Microsoft Office 2013: Office for the Cloud | IT Solutions Provider

Microsoft Office 2013 has adopted the look and feel that Windows 8 and Server 2012 already has, giving it a new cleaner look while retaining the features and functionality that you have used and become accustomed to in the previous version. Microsoft has realised that users of Office today not only use computers but are starting to rely a lot on their smartphones and tablets and, therefore, Office 2013 will work on these devices. Along with this, Microsoft has also integrated it into the cloud meaning you can access your documents on the move and on devices that do not even have Microsoft Office 2013 installed. Even creating this article in Word I was able to read it on my smartphone which does not have Office installed.

You can link your Microsoft account to your Office 2013 installation and then stream your Office 2013 programs to other computers, save files to SkyDrive and access them anywhere you have an internet connection, which is handy should you need to use other computers that you have not used before. The cloud is your own personal storage space in the sky and Microsoft’s implementation is called SkyDrive.  When connected to your Microsoft Office 2013 you can access and share your Word documents, Excel spread sheets and other Office files. You can also have one of your files open and have a colleague open the same file and work on it at the same time.

Messaging is now fully integrated into Microsoft Office and with the recent merge of Messenger and Skype it means that you can have your Skype profile linked to your Office applications and this is known as your “presence”. You can see who else is working on the same documents that you have open and start a chat session with them should you need to discuss the documents.

It is evident to see that Microsoft has really spent some time on this latest release of Office and apart from all the new features introduced they have made it much more user friendly and easier on the eye. The built in help and support is more intuitive, giving you a better understanding of the available features and how to use them. Gesture support is also included along with a usable onscreen keyboard which is aimed for the tablet and touch screen user market.

Microsoft has released several flavours of this new package, which are as follows: 

·         Home & Student: has the main components Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Can be   bought retail and is not to be used commercially

·         Home and Business: Includes Outlook

·         Standard: Has Outlook and Publisher included and is only available via volume licensing

·         Professional:  A retail version that includes Outlook, Publisher and Access

·         Professional Plus: Only for volume licenses and includes all of Professional and InfoPath and Lync.

Mark Fidler – Technical Support – Celerity Limited

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