Download Getting Started Screensaver For Office 2010
Download Office 2010 “getting started” screensaver.
The Office 2010 “Getting Started” Screensaver is a great new way to get tips from Office.com. Once you’ve downloaded it, this free screensaver automatically downloads short 60-90 second tips from Office.com (see the example below) and displays them when you’re not using your PC.
Click to enlarge
If a particular tip looks interesting, a simple click on the screensaver takes you to a web page where you can replay the video, watch similar videos, or read an article to learn more about Word 2010.
OK, the flaw in this strategy is that your screensaver comes on after a certain period of inactivity on your computer – usually because you aren’t there! But hey, you might spot an interesting Word 2010 tip on your return. But this does mark a departure from the old Microsoft strategy of helping new users get to grips with Office by presenting annoying “tip of the day” dialogs that popped up whenever you started a program. The problem with those is that they interrupted your workflow. The new screensaver doesn’t interrupt your workflow. It just comes on when you aren’t there! Duh.
Maybe Microsoft decided that users will think “I need help – I know, I’ll just do nothing on my PC for 10 minutes so that my screensaver comes on and then hope that a tip appears that will solve my problem”.
Download The Office 2010 Screensaver
Downloading the Office 2010 screensaver involves the usual validation checks to ensure that you aren’t running a hookie copy of Windows. You have to download the validation program and run it to verify for Microsoft that your Windows installation is legitimate. It’s a pretty quick and simple process. Once validated, you can then download your screensaver. It’s quite a hefty file at 70MB!
Once downloaded, double click on the program file to run it and install the screensaver.
If you are expecting stunning visuals from this screensaver, you’ll be disappointed. The getting started tips are all about delivering short, punchy, useful tips in a no-nonsense and straightforward manner (see screenshot above). When you move your cursor or press a key on your keyboard to get rid of the screensaver, you will see a small dialog box appear in the bottom right of your screen – look closely or you might miss it, especially if you have a huge monitor!
This little window displays a link that you can click on to learn more about the tip that was just presented by the screensaver. Clicking the link will take you to a web page where you can do further reading. These web pages are not necessarily published by Microsoft; they can be from a variety of independent sources.
If you don’t want to learn more, just click on the ‘x’ in the top right of the box.