What’s New in Office 2013?

Microsoft’s Windows 8, a redesigned version of OS in the series of most versatile operating system in user friendliness, Windows, has been recently introduced. Windows 8 is a one-size-fits-all concept based OS for every device, be it a desktop PC, touch tablet or phone. Microsoft Office 2013 is a part of this venture, yet to be announced for its launch date and price.

Office 2013 is not just a document utility and productivity suite like its earlier versions but is integrated with many in-demand features to enhance the user experience. Office has been introduced with features and in-built applications, which users usually imagine to have in their office suite. Some of the features introduced in Office 2013 are:

• PDF Edit: Office 2013 is integrated with a PDF editor taking inspiration from the habit of people to first convert their PDF to a Word file and then edit it. Now users can open their PDFs directly in a Word file and edit it, the need to separately convert the file has been by-passed in office 2013.
• Touch Stimuli: Office 2013 is equipped with the capability to work equally efficient on a touch device as it works on a desktop because touch is the essence of devices nowadays. Though the concept of touch doesn’t seem to be feasible in business perspective, this will soon make sense with the launch of Windows 8 based tablet, Surface. Even touch smart-phones will deploy Office 2013 for document editing.
• Hand-writing Recognition: Since Office 2013 is touch capable, is it accustomed with handwriting recognition using stylus or finger touch. It easily speculates the words written by a user on the screen and automatically converts them into text.
• Cloud Storage: Office 2013 is integrated with SkyDrive, to directly store all the recently created and used files on Microsoft’s Cloud. Files, by default, are stored on SkyDrive service so that users don’t have to carry their document everywhere. All they have to do is login to their SkyDrive account and access their recently used files. This has been made possible with the introduction of cloud computing platforms.
• Flash Fill: Pattern recognitions and pattern analysis is introduced in Office 2013, for its MS Excel suite. Excel sheet recognizes the patterns in the data fields and automatically fills the other fields accordingly, once flash fill is enabled.
• Social networking: Yammer, a social networking panel recently acquired by Microsoft, is been integrated in Office 2013. Also, it has a “people card” tool, which provides detailed information about the contacts including their facebook and linkedIn account updates.

Office 2013 has also been updated with some useful utilities like templates for budgets, calendars, form and reports. Other features integrated are Skype integration, OneNote app for taking notes and directly putting them onto cloud to access anytime, anywhere, designed specially for tablet and smart-phones. Windows mobile development has also improved the applications available in the windows market place making the surface tablet a viable option for many users out there.