Microsoft Office 2010 hitting shops on 15 June

Microsoft has revealed that Office 2010 will be available to consumers on 15 June.

The suite brings a raft of improvements over Office 2007 including a customisable Ribbon interface, a Backstage view offering detailed information on the file you’re working on, and an ability to access unsaved documents you may have closed by mistake.

Features

The complete guide to Office 2010

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new suite are the Web Apps – free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote designed to combat the threat of Google Docs.

Web Apps retain much of the desktop software’s functionality – including live document search, and the ability to manipulate and edit pictures, graphs and formulae – and Microsoft’s hoping this familiarity will help lure users away from Google’s rival offering.

The announcement comes as Microsoft begins to roll out Office 2010 to businesses.