Office 2013: 10 Best Features You Should Know About

The new Office 2013 has some key updates that, while aren’t quite as dramatic as theWindows 8 from Windows 7change, still have some pretty cool features for mobile and desktop.  Office 2013, will ship sometime next year at prices that have not been announced yet.  Check out the top 10 features:

1. Going Mobile. Microsoft has geared the new software towards a more mobile-friendly audience, allowing users to interact more efficiently on mobile and tablets including finger and stylus controls that may help to spur Office’s migration to mobile devices. Another decidedly mobile move is Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, will come with ARM-based Windows 8 devices including Microsoft Surface .
2. In The Cloud. Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service is being positioned to play a key role in Office users’ daily computing lives. Office 2013 will save your documents to SkyDrive by default, enabling you to access files from multiple devices, including a smartphone and tablet. When you sign into Office from another device, your personalized settings and recently used files are already there for you. The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription too. Office 365 is now also available for home-based users as well as businesses. Subscribers will get automatic upgrades, additional SkyDrive storage, multiple installs for several users, and added perks such as international calls via Skype.
3. Finger and Stylus. Office 2013 embraces touch and pen input. The touch and stylus features are geared towards smartphones and tablets, as well as multi-touch laptops. The touch features are the same as users are accustomed to on their smartphones and tablets; swipe a finger across the screen to turn a page, pinch and zoom to read documents, and write with a finger or stylus.
4. Metro Style. Office 2013 conforms to Microsoft’s “Metro” look that’s pervasive across the software developers latest mobile apps. The Office Ribbon in Word 2013 has a flatter look than its predecessor in Word 2010.
5. PDF’s in Word. You can now edit PDF files in Word 2013 (yay!). Simply open a PDF as you would any other document. Word maintains the formatting of the file which is fully editable. You can insert pictures and videos from online sites such as YouTube and Facebook as well. And readers can watch video clips from inside your document.
6. Excel. Excel offers some useful upgrades including new templates for budgets, calendars, forms, and reports. The new Quick Analysis Lens lets you convert data to a chart or table in a couple of steps. Flash Fill recognizes patters in your data and automatically fills cells accordingly. For example: if you want to separate first and last names into separate columns simply begin typing the first names in a new column, press Ctrl+E and Excel will copy the first names for you.
7. PowerPoint Has Gained Power. PowerPoint 2013 now sports an updated Start screen with a variety of new themes and color schemes. The Presenter View now makes it easier to zoom in on a diagram, chart, or other detail that you want to emphasize to the audience. The Navigation Guide lets you switch slides, even move out of sequence, from a grid that you can see but your audience can’t. Presentations can be worked on from different PCs by colleagues to create a single presentation. Comments are allowed and presentations are saved online by default to SkyDrive.
8. OneNote. OneNote automatically saves your notes to Skydrive, you don’t have to click “Save”, making your brainstorming sessions readily available across multiple devices. OneNote 2013 allows you to grab screens and add them to your notebooks.
9. Skype Has Been Integrated. You can now integrate Skype contacts with Microsoft’s enterprise-oriented Lync communications platform for calling and instant messaging. Office subscribers get 60 minutes of Skype international calls each month.
10. Going Social. Office now includes Yammer, a secure and private social network for businesses that Microsoft tentatively acquired. Yammer integrates with SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics, the company’s line of CRM and enterprise resource planning apps. Office 2013′s People Card tool provides detailed information about your contacts, including their status updates from Facebook and LinkedIn.