Microsoft took the lid off Office 2013 yesterday at a press conference in San Francisco and showed it's intention around integrating with cloud. The new version of Microsoft Office integrates seamlessly with cloud services, can edit PDFs and is built for Windows 8 (both tablets and PC's).
A preview of the new version was unveiled at an event in San Francisco. Steve Ballmer, claimed the software was “a new generation that brings some of the same boldness and beauty that we’ve shown you in Windows 8 and Windows Phone”. He added, “This is the most ambitious release of Microsoft office that we’ve ever done”, and emphasised that it was aimed as much at students, busy families and consumers as it was aimed at businesses.
The suite of applications, including Word, Outlook, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint have all been updated to include touch interfaces to cater for users who have phones and tablets. Although note-taking programme OneNote has been comprehensively redesigned to include touch support, the bulk of the applications have been polished to improve their overall functionality so they work better on both tablets and PCs.
Microsoft Word can now edit PDFs as well as save in the Adobe format, and has added the ability to embed YouTube clips more easily. Users are encouraged to log on so that all devices, from tablets to phones or PCs, return directly to exactly the same point when a document is reopened. A ‘reading mode’ has also been added to encourage tablet users to read more on their devices. All programmes will now integrate with Microsoft’s cloud storage system, SkyDrive, to offer permanently up-to-date and easily accessible documents.
Microsoft Outlook has been altered so that ‘peaks’ of the calendar or contact details can be layered on top of the main mail window, allowing users to keep Outlook as their entire main screen on either tablets or PCs. New add-on applications can also automatically scan emails for addresses and show locations, or look for suggested meetings and generate appointments.
PowerPoint now has an enhanced presentation mode, too, allowing users to project their documents onto a screen while simultaneously viewing their notes and slides on a tablet or PC.
Microsoft has also added more social networking elements aimed at businesses, allowing users to ‘follow’ colleagues and documents and tasks as they might follow friends or brands on Facebook. The company recently purchased business social network Yammer, and will also integrate its other purchase, Skype, allowing calls and instant messaging to be built directly into Office software. Collaboration has been augmented with new video conferencing and live collaborative document editing tools.
Microsoft will sell Office 2013 as a standalone piece of software, and will also offer its subscription-based Office 365 software in parallel.
With the coming version of Office, the centrepiece is cloud. In this case, the "cloud" means Office 365, which is the Microsoft-hosted back-end suite of SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Lync Online It also means SkyDrive, its personal-cloud storage service. Additionally, it means support for roaming settings, which can move with users across devices, as well as the ability to stream Office components to new PCs (and remove them later) using Office on Demand.
This does indeed look like a very innovative change of a core Microsoft product with the challenge of supporting multiple devices and gestures. This clearly is a big year for Microsoft with the plethora of new technology they are bringing to the market. We think you will like it, but dont take our word for it try it for yourself here.
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