Office 2010 introduces user interface enhancements including a Backstage view that consolidates document management tasks into a single location.

[8][9][10] Collaborative editing features that enable multiple users to share and edit documents;[11] extended file format support;[6] integration with OneDrive and SharePoint;[11] and security improvements such as Protected View, a sandbox to protect users from malicious content[12] are among its other new features.

This was newer than the official preview build and included a "Limestone" internal test application (note: the EULA indicates Beta 2).

[66] With the release of SP1, the use of Office Online in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 was officially supported by Microsoft for the first time.

[72] In both its client programs and in its Internet implementation, the design of Office 2010 incorporates features from SharePoint and borrows from Web 2.0 ideas.

When users open a document, the structure of its file format is scanned to ensure that it conforms with specifications defined by XML schema; if a file fails the validation process it will, by default, be opened in Protected View, a new read-only, isolated sandbox environment to protect users from potentially malicious content.

In later versions of Windows, Mandatory Integrity Control and User Interface Privilege Isolation further restrict the separate process.

A new Aspect Ratio option under the Crop command of the ribbon presents a drop-drop down menu with options for both landscape and portrait page orientations to customize the aspect ratio of the selection rectangle before cropping, which automatically resizes the selection rectangle when users start the crop process; users can manually resize the selection rectangle and simultaneously preserve its aspect ratio by resizing it from its corners while pressing the ⇧ Shift key.

Office 2010, like previous versions, automatically resizes photos that are inserted into shapes by default, which can negatively affect their aspect ratio.

[119] Excel, PowerPoint, and Word support text effects such as bevels, gradient fills, glows, reflections, and shadows.

Publisher and Word support OpenType features such as kerning, ligatures, stylistic sets, and text figures with fonts such as Calibri, Cambria, Corbel, and Gabriola.

[116] Excel, PowerPoint, and Word support hardware accelerated graphics when installed on a machine with a DirectX 9.0c-compliant GPU that has at least 64 MB of video memory.

Excel supports hardware accelerated chart drawing, and PowerPoint supports hardware accelerated animations, transitions, and video playback and effects; slideshow elements are now rendered as sprites, which are then composited with additional effects such as fades and wipes implemented using Pixel Shader 2.0.

[122] Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word allow users to immediately insert a screenshot of open app windows or a selection of content on the screen into documents without saving the image as a file.

The functionality is exposed through a new Screenshot command on the Insert tab of the ribbon that, when clicked, presents individual options to capture either app windows or selections of content.

[123] SmartArt, a set of diagrams introduced in Office 2007 for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word has been updated with new effects, options, and interface improvements.

During the crop process, the layout of shapes in SmartArt diagrams is locked to prevent users from inadvertently modifying its position while making adjustments to an image.

[124] Office 2010 introduces Accessibility Checker in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word that examines documents for issues affecting visually impaired readers.

Translations for phrases or words are displayed within a tooltip, from which users can hear an audio pronunciation of the selected text provided by one of the Microsoft text-to-speech voices installed on a machine, copy the translation to the clipboard so that it can be inserted into another document, or view a definition provided by an online service if the selected text is a word.

[157] Office Starter 2010 was available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to preload on Windows PCs as a replacement for Microsoft Works.

[16][17][18][158] Word Starter 2010 cannot insert captions, citations, footnotes, endnotes, equations, indexes, or SmartArt graphics or text, and it does not support change trackage, customization, digital rights management, full screen view, or macro functionality.

[159] Excel Starter 2010 does not support calculation steps, circular references, custom views, error analyses, external data connections, PivotTables, or PivotCharts.

[161] Office Online is a collection of free Web-based versions of Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word that offers fewer features than its client counterparts.

Laptop Mag rated the suite 4 out of 5 stars, referring to it as “the best Office suite yet” because of the new customization options provided by the ribbon, the new multimedia editing capabilities, a new option to share presentations online via PowerPoint, and app response times; Microsoft's decision to include OneNote in all retail versions of Office 2010 also received high praise.

Nevertheless, Office 2010 was regarded as a "dazzlingly attractive upgrade” that received the magazine's Editors' Choice and Best of the Year 2010 accolades.

InfoWorld considered the modified Ribbon in Office 2010 to be a "disorganized mess", and the user-interface conventions to be confusing because of the lack of consistency across routine functions.

Ars Technica believed that Microsoft's transition to a 64-bit version of Office would facilitate the industry's adoption of 64-bit software.

[178][179][180] The initial two-week sales of Office 2010 were lower than those previously observed with the suite's predecessor, Office 2007, a fact considered by Stephen Baker of NPD Group to be “disappointing.”[34][181][182] Baker attributed this lack of sales to "a seasonally slow period for PC purchases" and an "increasingly saturated installed base."

Free alternatives to the productivity suite such as Google Docs were not regarded as detrimental to the adoption of Office 2010;[34][181] however, this view was not shared by all journalists.

[199] During the second quarter of Microsoft's 2012 fiscal year, the company reported a revenue of $20.9 billion—another record for the company—with Office 2010 being a contributing factor, having sold nearly 200 million licenses as of December 31, 2011,[37] in spite of declining Windows sales.