Discover What's New in Office 2010

Essentially serving up a collection of PowerPoint presentations with voiceover, this old-school approach to teaching users about different aspects of Microsoft Office 2010 seems better suited to a live setting with a presenter than on DVD. Segments include “The History of Microsoft Office” (a brief, painful walk down memory lane), “The Buzz” (a thorough overview of new features), “How to Work With Office Web Apps,” and “Office Mobile 2010—a Sneak Peek.” Additional technical limitations include the fact that viewers can't use the “skip forward” button on their remotes (after hitting “play,” you're in for the long term), and variable audio quality (the lecturer sounds like he's speaking into a cheap mic). These drawbacks detract from the content, which does provide some good information, although finding it requires a serious effort. The last—unhelpful—segment, “Free Migration Guides for Office 2003 to Office 2010,” shows viewers how to use Google search for the term “Office 2010 migration guides” and download the results from Microsoft's popular TechNet site. Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who's led an organizational migration from previous versions of Office to the vastly different 2010, the time would've been better spent discussing strategies to help users and techs to understand and master the new interface and file formats. Other new titles in the series include Discover Word 2010, Level 1; Discover PowerPoint 2010, Level 1 and Discover Excel 2010: Tips & Shortcuts. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (C. Block)