-do things, choose a failsafe way to keep the kids occupied. If they are old enough, a little bargaining might be in order. Swap an hour’s uninterrupted work or conf call time with a trip to the cafe for lunch, for example. If they are younger, it might be time to put on a favourite film or hire/download one they’ve been wanting to see. Popcorn or another treat might make it more of an event.

5) Be prepared to spend time with them. It’s easy to feel the children’s distractions are preventing you from working, when in actual fact there are many times in a normal work environment where you’d be distracted just as much. Think about the number of times your plans have been hijacked by an unexpected meeting, conversation or request from the boss. With my kids I’ve found that giving them a short amount of undivided attention can result in several times that in quiet time for you to get on with your work. So, sitting down and building Lego spaceships with them for 20 minutes can lead to an hours peace while they build the mother of all Star Wars vehicles. Of course, at the moment you can also replace Lego with snow :):).

If you are organised, you could build up a bank of these ideas which you can dip into on emergency days. There are many web sites with ideas for kids activities, many of which they can complete unsupervised, once you have helped them set up. Office Online has some kids craft ideas too.

Here’s some things that have kept my two boys occupied on work from home days and might work for Primary school age kids:

• Writing list of Xmas presents and then making thank you cards. For some reason this went much better unsupervised than ever did when I tried to do it with them! If they’re old enough, this is a good way to practise their computer skills. If you have Microsoft Office 2007 they should find it easy to create some satisfying results. Take a look at some demos here.
• Put up and take down Christmas decorations
• Make the biggest/most fierce possible monster/robot/fort using whatever construction toy or materials is to hand. Prize for most inventive.
• Hide and seek
• Build a den
• Invent your own board game (using paper & pens, found objects, Lego whatever)
• Make pet rocks (find stones in the garden and then clean and paint them. This takes ages and they are often very proud of the result)
• Indoor/outdoor picnics (prepare picnic/packed lunch food at the beginning of the day and then get them to make a camp or picnic spot and set out the food. Set a time for lunch if they can tell the time, so you go and join them to eat it at that time).

If you are considering a new desktop computer, netbook or laptop for your family there are some good deals around in the New Year sales.

Don’t forget to add a copy of Office 2007 when you buy or order your new machine – it’s often the cheapest time to buy and even cheaper while the sales are on.

• Many New Year offers at Dell are finishing on 6th January so visit soon to take advantage of some really good offers. If looks are important to you make sure you visit the Dell design studio.
• PC World are offering free delivery on online orders. Excellent range of offers on Windows 7 PCs.
• Currys also have some good-looking deals, including an offer to get £100 off a new Windows 7 laptop or desktop PC when you trade-in your old laptop
• Dixons, Staples and Comet are also running New Year offers.

Buy Office Home and Student 2007 for just £76.99

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is currently available for just £76.99 on Microsoft Store. Download your copy straight from Microsoft Store to your PC with or without a backup disk, or get a box shipped.

Office Home and Student 2007 includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and OneNote 2007, so it’s perfect for getting organised in the home, as well as containing all the essentials programs for the kids homework. Find out more and view the demos here to see how it can help you and your family.

Happy shopping!

Use speakers or a headset to hear the words and see how many you can get through before you get one wrong. It’s surprisingly hard to get a straight run.

Also useful for bored children.

Why get certified?

According to an IDC study sponsored by Microsoft, there are many advantages to getting an official certification;

• Microsoft Certifications increase a person’s earning potential by approx 12%
• 82% of certified Microsoft Office Certified Individuals report a salary increase after certification.
• 40% of supervisors report that Microsoft Business Certified employees are a valuable resource to other employees.
• 89% of Microsoft Office Certified employees do not require additional supervision to perform their duties.