A public beta of Office 2013 was released in July 2012 by Microsoft. This is the successor of their famous productivity suite that is being used by almost every Windows OS user around the world. An initial look at the package reveals that Office 2013 would actually come in two forms, Office 365 and Office 2013. Office 365 is a subscription based service that has elements from online storage to Microsoft cloud services. It has various tiers; based on them, various perks will be available for the respective users. It is not required for you to purchase both since one can use Office 2013 without Office 365. The suite is designed to run on Windows 7 and Windows 8 [Windows Server 2008 R2 or later if it’s a server edition] only and requires a machine with considerable performance. Let us look in detail how Office 2013 differs from Office 2010.
Microsoft Office 2013 Review
Office 2013 as usual has Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Outlook inbuilt with several other programs. Office 2013 can be installed in up to five machines and the license for these machines can be controlled in a single console. Even if you decide not to buy Office 365, you can still use online storage and other free services with a Windows Live account which is free. Because of this, many attractive advantages are available in Office 2013. For instance, you can work with a document anytime and anywhere you go, you just need to open your SkyDrive and get the document and start editing it. Further, Office 2013 can be used along with Office 2010 and Office 2007 which enables a user to access a variety of editions in the same software for his convenience.
Since Office 2013 is mainly targeted at Windows 8 as the OS, it’s fair in assuming a migration from mouse to touch interactions. Although mouse can still be used, it’d be really easy for the user to use the touch interactions if available with this suite. As an overall improvement, a lot of templates are provided with the office suite, to enhance the productivity. I particularly enjoyed the improved screen reading experience. It is intuitive to read using the interface and one can zoom on an object with a single click to have a better look at it. For instance, if the document you are reading has a chart, or a table or an image etc, you can enlarge it with a single touch, and once you’re done, return to the original view with another touch. Another interesting feature is the ability to access document simultaneously. You can share a document with different access level and let the subordinate view your progress real-time even if he doesn’t have Office Suite.
Excel 2013 finally supports multiple monitors; it used to be a major headache when I couldn’t open two spreadsheets at the same time in two monitors. It also has better guidance towards making your charts look elegant and precise. Further, a programmer can use HTML5 to design apps for Excel which is a convenient option that many will intend to explore. PowerPoint also has some additions that are useful to enhance productivity. It has a compare options which does the same thing that did in Word; comparing two versions of the same presentation. There are also some new improvements in the way one can use PowerPoint to present; for instance, now you can zoom a chart or a table with a single click and give an enlarged view to the audience. You can also switch slides with the provided grid view in the presenter’s view option.
A Brief Comparison Between MS Office 2013 and 2010
• Office 2013 enables the user to control its license using a central console while this is not available in Office 2010.
• Office 2013 is offered with a subscription based service, which enables the user to seamlessly synchronize his work among all the computers he works while Office 2010 doesn’t feature this.
• Office 2013 is more touch friendly and is aligned with Windows 8 metro style UI compared to Office 2010.
• Office 2013 comes with enhanced user experience and intuitive interaction with the users compared to Office 2010.
• Excel 2013 supports multiple monitors while it wasn’t available in Office 2010.
• Word 2013 has an enhanced reading mode which enables the user to interact with the document better compared to Word 2010.
• PowerPoint 2013 also has better controls compared to PowerPoint 2010.
Conclusion
The intention of this conclusion is not to decide which version is better since Office 2013 is obviously better because Microsoft is going to release it as the successor of Office 2010. However, we will discuss the feasibility of adopting Office 2013 if you already have 2010 or even 2007 versions. The main argument supporting Office 2013 would be the integration of Office 365 which moves the suite more towards the cloud. This may be a significant advantage for professionals and heavy users and integration with Windows 8 would make it an obvious choice if you bought the OS. Although this is the case, Office 2013 requires a computer with considerable performance, and it also needs the user to have Windows 7 or Windows 8. This is not a similar occurrence in most of the corporate environments, and hence there may be some reluctance in migrating to Office 2013. I would certainly give it a second thought if I am placed in the same situation because I can effectively simulate the push towards cloud using certain other techniques without buying Office 2013 and spending a lot of money and time to upgrade my hardware. Hence it all comes down to what you think of it as a suite. My recommendation is to go ahead and download the public beta, use it in a personal computer and check whether you like it. Evaluate it against Office 2010 having your usage patterns in mind and check whether it makes your life easy. If it does and if you think its cost beneficial, go ahead and purchase the Office 2013 suite which we assume will be released in October or November 2012.