Microsoft Office 2013

In my last write-up I had mentioned that developments and product announcements/launches were happening in such quick succession, that hardly a day passes by and a new product is launched. As a consequence, products are becoming out of fashion (in relative terms) almost immediately after launch.

When I was penning my previous write-up, I chose to write about the Flamer worm instead of writing about Samsung Galaxy S-III, iOS 6 and Microsoft Surface) . . . . don’t ask me why. Anyhow, I had ended the write up with the note that the next write-up would be about Samsung Galaxy S-III. In all honesty, I was all set to keep this commitment and suddenly out of the blue I read about Microsoft’s latest. All of a sudden it felt like Galaxy S-III had already become ‘old news’ and I had to write about the latest offering (announcement for now) from Microsoft. And so . . . . here we are . . . .

Background

Microsoft Office 2013 (a.k.a Office 15) is a productivity suite from Microsoft Windows and is likely to succeed the hugely popular Microsoft Office 2010. A developmental version (build 2703.1000) was leaked in May 2011. Subsequently, in January 2012, Microsoft released a technical preview of Office 15 (build 3612.1010). Almost six months later, on 16 July 2012 (to be precise) Microsoft unveiled the Customer Preview.

In this write-up, I have tried to highlight some of the new features proposed to be introduced in the new software, product enhancements to existing features, and some pros & cons associated therewith.

Whats new in Office 15

 While there are several features that one can describe, here are a few features that I found exciting:

• Cloud integration
• Will respond to touch, Stylus and the good ol’ keyboard
• The new ‘Metro’ look
•  Edit PDFs in Word 2013
•  Will support Open Document Format (‘ODF’) 1.2
•  Sharing, embedding web elements like YouTube videos
•  Social media integration — skype, flicker
•  Enhancements in Excel, Word, Outlook, One Note.

Some of the things that might not excite a few people:

• Will have to upgrade from Windows XP/Vista
• Get used to SkyDrive cloud storage.

Cloud integration

Cloud integration is now becoming a de facto ‘must have feature’. Cloud storage has been around for a quite some time (X drive types). Without getting into ‘who started it all’, Google’s chrome OS was a serious attempt to move towards cloud integration. If you recall, the Chrome OS was touted as one of slimmest OS because it required very little time to boot and Google had famously said that there was no need for providing any apps within the OS because everything was on the internet and that most people only boot their PCs and log on to the net — hence all the apps would be on the net. Last year when Apple unveiled its latest offering, it also announced a new service iCloud (5 GB storage). Gone were those days when you need to synchronise your PCs at different locations, no need to carry data in a portable drive or disc. With Office 15, Microsoft too has joined the gang. SkyDrive is default storage location for all your files (effectively SkyDrive is expected local C drive). Subscribers will be given 20GB storage space.

With this version, the Microsoft is moving to a subscription-based model wherein your Office files are tied to your Microsoft ID. Once you sign up, you can download the various desktop apps to a certain number of devices and, as with Windows 8, your settings, SkyDrive files and even the place where you left off in a document will follow you from device to device. Office 365, which is currently being sold to businesses, will be available to home-users as well.

 In addition to receiving future Office upgrades automatically, subscribers will get additional Sky- Drive storage, multiple installs for several users, and added perks such as international calls via Skype. You’ll also be able to stream Office apps to an Internet-connected Windows PC.

Responds to touch, stylus also

The preview page says “Office 15 will take you beyond the mouse and keyboard — to embrace touch and pen input” (one can hope for a much better experience while using One note). While multi-touch laptops aren’t — and probably won’t be — a mainstream choice for business and homeusers anytime soon, touch is an essential component of smartphones and tablets, obviously. The pen may be making a comeback too, judging by the popularity of Samsung’s stylus-equipped Galaxy Note. Office 2013 will allow you to swipe a finger across the screen to turn a page; pinch and zoom to read documents; and write with a finger or stylus — just like you do on your smart phone or tab. Additionally, when you write an email by hand, Office 2013 will automatically convert it to text. The user interface has been modified (especially the Ribbon feature — its flattened up or as Microsoft likes to call it ‘Metrified’). While this may seem a bit odd when you see it on a desktop, but you may appreciate it more when you try using it on a tablet PC or on your smart phone.

