Microsoft Offers Customer Preview of Office 2013

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Microsoft made a customer preview version of its new Office 2013 software available to its customers this week.

This new version of Office offers Microsoft users new features in commonly used programs such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Some of these new features include Touch Everywhere. This optimizes Office for touchscreen devices such as tablets and smartphones. It now responds to touch as naturally as it does to a keyboard or a mouse. The programs in Office 2013 also now have pinch and zoom, which can be used on documents and presentations.

Inking is another feature now available in the new version of Office that allows users to create content with a stylus, along with taking notes and accessing other features. The stylus can also be used as a laser pointer when making a presentation.

Office 2013 also features new Windows 8 applications including OneNote and Lync. These are style applications that are designed to deliver touch-first experiences on a tablet. OneNote also has a new radial menu that makes it easier for users to access features with their fingers.

Office Home and Student 2013 come pre-installed in Windows RT. Any device running the software will already be running new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote applications. They will also be included on ARM-based Windows 8 devices such as the Microsoft Surface tablet.

Other noticeable changes in Office 2013 include a new set of icons for all the apps within the suite. Its icon resembles the monochrome icon used on Windows 8 that features a tilted perspective. The user interface of the application has slightly been altered as well in order to match-up to the new Metro UI on Windows 8.

TO ACCESS THE CONSUMER PREVIEW VERSION OF OFFICE 2013 CLICK HERE.