Following the new Microsoft Metro theme, Office has received both a beautifying and a major increase in functionality and productivity with Microsoft’s latest release of its Office product range. I have only been able to give Powerpoint a proper go, but so far so good.
Everything seems to be more at hand than before, with many more options available at the top of the screen, while the whole interface still manages not to feel cluttered. If you add to this all the neat little tricks they have included, and the new cleaner, Metro look, you’re onto a real winner.
So I’m going to show you a few screenshots and highlight some important features I’ve noticed just on my first use, starting with Word 2013:
Look at the top of the screen. There’s so many more icons there, and yet somehow everything looks neat and organised. You can see I am signed in to my account on the top right, this allows me to do things like share it with contacts and instantly connect to Skydrive, things like that. I expect there’ll be more to come. The navigation panel on the left is a nice touch. It’s recognised the numbers used in the text and organised a list of the headings on the left, so whenever you click on one it takes you straight to it.
Now Excel 2013:
Again, the new Metro interface makes the user experience much more enjoyable, and there are more icons at the top of the screen, making it easier to do exactly what you want. When selecting a table, it will cleverly be able to predict certain things in lists that you have not finished, for example. It will also present you with numerous options of formatting, charts, tables, etc, as shown, and it just helps to make everything quicker and more convenient to do.
Powerpoint 2013:
One of the best features of Powerpoint 2013 is that you can interact with it in real time with other people (colleagues, classmates, etc) also using the document. Optimised for touch, annotating slide shows has never been easier, allowing for more interaction from workers. For me, I haven’t noticed as many changes in Powerpoint as in the other programmes, but I’m sure there is more for me to discover!
One Note:
As it’s only a note taking programme, One Note is still fairly basic. However, with the upgrade comes a nicer more user-friendly interface and it’s much easier to connect with One Note on Windows Phone, so hopefully I’ll be able to make good use of it in the future, particularly when I go to university.
I don’t use Outlook, so unfortunately cannot comment on the new version. I expect it is similarly impressive as the others, though.
If you still don’t believe me, give it a go for yourself: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en
Oli
