★★★★★ Rated 4/5 by the Editors
In 2010, Microsoft updated the the previous version of Word 2007. Like it’s predecessor, users can obtain a Microsoft Word Free Trial for download, for either a 30 or 60 day period, depending on your computer system. The following review is based on the Windows version of this software, and overall found it a satisfying, albeit overdue update. Overall, it’s among the top 3 favorites of the free trial software that we’ve reviewed.
Starting in 2010, Microsoft no longer offers MS Word as a standalone product. Instead they offer within the broader Microsoft Office Free Trial download. On one hand, we enjoyed the extra functionality offered by including Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. The disadvantage is that it included extra code, increased download time and many extra features we didn’t require.The most striped down version of the free trial is Office Home and Student 2010, which only includes the standard four productivity programs listed above. Other options include Office Home and Business, which includes Outlook, and Office Professional, which includes everything listed previously in addition to Access and Publisher.
The free trial period requires you to register with Microsoft using a Windows Live ID. You must go through a complete billing process, which no doubt alienates some users, but the final bill ends up being free at 0 dollars. The trial period for PC computers lasts 60 days for all Office Suites.
After registering and downloading the software, installation on our PC took about 15 minutes. The user interface has improved greatly since 1983, and we found installation be fairly easy.
A little history – Released in 1983, Microsoft Word was one of the first word processing programs to gain popularity on the mass market. Today it remains the gold standard among all such platforms. It has evolved to become one of the most comprehensive writing tools available in one package. Microsoft Office Word 2010 includes the Fluent user interface, which helps provides the appropriate writing tools when needed. With the interface you can quickly change styles and themes, add art and 3-D shapes, and save time with copying and pasting. Other useful features include the ability to save as a PDF or XML without installing additional software.
What’s new with Microsoft Word 2010? In this area we were pleasantly surprised. One of the coolest new features of this software is called the “ribbon.” This tool, included as part of the Fluent UI, gives you the ability to use Word 2010 documentation situation in order for greater ease of use. Additionally, the ribbon features gives you a faster way to access the commands in Word, in addition to any customizations you want to make to the program. The ribbon itself is also customizable. For instance, let’s say you want to create tabs for the commands you use the most. All these features and more are available with the free trial download of Word 2010.
Today blogs are becoming more popular than ever. If you write blogs, you can now publish and maintain them directly from Microsoft Word, with the ability to create pictures and tables with advanced formatting. This is just a small list of the many new features.
As we said, Microsoft doesn’t offer any specific downloads of Office Word as a standalone trial, but Word is included in the larger 60 day free trial of Office 2010. The components of the Microsoft Office 2010 suite varies by version, but all versions include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The free 60 day trial is available for download here and requires activation. It also requires that you are running valid copy of Windows. After the trial period ends, you must purchase an upgrade to maintain full functionality of the software. The full Professional version retails for $499.95 while the Home & Student version goes for $149.95.
If you’re an Apple user, you can download Office for Mac 2011. Unfortunately, this trial download is only available for 30 day, because apparently Bill Gates still carries a grudge against Steve Jobs. (joking!) Office for Mac 2011 contains the full suite of productivity software including PowerPoint and Excel. After thirty days the software loses functionality if you do not upgrade. It is available here. at www.microsoft.com/mac.
Mac users can also try iWork as a Microsoft alternative. Iwork is productivity software from Apple meant to compete directly with Microsoft Office. It includes a highly functional word processing program called Pages, a spreadsheet application called simply Numbers, and a presentation aid called Keynote. Pages doesn’t include all the bells and whistles of Microsoft Word, but being an Apple product, it boasts a slick interface and great usability. This is a powerful substitute to consider for any Microsoft product.