Running Office 2010 or SharePoint 2 across your organisation? The beta version of Service Pack 2 for the platform was released this week. One key benefit of the update is easier deployment on Windows Server 2012. Hit the link for more details.

Microsoft has offered a cut-down, ad-supported free Starter Edition of Office 2010 for quite a while now, but it has only been available pre-installed on netbooks and other low-spec PCs. At the moment, however, you can download the whole thing for free from Microsoft's servers.

Dear Lifehacker, I have Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 installed on my PC but I have found that I'm not using anything more than Word and Excel. I'm wondering if there is a way to uninstall the applications I'm not using (Powerpoint, Access, OneNote and so on) without completely uninstalling the lot and doing a fresh install? Thanks, Office Clutter

First, a good taste warning: this post mentions Clippy, the irritating helper paperclip that Microsoft thankfully dumped from Office back in Office XP. If the mere mention of that digital excrescence doesn't send you running to the hills screaming for gin, then you might want to check out Ribbon Hero 2, a game designed to teach migrating Office users how to use the Ribbon found in Office 2007 and Office 2010.

Windows 7 has been on sale since October 2009, and if you're a dedicated geek you've probably been running it for 18 months or more at this point. But corporations move to a different and much slower drum, and 2011 is the year many will finally make the shift away from Windows XP and towards Windows 7. If you work in IT, what do you need to know about that process?

Upgraded to the 2010 version of Project and can't find the familiar camera icon for converting Gantt charts into images? Tech blogger Nathan Gropman points out that it has been replaced with a 'Copy Picture' icon on the Task tab -- a good example of how the Ribbon isn't always intuitive.

PowerPoint 2010 offers a host of image cropping options, but where to find them isn't always obvious. Office blogger Helen Bradley walks through image cropping in the latest version of Microsoft's presentation application, including how to handle making images fill the available size.

Microsoft Office 2010 knows there are Word-based macro viruses out there. It's so protective, in fact, it can be a bit annoying when you're trying to open Outlook attachments from co-workers. Tech blogger Amit Agarwal explains how to disable Word's "Protected View".

Word 2010 is a capable word processor, but some of the default settings on a newly installed copy don't make much sense. Here's some recommendations to improve them.

Adding a scanned signature to a document is the easiest way to sign it. Tech blogger Helen Bradley explains how you can add your signature to the clip art collection in Word 2010, making access to your signature a simple search away.

PowerPoint 2010 includes a 'Package Presentation for CD' feature which claims that it will include the "Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer to play this presentation". But all it actually does is embed a link allowing you to download the viewer on the target machine, which doesn't seem especially helpful.

It's Friday, so a little game-playing is excusable. Make it look vaguely respectable by running Missle Command or Tower Defense inside Excel 2010.

One of Office 2010's neatest features is nearly seamless uploading to its free Web Apps. Then again, it shows an annoying system tray icon while doing so and on start-up. Here's how to get rid of it while keeping the uploads rolling.

We first heard about Office 2010 back in April 2009, but that journey ends today with the retail version finally going on sale in Australia (and a few free copies being handed out in Sydney). Microsoft has long dominated the desktop software market with Office, but is a $209 product still relevant in an era where Google Docs and Microsoft's own Office Web Apps appear to offer the same features for free?

We've compared Office Web Apps and Google Docs, and found plenty to like in both. But how does Office Web Apps measure up to the full-blown version of Office 2010 in terms of features?

Office 2010 officially goes on sale on June 15 next week. Getting a cheap copy isn't that easy, but Sydneysiders have the chance to try and win a copy of the Home and Business edition if they can get to Martin Place next Tuesday lunchtime.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa on June 11. While you can watch it streaming for free if you happen to be on Optus, you can also get your geek on by tracking the results in your own spreadsheet.

A less-than-optimal experience saving files online was one of my principal criticisms of Office 2010. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and promises a fix for it soon.