The new ‘Metro’ look

Microsoft loves Metro user interface, which was first introduced in Windows Phone 7 around two years ago. Since then Metro has become the user interface of future for Microsoft and the company is putting it in all its products. Office 2013 too has been given a Metro makeover. It is a slick interface, with clean lines, lots of empty space and looks modern.

For the uninitiated

Metro is an internal code name for a typographybased design language created by Microsoft. Originally meant for use in Windows Phone 7. Early uses of the Metro principles began as early as Microsoft Encarta 95 and MSN 2.0. Later on, these principles evolved into Windows Media Center and Zune. Now they are included in Windows Phone, Microsoft’s website, the Xbox 360 dashboard update, and Windows 8. A key design principle of Metro is better focus on the content of applications, relying more on typography and less on graphics (‘content before chrome’). WinJS is a JavaScript library by Microsoft for developing Metro applications with HTML.

There are two aspects to the design changes introduced in Office 2013 — visual changes and usability changes. Microsoft thinks that there is no need for any faux chrome or aero fluff around windows. Hence, the interface has been ‘Metrified’ (that’s how Microsoft likes to say it). The icons have been flattened, things have been cleaned up (i.e., the heavy boundaries, bevelled edges, shadows, etc. . . . . all gone.

 In fact, icons are likely to be a thing of the past. Under Metro there will be hardly any need for icons. While some argue that icons were simple (graphic, easy to remember) indicators for tools like copy, paste, etc., they kinda spruced things up. Microsoft argues that when you have as many as 4000 of such icons it eats away most of your display area.

Microsoft thinks that once you get the hang of it, you will appreciate the thought process.

Edit PDF documents in Word 2013

Until now you could only ‘save’ office files in PDF format. To edit these files or other PDF files, either you would have to edit the original office file and then (again) save as PDF or you had to buy third-party software/utilities. Going forward, you will be able to open PDF files and edit them in MS Word 2013 and then save them as word files or as PDF.

Word 2013 will maintain the formatting such as headers, columns, and footnotes and elements such as tables and graphics, of the PDF and permit you to edit them as though they were created in Office 2013 itself.

Users feedback suggests that Office 2013 handled simpler PDF files with ease. But it was not so graceful with the complex ones that had many images and elements.

Will support Open Document Format (‘ODF’) 1.2

Microsoft fought ODF1 as it became an open international standard (ISO/IEC 26300) by creat-ing its own standard OOXML (ISO/IEC 29500) and pushing it through standards organisations. But Microsoft has now apparently accepted that ODF has widespread support with other vendors, governments and organisations.

Microsoft already supports ODF 1.1 in Office 2007 SP1, Office 365, SharePoint and SkyDrive WebApps. Now Office 2013 will support ODF 1.2.

ODF 1.2 has already been widely adopted and is supported by, along with others such as Gnumeric, Google Docs, Zoho Office and AbiWord.

Sharing, embedding web elements like YouTube videos & social media integration — Skype, flicker

Office 2013 uses Sky Drive to enable better sharing of documents. You can invite people to work on to the document or use PowerPoint to give a presentation on the web. Word files can also be published as blogs on several popular blogging services directly from Office 2013.

YouTube videos can be now embedded into the documents directly and users don’t have to save these clips to the local computer. Office 2013 also includes Flickr integration that allows users to search for photographs on the popular photo sharing websites and embed pictures using Office 2013.

Microsoft acquired Skype last year, and Office 2013 will be the first suite to incorporate the popular VoIP service. You can 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.

User feedback suggests that there’s room for improvement, though.