Published on the 23/12/2009 | Written by Newsdesk

Microsoft has released the beta version of Office 2010 which can be downloaded as a complimentary trial from the company’s website (www.microsoft.com/2010).

The new release of the Office product suite includes new features, such as the Outlook Social Connector, improved navigation, and increased performance and stability.

The latest beta versions of SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight 4 can also be downloaded for a complimentary test.

“Availability of the beta marks the first time that millions of people, including kiwis, can download and experience all the new innovation and capabilities we’re delivering as part of the Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 release,” says Anne Taylor, Microsoft New Zealand information worker business group manager.

“As exciting as this milestone is for our customers, I also believe that there has never been a better time for developers to build on the Microsoft platform. With a wealth of features and a single, unified business platform, developers can build rich solutions that take advantage of familiar tools and  leverage core features of Office and SharePoint both on-premises and in the cloud.”

Office Mobile 2010 beta is also available for trial with Windows Mobile 6.5, making the Office experience across PCs, phones and browsers a reality. Office Mobile 2010 will give users the ability to create, edit, comment and save documents from a Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Symbian device, without disrupting the content of formatting of the document. The Office Mobile 2010 beta for Windows Mobile 6.5 is available at Windows Mobile Marketplace.

The public beta of Silverlight 4, only four months after delivering Silverlight 3, highlights Microsoft’s continued rapid pace of innovation to help companies design and develop experiences on the Web for both consumers and enterprises. The SharePoint 2010 beta is also available with the other 2010 product betas at www.microsoft.com/2010.