Office 2013 Features

The new software version features major improvements like the ability to edit PDF documents, the tiny buttons difficult to use in 'tablets' and limit the functions without keyboard or 'mouse'.

Every time Microsoft releases a new version of Office, a handful of much-needed new features make millions of loyal users of Office exclaim "Finally!"

Office 2013 is no exception. The latest update to the most widely used productivity software in the world, the draft was released today by Microsoft, features a long-awaited series of adjustments. It also has a new addition: touch . Good, more or less. We'll talk about its tactile nature.

First, let's talk about good things. Word is the program with the largest number of updates, and the main addition is the most pleasing: Users can open, edit and create PDF documents in Word 2013. At last!

The new software also has a greater ability to manipulate images and videos. Word 2013 shows ingenious alignment guides that glow green when a picture is placed in the center, top or bottom of a document or paragraph. When you move a picture or video on the page, the text will automatically move to make room or to surround it with a very effective way.

Excel users will be pleased that the graphics and color codes may be subject to the preview instantly with one button quick analysis (quick scan). It works surprisingly well, and saves the hassle of building graphics on our own.

The most interesting new feature, called fill flash, fill the columns automatically when it is obvious what kind of list you're writing. It is difficult to explain without seeing it, so click here for an example.

The best complement new PowerPoint 's presenter view (view to the presenter). Have you ever attended a meeting where someone asks a question on a slide that has not been proven? Today, the presenter has to leave the PowerPoint presentation, jump to that slide and then re-enter the presentation. PowerPoint 2013 makes that transition smoothly is given: The presenter can simply click on see all slides (see all slides) and go to where you want without having to type the arrow to move up or down.

The design of Office also received a nice upgrade, which is aligned with the user interface "Metro" next operating system Windows 8 . Which brings us to the most dramatic change of software ... and their biggest problem.

Office 2013 will debut in Windows 8, the new Microsoft operating system has been completely redesigned with touch capabilities. It is designed to run smoothly on traditional computers and mobile devices. Want a full-featured version of Word and Excel on a tablet? That is the goal of Microsoft.

"I really think this new version of Office for Windows 8 bearing in mind," said Monday the Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the launch of Office 2013 in San Francisco. "That means touch capabilities."

Touch plays a role in Windows 8, but in Office, seems to have been built as a last-minute occurrence.

I tried Office 2013 on a tablet computer Samsung 7 Series running a prerelease version of Windows 8. I ended up using Office without using the wireless keyboard or the mouse more often than I expected: I checked on the couch emails through Outlook, PowerPoint presentations visualized on my TV, and wrote some quick notes in OneNote.

Some tasks are easy as dragging, scrolling and resizing. Others do not work at all with the touch gestures.

The biggest challenge proved to print a document in Word. The button to print is larger in Office 2013, but not both tiny menu buttons that you press to display the print window.

It is easier to simply open the onscreen keyboard and press Ctrl + P, but that triggers new challenges. Playing the microscopic arrow button up to increase the number of copies required level of skill possessed only by surgeons and violinists.

When I stuck the paper, I gave up and ended up printing the document from a laptop.

Overall, Office 2013 users happy to previous versions. However, for users of tablets, all these new features may not overshadow the difficulty to move Office to pure touch.