data is coming in from a number of testers about the Office Starter 2010 build that Microsoft introduced to a group of selected testers late previous week. Starter 2010 may be the Microsoft-designated replacement for its Microsoft Functions product or service. Starter is going to be a low-end, cost-free (but ad-supported) bundle of Phrase and Excel. (of quite a few) criticisms of Functions was that it didn’t support all the same file types as Microsoft Workplace did, making Functions only somewhat compatible with Office. It looks like that same limitation will likely be present in Workplace Starter, based on a frequently-asked questions document from Microsoft that one tester forwarded to me. From that FAQ document: There is a file I can open in Excel or Word that I cannot open in Excel Starter or Word Starter,
Windows 7 Starter Product Key, why? Excel Starter and Phrase Starter do not support exactly the same file sets. following file types cannot be opened in Office Starter: .xla, .xlam, .dsn, .mde, .accde, .odc,
Office 2010 Pro Plus, and .udl. add-ins and macros are only marginally supported in Office Starter 2010. According to Microsoft, Office Starter does not support add-ins and will not load them. From the FAQ: Files have macros,
office 2010 serial, but they cannot be run in Excel Starter or Phrase Starter, why? Office Starter does not support the creation, editing, or running of macros. However, if a document with a macro is opened in Starter, the macro remains as part of the file. often-glossed-over point about Office Starter is how it are going to be made available. It will undoubtedly be an OEM-only product and not available for download. Again,
Office 2007 Pro Plus Key, from the Microsoft FAQ: How will I be able to get the launched version of Office Starter? Office Starter will only be available as pre-loaded software on select new PCs pre-loaded with the Workplace suites. testers noted last week, there’s a new Office-to-Go feature in the Workplace Starter item that allows users to take their Starter copies (and associated documents) with them on a USB drive. But that feature only works on Vista Service Pack 1 and
Windows 7 machines. Since Starter is an OEM-only merchandise that will likely be preloaded on new PCs, it makes sense it won’t work on XP machines,
Office Professional Plus 2007, as OEMs are phasing out XP support (the very last bastion for XP — netbooks — won’t be supported after next spring). do you think of these Workplace Starter 2010 limitations? Are any of them onerous enough to make Starter a non-starter?