First Look: Microsoft Office 2013 369
snydeq writes "Ever since the first beta editions of Windows 8 appeared, rumors have circulated over how Microsoft would revamp its other flagship consumer product, Office, to be all the more useful in the new OS. Would Office become touch-oriented and Metro-centric, to the exclusion of plain old Windows users? A first look at Office 2013 provides the short answer: No. 'Office 2013 has clearly been revised to work that much better in Windows 8 and on touch-centric devices, but the vast majority of its functionality remains in place. The changes made are mostly cosmetic — a way to bring the Metro look to Office for users of versions of Windows other than 8. Further, Office 2013 has been designed to integrate more closely with online storage and services (mainly Microsoft's), although those are thankfully optional and not mandatory.'"
PDF import: Yes. "The Metro Look": No (Score:5, Insightful)
Business Software Doesn't Change (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny that everytime I am asked to do Office training, 50% of the students are more skilled at Excel (acct. especially) and Outlook (admin asst. especially) than I am. So I am standing in front of a room baffeling the people that have no idea what a pivot table is, and looking like an idiot trying to explain it to the people that know it better than me.
Both ... (Score:5, Insightful)
although those are thankfully optional and not mandatory
One without the other would have been a disaster.
Still using Office 2003 (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm still using Office 2003 at work, and will for the forseeable future. Microsoft still provides a compatibility pack to read and write docx. What reason is there to upgrade?
Easy Skydrive Integration == IT Security Nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
Easy integration with Skydrive sounds really cool until you think about this inside any organization which doesn't want its files stored on a public cloud. Can this be disabled across an enterprise install easily? Can it be switched to an organization's private cloud?
Re:all your document (Score:2, Insightful)
Here come all the FSF FOSS shills to derail MS.
Not just FOSS "shills". Anyone with a lick of common sense will try to find their way out from under the thumb of an extortionist.
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:5, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_2007#New_features [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_2010#New_features [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_2013#New_features [wikipedia.org]
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:4, Insightful)
just a reminder libreoffice runs docx too. Unless you use an INSANE amount of formating, or have really special needs, libreoffice runs faster and works better.
https://www.libreoffice.org - LibreOffice
Re:The more I read... (Score:3, Insightful)
No thank you.
Call me crazy, but I kind-of like having a word processor that does grammatical checking, automatic table of contents, dynamically-created diagrams, templates for cover pages, and theme-based formatting when I paste in content from other sources.
I actually like it that Word can talk to Access and Excel for merge operations, and even output to Outlook when I want to send out emails. And yes, I like that as a programmer I can use VBA to further extend the apps whenever I need to with a little bit of code hunting.
Here's your typewriter. I'll take Office 2013.
Re:Open! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Business Software Doesn't Change (Score:2, Insightful)
yeah, but no. The ribbon is a rock solid interface. It's a little inconsisten that it doesn't extend to ie10, but that's ok becasue there's not that many functions.
Other things that are rock solid:
* ie10 is a top-class browser. It replaced my ffx, and I won't go near chrome because it steals my info.
* office 2010 is super. Mostly the same as office 2007, which is also super.
* win 7 in general is a joy to use.
* bing is awesome, and on par with google for most things and way better for some.
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, you'd certainly have to have special needs to find LibreOffice a suitable replacement for MS Office.
And you'd also have to not mind the fact that it looks like a bloody day-old abortion, and works about as well.
Enh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Still using Office 2000. I still don't see any reason to upgrade. It's Office, not heart surgery.
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:3, Insightful)
Which are pretty much worthless to 99% of users. For most folks, 2003 will do everything they need.
Do they have a drop down menu option? (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing they need to do to improve office at this point is purge the blasphemy of the ribbon UI abomination and restore good pure drop down menu's to their righteous glory.
Re:Brand new UI to learn (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:5, Insightful)
You realize than most of those new features are "revamped user interface", except for 2007 which added a new file format?
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you kidding? Office 97 was more than I ever needed. WordPad with a spell checker is more word processor than most Word users need.
Re:Business Software Doesn't Change (Score:5, Insightful)
And why in the world is training being conducted in front of a room full of people? Might as well record a demo and distribute it. Training on software use should be done in small groups if you want it to be effective.
I don't think your experience is indicative of problems with MS Office (though those problems DO exist), but more with how businesses handle training.
Formatting? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The more I read... (Score:5, Insightful)
The features he does mention ARE useful. If you know how to use your tools better than the next guy who continually questions what benefit the extra functionality and bloat provides in said tools, you're at an advantage.
I don't consider his post to be shilling - I consider it to be an info-dump of features he considers useful. The edge in his post suggests a frustration from being told continually by people here and other open-source fanatics that such features are bloat, and that somehow open-source software can work with the same level of functionality and integration (which it often can't for someone who's aware of the niceties and uses them in something like Outlook).
It's also amazing how many people, who've never worked in I.T. for a mid to large organization, and particularly a lot of young people (students), who think they know better about what a company needs than what people experienced in how the world works in the corporate environment know.
Re:all your document (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Do they have a drop down menu option? (Score:3, Insightful)
The ribbon is not a drop down menu.
There is no useful text
there is no visible hierarchy
there is no rational hierarchy
there are no visible keyboard shortcuts for automatic learning
The ribbon is the worst UI decision I have ever seen anyone ever make.
Re:all your document (Score:5, Insightful)
Gee, what if apps were skinnable and people could make them look like whatever they want?
This is hell at work. Change of shifts. Temps and volunteers. You need to have people who can sit down at any desk at any time and be productive,
At my last job, I did some tech support in addition to my "real" job. I had to help users with QuickBooks regularly, and we had 3 people sharing 2 jobs.
The simple ribbon bar across the top of the window in QuickBooks became a living hell as the three gals switched computers. "My QuickBooks isn't working", "I can't search [because the button is gone]" were just part of the endless nightmare. Only one of the three could handle a different interface (and it really wasn't that different). I cannot imagine the chaos that skins on top of Office would have created.
Re:Still using Office 2003 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:all your document (Score:4, Insightful)