Almost everything that Microsoft has released thus far in 2012 seems to revolve around the new Windows 8 operating system. The new Surface table PC will give users an optimal Windows 8 experience. Internet Explorer 10 works best on Windows 8 enabled machines, etc. Now, there’s Microsoft Office 2013.
On July 16, 2012, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer held a press conference in San Francisco to introduce a preview version of the upcoming Office 2013. As one might expect, Office 2013 is compatible with touchscreen enabled computers, particularly tablets. It’s also cloud friendly.
Microsoft Office 2013 will retain many of the key features that people are familiar with using in Office 2010. Larger print and greater spacing between words and icons on the ribbon facilitate use via touchscreen tablets and other touch enabled machines. New features include an ability to import PDFs directly into Word, edit them and then either save them as Word or PDF documents. With Excel, the Quick Analysis tool will prompt the program to recommend what types of charts or graphs would ideally showcase selected spreadsheet data.
According to Michael Brown, senior editor of PCWorld, “Another cool feature [of Office 2013] is the ability to connect to online resources and bring them inside your documents. For example, you can use Bing to search the Web for videos, without leaving Word, and then embed the HTML code for that video in your document. Link your SkyDrive account to your Flickr account, and you can jump to your online photo collection and embed photos directly in the document — again, without ever leaving Word.”
Anyone who has ever collaborated on a document using Track Changes will know how confusing all the different font colors and comment boxes make things. With Office 2013, changes and comments remain hidden until called upon. A horizontal line beneath the altered text indicates that changes have been made. A vertical line beside a section of text indicates that a comment has been inserted. Clicking on the horizontal line reveals the changes, and clicking on the vertical line reveals the comments.
There are many great new features for Office 2013. Stay tuned to our blog over the next few weeks as we bring to light many of the new features.
Get your preview copy of Microsoft Office 2013 today at https://www.office.com/preview.
