Office 2013 – top features of Microsoft Office 2013

On my personal experience I can confidently say that; any person in the world who is new to computer and want to learn something about computer then he /she always demands for learning Microsoft Office. The reason is also obvious. MS Office simplifies many day to day activities for all of us. Every new launch of ms office has taken a step towards simplifying our life tremendously.

Yes! I agree that, to get comfortable with new versions of ms office; it takes time. But once you are through, then there is no problem. I am sure every one of us must be having same kind of experience with ms office various versions.

If you observe the history of ms office releases, the changes in different versions were not big or they were addendum to the existing features. However, I think Microsoft now has decided to change everything with release of windows 8 and Ms Office 2013 is no exception to that. MS Office 2013 is going to be the most ambitious release from Microsoft.

Based on my personal experience after interacting with various Microsoft product lovers, people tend to get confused with new releases and various features. Here in this post I am just trying to simplify the catchy features of Ms Office 2013.

What is Office 2013 –? What is difference between office 2013 and office 365?

Office 2013 is basically a desktop based application as opposed to Office 365 which is subscription based office version. As office 2013 is desktop based, it will be required to be installed on your devices be it, laptop, tablet, desktop Pc or anything. Office 2013 is traditional office product from Microsoft. Office 365 is subscription based cloud service which is not required to be installed on your devices. Office 365 delivers the office 2013 programs as a part of subscription service via Microsoft cloud.

Office 365 is an online subscription service that provides email, shared calendars, the ability to create and edit documents online, instant messaging, web conferencing, a public website for your business, and internal team sites—all accessible anywhere from nearly any device.

If you have Office 2013 installed then you can quickly configure it to work with Office 365 services. Office 365 can also be configured with 2007 and 2010. Office 365 is not office 2013. 

For example, If you use Office 2013 alone, the document will be saved on your device or computer. Hence it cannot be access anytime unless you carry your device everywhere. If you have Office 2013 configured to Office 365; then you can save the document to say SkyDrive and can access anytime on any device even if you don’t have your device or laptop or tablet with you.

This is the main difference between the two.

 Now let’s have a look at the features of Office 2013.

Touch Support –

Office 2013 can be used on touch devices easily. For example, zoom in or out using two fingers, pinching, swiping and tapping gives an amazing experience with touch screen. If you are using it with Windows 8 then experience is going to be much more interactive. 

Inking - Stylus Support –

A stylus can be used to write content on the apps which automatically get converted into text. So, making notes, writing emails gets easier than ever. Colouring and erasing also gets a lot simpler. The stylus can be used as a laser pointer while showing presentations.

Apps –

OneNote and Lync can be used in Office 2013. These are basically windows 8 style applications which are supported in Office 2013. 

SkyDrive support –

This is one of the biggest changes in the Office 2013 release. Document created will be automatically saved to SkyDrive (provided you are connected to internetJ). Important functionality is Sync. Say you create a document on your device and save to SkyDrive. Then you change this document somewhere else and not on your device. Then afterwards when you open the same document on your machine, then it will be updated automatically (synced) with the changes you did last time at different place.

Stay Connected – People Card –

Follow people, teams, documents and sites in SharePoint. People Card helps you to see the all your contacts in all the Office Applications with their Facebook and LinkedIn profile pictures, status updates, contact information and activity. This feature will certainly turn the new Microsoft Office 2013 into a Professional social platform. 

Skype –

Free international 60 minutes calling every month!!! J 

Reading and Markup –

The read mode provides an all new experience in reading documents like a book on all devices which is very easy to navigate. This feature enables documents to automatically adjust with different available screen sizes. You can easily zoom in and zoom out, insert bookmarks, stream videos within documents and use touch to turn pages. 

Digital note-taking –

Digital note taking helps keep notes handy in the cloud and across multiple devices with OneNote. One can take notes with touch, pen or keyboard, or use them together and switch easily back and forth.

Meetings –

PowerPoint features a new Presenter View that privately shows your current and upcoming slides, presentation time, and speaker notes in a single glance. While presenting, one can zoom, mark up and navigate slides with touch and stylus. Lync includes multiparty HD video with presentations, shared OneNote notebooks and a virtual whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming.

Cheers!!! 

Happy Documenting!!!