Microsoft Office 2010 launched in the consumer market today, and the software is now for sale in 35,000 retail stores.

Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business division, said Office 2010 is "the best productivity experience on three screens -- the PC, the browser and the phone." The biggest change to Office is a free Web-based version called Office Web Apps.

Microsoft said computer makers are pre-loading Office 2010 so people buying new PCs can purchase a key card with a number to unlock Office instead of having to buy the software on DVD and upload it. New computers from Sony, Dell, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard will come with Office Starter, a free, lite version of Word and Excel. People can pay to upgrade to the full version of Office, which will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and other software.

In the next 12 months, Microsoft predicts Office will be preloaded on more than 100 million computers and 80 percent of computers for sale during the holidays.

The software costs $149 to $399, depending on the version and whether it is purchased as a DVD or as a key card. For more pricing details, check out the online Microsoft Office store.

Elop said he does not think the free Web apps version will cannibalize business from consumers who would otherwise buy Office. "We think about it as a growth opportunity," Elop said, adding hundreds of millions of Office users are either on older or pirated versions. With the Web apps, "we can draw them into a positive experience" using Office. Google began offering a free Web-based competitor to Office four years ago and now has more than 20 million users.

Microsoft said a new comScore study found that one billion computers are running Office. Nine million people downloaded the free test version of Office 2010, six times the number of downloads to test Office 2007, according to Microsoft.

New features the team also talked up:

• The ability to edit and paste video into PowerPoint
• Conversation view, which organizes e-mail in Outlook by the same thread.
• Windows Phone 7 access to documents. That phone is planned for a holiday release.

Melissa Hanson, a customer who participated in the beta and received a free copy of Office 2010, attended the briefing and said it made her more productive in her work life and personal life. Hanson is the president of the Sajai Foundation, a nonprofit in Hamel, Minn., that educates people about childhood obesity. "It's helped us teach more people, reach more people and raise more funds," she said.

The little things add up to big time savings, such as managing her e-mail inbox. When she injured her back and could not travel, for instance, she was able to broadcast a slideshow remotely and record audio narration to show to a group in Florida. Hanson will be featured in the Office 2010 marketing campaign, which features regular people with the theme "Make It Great."

Consumers make up 20 percent of Office sales, Elop said.

He held Tuesday's news briefing in a new Envisioning Lab at Microsoft's Executive Briefing Center in Redmond. The lab has what Elop says is the largest touch screen, stretching about 25 feet across and 5 feet in height. Elop showed a video about Microsoft research and "the future."

Another room features a giant green wall with live plants scrambling up to the ceiling. It's all white leather and distressed block wood furniture inside. The lab was built for Microsoft to host customers to discuss what they want to see in Microsoft Office products.

"It's not just about adding a feature today and adding a feature tomorrow," Elop said. "It's very much about meeting the needs of the customer and providing a long-term vision of the future."

We had a live chat at noon on Tuesday with corporate vice president Takeshi Numoto, who runs Office product management. We had some technical issues stemming from the CoverItLive service we use, and Numoto ended up chatting via my handle. He answered many of your questions about Office, such as the difference between free Web Apps version and the version that costs money, whether it's compatible with Windows XP and how to draw straight lines in Excel. Check out the replay here.