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Changes in Office 2010 (for IT pros)

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2015-05-17

Banner stating end of support date for Office 2010 with link to more info

IT Pros can learn about the new, changed, and deprecated features of Microsoft Office 2010 and how these changes can impact migration plans.

Note

Are you looking for help using Office applications like Word, PowerPoint or Excel? The Getting Started resources on Office.com will help you learn what’s new in each application in Office 2010 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=199527).

In this article:


  • What’s new


  • What’s changed


  • What’s removed


  • Migration considerations

What’s new

For information about the new features in Microsoft Office 2010 that are relevant to IT administrators, see What's new for IT professionals in Office 2010.

What’s changed

This section summarizes the feature changes in Office 2010.

Insert Clip Art task pane and Clip Organizer

The Insert Clip Art task pane and Clip Organizer functionality remains generally unchanged in Office 2010. However, the user interface is updated to make it easier to search for and insert online clip art. Although you can still download and manage a locally stored clip art collection, there is a decreasing need for clip art to be stored locally. This is because Office users are more Internet-savvy and want to grab and use images from the Web immediately without having to store them for later use.

You can download clip art images from Office.com (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=202125). The downloaded images are then available for local (offline), personal use.

Important

You are allowed to use the clip art for personal use as determined by the Microsoft Service Agreement (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=204168). Also see Use of Microsoft Copyrighted Content (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=204172).

HTML editor

The HTML editor is updated for Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, and Microsoft InfoPath. New features include cross-browser support, XHTML support, and a shared editor.

Legacy brightness and contrast

Da Vinci brightness and contrast algorithms replace legacy algorithms, and are now available through the user interface and Office Manager. Legacy brightness and contrast algorithms are still available for backward compatibility. This is a core architecture change.

Besides brightness and contrast, other photo editing algorithms and tools are provided through the user interface and Office Manager. With this change, users can receive improved photo editing results. If a photo does not contain 2007 Office system brightness or contrast edits, the visual fidelity of the 2007 Office system brightness and contrast is retained in Office 2010. If a photo does contain 2007 Office system brightness or contrast edits, Office 2010 produces better results because the old effects are converted into new effects.

Language Preferences

Language Preferences replaces Language Settings and assists users in showcasing language packs and in determining whether the necessary proofing tools or keyboards are enabled. Included are direct links to online locations where users can obtain additional tools. There is also new functionality, such as ScreenTip Language.

Operating system support

Office 2010 does not support 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows XP. For full system requirements, see System requirements for Office 2010.

Paste Special dialog box

The Windows Metafile Format (WMF) file format does not appear in the Paste Special dialog when the Windows Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF) file format is available.

Office programs still make the WMF file format available to non-Microsoft products that only support the WMF file format for their paste operations. Also, if a non-Microsoft product only supports the WMF file format for its copy operations, WMF will appear in the Paste Special dialog box in the Office program.

What’s removed

This section provides information about removed features in Office 2010.

Insert Clip Art task pane and Clip Organizer

Deprecated functionality in both the Insert Clip Art task pane (within client applications) and the standalone Clip Organizer application:

  • Simplified drop-down menu options for "Search In" (replaced by a check box to include or exclude online content) and "Media Types" (Photo, Illustration, Audio and Video. The level of granularity for file extensions is removed).

  • Removing thumbnail icons indicating online content and clip art loading from a media CD.

Deprecated functionality in the Insert Clip Art task pane only:

  • Removing the "Organize Clips" link.

Deprecated functionality in the standalone Clip Organizer application only:

  • Auto-import local content into Clip Organizer

  • Associate a folder with a particular collection (for use by auto-import)

  • Find Similar Style within a user's local clipart content library

  • Send clip art to Mail recipient(s) feature

  • List and Details views of the Clip art (we keep only thumbnail view now)

  • Delete a clip from a particular collection.

Symbol input add-in: East Asia versions of Office 2010

The special symbol input add-in is removed from Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, and Microsoft Access 2010 in the East Asia versions of Office 2010.

This change includes the language releases shown in the following table.

Language Geographic area Language tag (ll-cc) LCID

Chinese (Simplified)

People's Republic of China

zh-cn

2052

Chinese (Traditional)

Hong Kong SAR

zh-hk

3076

Chinese (Traditional)

Taiwan

zh-tw

1028

This feature is removed because users can easily access this functionality through the similar feature that is available through the Insert Symbol button in the Symbol group under the Insert tab, or through the Input Method Editor (IME).

InterConnect

InterConnect is removed from Office 2010. InterConnect provided Japanese users with a unique, electronic business card that could be secured and delivered. It was available as a part of Microsoft Office Ultimate, InterConnect retail SKU, and Microsoft Outlook with InterConnect retail SKU.

Office Startup Assistant

Although turned off by default in 2007 Microsoft Office system, the ability to create a new Office document from the Start menu, or Office Startup Assistant (OSA), is completely removed in Microsoft Office 2010. Users can no longer manually turn on the feature in the Start menu through Office 2010 setup or open a dialog box to create a new document in an Office 2010 application.

This feature is replaced by the ability to create a new Office document for each Office 2010 application from the Microsoft Office Backstage by clicking New and then creating the document. In addition, the improved functionality is compatible with the 64-bit version of Office 2010.

Office Diagnostics

Office Diagnostics, also known as Customer Watson, is removed for all Office 2010 applications. Because of shifting resources, the focus must be on analysis and reporting features that have been proven beneficial for other teams. Users must now run the repair utility from the Control Panel.

Document workspaces

The following is removed from Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, Microsoft OneNote 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, and Microsoft Outlook 2010.

  • The ability to create document workspaces.

  • The ability to create shared attachments in Outlook.

  • The ability to invoke actions on Microsoft SharePoint Foundation by using the Document Management pane.

  • The functionality that enables the local copy of the document to synchronize with the server copy.

Users can no longer access the following in Service Options in the <Application> Option dialog box: Create Document Workspace, Document Information Management, and Document Management. The synchronization functionality is replaced by the implicit cache, which enables users to continue editing within the document workspace even when the document is offline and then automatically sync the changes to Windows SharePoint Services the next time that the document is online. The implicit cache prevents user confusion over which option to use.

Support for Microsoft XML Parser 5

Office 2010 does not support Microsoft XML Parser 5 (MSXML5). Existing solutions will not create an instance of MSXML5 objects when they are loaded by Office 2010. Migrate code to Microsoft XML Parser 6 (MSXML6) or to managed code that uses the .NET Framework.

Note

MSXML6 does not support Digital Signature code. For more information about MSXML6, see Building MSXML Applications (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=187366).

Migration considerations

When planning a migration to Office 2010, review what is new, changed, and removed for Office 2010. In addition, see the Migration considerations sections in the articles listed in See Also.