For years, Microsoft Office has dominated the productivity software landscape. It is nearly ubiquitous in in education and business, and has become the standard by which all other productivity suites are measured.

Included in Microsoft Office 2010 are several core applications, along with new peripherals designed to make work easier and more efficient. Microsoft Office stalwarts such Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are still present, and are accompanied most notably by the database program Access, the information sharing and collaboration applications OneNote and SharePoint, and the e-mail client Outlook in the more expensive, higher level suite editions.

Like its predecessor, Microsoft Office 2010 centralizes the functions of its applications in the "Ribbon", a large, often tabbed toolbar at the top which houses the most common actions that users engage in. Instead of endless drop down menus, Office 2010 centralizes important tools in the ribbon, straightening out the learning curve for new users and making many key application processes faster to perform.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have all undergone user interface redesigns and sport new features, but also worth noting is the integration of cloud computing in Microsoft Office 2010. The OneNote application, which allows users to collect and share text, pictures, clippings, and screen captures over the web, is designed to improve information availability in the office and can also serve as an excellent all-purpose note taking tool for students. SharePoint takes the concept one step further, allowing professional users to set up a local intranet within their company or classroom where documents can be managed and networks of team members or students can be established.

With Microsoft Office 2010, the movement toward better application integration and easier collaboration is drawn into focus. This, in combination with an interface that makes creating high-quality documents, spreadsheets, and presentations more straightforward than ever, reinforces Office as the computing world's most preeminent productivity suite.