Microsoft Office 2010 beta is ready for download for those just itching to get a look at it.

Office 2010 beta is available in several flavors, including Home and Business (Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Office Web Apps), Professional (Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher and Office Web Apps) and Professional Plus (Includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, Access, Publisher, Infopath, Communicator, SharePoint Workspace, and Office Web Apps).

Before installing the beta, there are a number of things you should take into consideration, including (from the download site):

• Protect your PC and data. Be sure to back up your data and please don’t test Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta on your primary home or business PC.
• Uninstall any previous versions of Microsoft Office. We highly recommend that previous versions of Microsoft Office be removed from your test machine before installing Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta.
• Technical details/updates. Before installing the Beta please read the Release Notes.
• Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by participating in the Microsoft Office 2010 Forum (on TechNet) and reading the Microsoft Office 2010 Team Blog.
• Keep your PC updated. Be sure to turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta.
• Microsoft Partners. Learn more about Office Professional Plus 2010 on the Microsoft Partner Portal.

The betas require you to register before you can download them. and you can find download links and information on the Office betas here.