First look: Microsoft Office 2013

By Mark W. Kaelin July 17, 2012, 4:50 AM PDT

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Installed and ready to go

ntOn July 16, 2012, Microsoft made available a preview version of Office 2013. While all the typical parts of the familiar productivity suite are still here, there is a definite change of philosophy u2013 Office 2013 is tablet-ready and Windows 8 friendly.

ntTechRepublic will be diving headlong into the various parts of Office 2013 until it is released, but I thought you might want to get a quick overview of what’s coming.

ntAs you can see, Office 2013 fits right in with the Windows 8 Metro interface.

ntIf you want to get your hands on the preview yourself, head over to the Microsoft Office 2013 website.

Word open screen

ntSince I practically live in Word, I started by clicking that tile. The Metrofication of all things Office is obvious from the moment you start.

Word 2013 document screen

ntThe Word application has taken on a more minimalist feel. The first thing I noticed is the all caps menu – very strange.

Word 2013 Files menu items

Word 2013 Options

ntThe Word 2013 options menu is very similar to the options menu in 2010. This will be an interesting place to explore in the coming months.

Excel 2013 opening screen

ntThe Excel 2013 opening screen is similar to Words, with various templates featured. You can also see there is a tour – that’s a nice idea that I’ll have to examine closer.

Excel 2013

Excel 2013 file menu

ntThe Excel 2013 files menu has much the same set of features as Word. Note the SkyDrive reference – the cloud plays a prominent role in this version of Office.

Outlook 2013 wizard

ntOutlook 2013 starts with the familar wizard that will lead you through the process of setting up an email account. I decided not to do that right now.

Outlook 2013

ntThe Outlook 2013 screen is similar to 2010, which I really like. Some say Outlook is too cluttered, but I disagree.

Access 2013

ntAccess is not used by every Office user, but those that do make good use of it. The power of a well-constructed database cannot be denied. Access 2013 offers several templates to help you get started.

PowerPoint 2013 templates

ntWe all have a love/hate relationship with PowerPoint that I don’t think is going to go away with PowerPoint 2013.

PowerPoint 2013

Right-click a tile to get options

ntThe one thing that you should do for any application you use often in Windows 8 is pin it to the Taskbar.

Pinned Word 2013 to the Taskbar

OneNote 2013

ntSome people are very fond of OneNote and with a close tie to SkyDrive, I can see more users adopting and adapting to the application. I’m going to check out the video – perhaps I will gain a better appreciation for OneNote 2013.

ntWe’ll take a deeper look at Office 2013 in the next few weeks, but this First Look gallery should give you an overview of what you can expect with Office 2013.

By Mark W. Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the information technology industry, software, hardware, gaming, finance, accounting, and technology geekdom for more than 30 years.

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